evidence: Takeaways from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's response to violence after George Floyd's murder [...] Minneapolis and St. Paul erupted after a white Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd. The Black man’s murder in 2020 sparked a nationwide reckoning over racial discrimination and police misconduct. What the governor did — or failed to do — during the protests and their aftermath still draws sharp criticism from Republicans who say he should have acted sooner. And some progressives complain that Walz was not assertive enough in fixing the state's police agencies. [...] The state's attorney general, Keith Ellison, who won convictions of the four officers charged in Floyd’s death, said Walz found himself in an "impossible situation" during the summer of 2020. Nevertheless, Ellison said, the governor balanced the concerns of a grieving city with threats to public safety.