Top state public safety official admits misjudgment early in Twin Cities riots

“Fair criticism,” says state Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington about Republican lawmakers’ statements that he didn’t recognize soon enough that violence was rapidly escalating during the Twin Cities riots. At State Capitol hearings today, Mound Senator David Osmek asked Harrington, “Didn’t that give you a tip-off that this was going to be something more serious than a one- or two-night event?” Harrington responded, “No, in my initial assessment of this, I believed it was gonna be a one- or two-day event. By the third day, that opinion was shifting…. The complete destruction of a precinct was not something that I envisioned as being on the horizon.” Harrington says at that point law enforcement was significantly changing its deployment numbers and tactics.