Minneapolis Black Lives Matter Members Regroup, Respond After Police Break Up Encampment
The reasons Minneapolis police and city officials cited for breaking up the Black Lives Matter encampment that had formed outside the 4th Precinct station may have been predictable, but protesters were not: Their responses showed they were prepared to be flexible.
This video still, taken from a post on the Twitter feed for Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, is described by the group as "Pastor Brian Herron breaks down #4thPrecinctShutDown." (Black Lives MPLS / Twitter)
This video still, taken from a post on the Twitter feed for Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, is described by the group as “Pastor Brian Herron breaks down #4thPrecinctShutDown.” (Black Lives MPLS / Twitter)
The reasons Minneapolis police and city officials cited for breaking up the Black Lives Matter encampment that had formed outside the 4th Precinct station may have been predictable, but protesters were not: Their responses showed they were prepared to be flexible.
Early Thursday morning, police officers showed up at the camp, which caused the Black Lives Matter Minneapolis chapter’s Twitter account to light up:
The Minneapolis StarTribune relayed details of the dispersal and aftermath:
Hours after Minneapolis police broke up the Black Lives Matter encampment outside the Fourth Precinct station in north Minneapolis, police prepared for a “Fourth Precinct Shutdown Eviction Rally” outside City Hall.
The rally, which began at 4 p.m., was called for by Black Lives Matter Minneapolis on the group’s Facebook page. With the words “We ready! We coming!” the group said members will converge on City Hall in response to “continued brutality against peaceful protesters.”
[…] The rally is the next phase in the activists’ ongoing actions in response to the fatal shooting of 24-year old Jamar Clark. Some protesters have said that Clark, an unarmed black man, was handcuffed before being shot by a white officer during a scuffle. Police have said he was not cuffed.
[…] Earlier at the encampment, police issued dispersal orders around 4 a.m. and gave 50 or so demonstrators 10 to 15 minutes to leave the site outside the station in 1900 block of Plymouth Avenue, a few blocks west of where Clark was shot by police on Nov. 15.
Police said eight activists were arrested, seven for obstructing the legal process and one for trespassing. The Twitter account for the Minneapolis chapter of Black Lives Matter said those arrested during the “military-style” raid have since been released from custody.
[…] The eviction notice police presented to protesters said the department remains steadfast to its commitment to help facilitate demonstrations outside the Fourth Precinct. “It is a city building within city grounds and people have the right to peacefully demonstrate or protest,” the notice said.
But it said that neither structures nor fires will be allowed on city property and that access to the police station must remain open.
–Posted by Kasia Anderson
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