MPR’s Kate Smith reports on protests outside mayor’s city hall office over police brutality.
The protests were prompted by a mistaken raid on the home of an elderly couple, Lillian Weiss and Lloyd Smalley, who were killed in a fire set off by the officers' use of a "flash bang" grenade - an incident that reinforced distrust of the police in the black community and led to the creation of the Civilian Police Review Authority (CRA), and an incident at Embassy Suites of college students being beaten.
Transcripts
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PROTESTORS: Stop police brutality!
SPEAKER 1: It was wall-to-wall people outside Mayor Don Fraser's City Hall office. Some carried signs saying "Police brutality is alive and well!" and charging the Minneapolis Police Department with racist tactics.
The purpose of the rally, to present a list of demands from the city's African-American community. Anita Gaye was one of the group's spokespersons.
SPEAKER 2: Hopefully, you are just as outraged as we are over the incidents that have happened in our community. We are expressing the concerns by the numbers of people who are here by the indication of the signs. We like to present this for you and your representatives to look at. We are--
SPEAKER 1: The rally was prompted by two recent incidents between members of the Black community and Minneapolis Police. The first was on January 25, the death of two elderly people after a drug raid at a home on Golden Valley Road. The second occurred just this past weekend.
Last Friday night, five men and women, all black, were arrested at the Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown Minneapolis. According to police, the group, which included some college students, was asked to leave because they were causing a disturbance.
Police Chief John Locke says during the ensuing incident, there was some pushing and shoving. But members of the African-American community say the young people were beaten and verbally abused.
People present at the rally say these aren't the only examples of racially-motivated harassment. They say neighborhood organizers are also targeted. Mayor Fraser accepted the list of demands and asked those at the rally to help with an investigation of the weekend incident at the Embassy Suites Hotel.
SPEAKER 3: And if you think that it is happening, please make--
SPEAKER 4: We know that it is happening.
SPEAKER 3: --please make a record of the time and place. We need specifics, but that's very clear. The police is here to protect our rights, and they will do that. And that's the way we--
SPEAKER 4: They haven't been doing that, Mayor Fraser. They haven't been.
SPEAKER 1: Chief John Locke says he's taking the charges very seriously because they're coming from such a wide cross-section of the minority community.
SPEAKER 3: When you start hearing enough of those kinds of incidents taking place, then there's-- we're certainly seeing the smoke and trying to figure out where the fire is because it's just happening with too much frequency to say that it's just people trying to rabble rouse or start trouble.
SPEAKER 1: The meeting was a brief one, lasting only about 15 minutes. Members of the African-American community are scheduled to meet again with Mayor Don Fraser on Wednesday. There, they'll talk about suggestions for ensuring that racially motivated harassment isn't allowed to continue in the Minneapolis Police Department.
I'm Kate Smith reporting.