More than 1,000 protesters crowded downtown St. Paul Friday afternoon below the office of Attorney General Keith Ellison to hear several speakers calling for a review of recent police shootings and community control of the police department.
“Change is coming!” Shouted Marques Armstrong of the Racial Justice Network. “I feel it in my spirit. I feel it in my bones.”
Two men who lost people in police shootings also spoke, including Don Williams, the grandfather of Brian Quinones-Rosario, who was killed last September in a confrontation with Richfield and Edina police. Hennepin County attorney Mike Freeman reviewed the case and said the shooting was justified, saying evidence showed Quinones-Rosario threatened the officers with a knife. Relatives of the 30-year-old have said they were worried he was suicidal and that police should have used a less lethal technique.
“This is the message: it is not the time to get complacent,” Williams told the crowd. He drew cheers when he called for an investigation of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
Meanwhile across town in Minneapolis hundreds of peaceful protesters, many carrying homemade signs, gathered in front of U.S. Bank stadium Friday afternoon to express their outrage at the death of George Floyd while in police custody on Memorial Day. Hip-hop music blared over portable loud speakers as the crowd milled around. Organizers provided free water and snacks occasionally leading the familiar call-and-response chant, “Say his name! George Floyd!”
An unnamed announcer said the crowd needed to celebrate the lifting of the curfew tonight.
College students Teshawn Kelly and Chris Similhomme were part of the crowd of mostly teens and young adults outside the football stadium.
Kelly said staying home this past week was not an option.
“I don’t want to see the change. I want to be part of the change happening,” said Kelly, 22, who attends Minnesota State University-Mankato.
Similhomme said he was heartbroken by Floyd”s killing. As to criminal charges filed against the four officers involved, “It’s step one honestly. The whole system needs to change,” said Similhomme, 22, who also attends Mankato.
He credits social media with first raising awareness and then fanning the ensuing national outrage.
“Without social media we wouldn’t have this movement,” Similhomme said.
Both men say they support the protest movement but expressed frustration at “opportunists” who used righteous protesters as a cover to loot and burn.
This is Margaret Engel’s seventh protest. She and two friends have been attending events all over the Twin Cities.
“We have a voice that we need to use especially with our white privilege,” said Engel, 18, of Minneapolis.
She said the speakers at the rallies have helped them become more educated about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Nicole Strom said the video of Floyd’s death is strong motivation to protest.
“I think it was absolutely disgusting. No human being should be treated that way especially based on their skin color,” said Strom, 18, of Minneapolis.
Ellison’s office on Wednesday upgraded charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on George Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes while arresting him. Ellison also charged the other three officers at the scene with aiding and abetting murder. Those moves came two days after Ellison took over the prosecution from Freeman and followed more than a week of sometimes-violent protests calling for tougher action against the former police officers, all of whom were fired the day after Floyd’s death.
Anoka Bowie, a vice president with the Twin Cities chapter of the NAACP, addressed the crowd demanding voters “fire” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. Bowie also demanded that Bob Kroll, head of Minneapolis police officers union, be “fired.”
Tamara McLemore came to the Minneapolis protest with a group of friends to “fight for justice.”
McLemore said she believes the widespread protests have forced public officials to act.
“Protesting made them charge the officers,” said McLemore, 22, of Eagan.
She said the death of Floyd was shocking.
“I cried and I was disgusted,” McLemore said. “Why do they keep killing black people? It’s so easy for them”
Organizers said they would soon start marching but they would not enter the interstates.
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June 06, 2020 at 04:50AM
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Protests continue in Twin Cities as hundreds gather at outside Ellison's office, at U.S. Bank Stadium - Minneapolis Star Tribune
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