Riots, Looting That Followed George Floyd’s Death Could Cost $2 Billion, Most Expensive Incident In Insurance History

Riots and looting that took place following George Floyd’s death while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department will cost insurance companies up to $2 billion, making them the most expensive incident in insurance history.

Floyd’s death on Memorial Day weekend sparked nationwide anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests, which agitators, bent on violence, used as cover to wreak havoc in many of America’s major cities. The resulting damage is already costing cities like Minneapolis in the hundreds of millions of dollars, per Minneapolis Business Journal, and now insurance companies report they could be on the hook for billions more

Axios reports Wednesday that insurance companies could pay up to $2 billion to cover damages, rendering the Floyd riots the single largest insurance event in history, utterly dwarfing the next highest payout event, the Rodney King riots, which cost about $1.4 billion in today’s dollars, and mid0century race riots in Los Angeles, California, and Detroit, Michigan, which cost around $350 million each.

“The protests that took place in 140 U.S. cities this spring were mostly peaceful, but the arson, vandalism and looting that did occur will result in at least $1 billion to $2 billion of paid insurance claims — eclipsing the record set in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers who brutalized Rodney King,” Axios noted Wednesday. “A company called Property Claim Services (PCS) has tracked insurance claims related to civil disorder since 1950. It classifies anything over $25 million in insured losses as a “catastrophe,” and reports that the unrest this year (from May 26 to June 8) will cost the insurance industry far more than any prior one.”