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TOM CRANN: It's been nearly three weeks since police killed Jamar Clark in North Minneapolis under circumstances that still remain unclear. The incident has become another flashpoint in a national discussion over police use of force against Black citizens. And like incidents in Ferguson, Baltimore, North Charleston, and elsewhere, this one has prompted protests and calls for change.

But the tensions on display in North Minneapolis aren't new. And that's what we're looking at this half hour in our MPR News Special Report. Later, we'll hear more about the history of tensions between police and the Black community leading up to the morning Clark was shot. Then what change, if any, might come out of this incident. First, though, Tim Nelson has this look-back at the shooting itself and how versions of what happened to Clark quickly diverged.

TIM NELSON: Ironically, the incident that has prompted weeks of anguish began as a celebration. Nekelia Sharp was about to turn 39. And she'd invited friends over to her Plymouth Avenue apartment. Jamar Clark and his girlfriend, who has never been identified publicly, were there for the party. But trouble started early Sunday morning when Sharp said she and her husband got into a fight and Clark's girlfriend got involved.

NEKELIA SHARP: Between my husband and I, we were having our little dispute or whatever. The girlfriend grabbed me. Actually, I was trying to fight with her, get her or tell her don't grab me. When someone is fighting, you don't grab nobody.

TIM NELSON: Then Clark stepped in.

NEKELIA SHARP: He was grabbing her, telling her to let me go, that had nothing to do with her. That's not her business. And actually, what the girl did was she hit him.

TIM NELSON: Sharp said Clark and his girlfriend left. No one has said where they went or what happened, although a short time later, someone called for help. Sharp was there when the paramedics arrived. She let them in the building and watched as they brought out Clark's girlfriend and put her in an ambulance. Sharp said Clark's face was swollen like he'd been hit. Kiesha Steele was on a porch about 50 feet away watching as Clark approached the ambulance outside.

KIESHA STEELE: As he was looking in the ambulance, EMS commander pulled up, told him to step back, so did the Minneapolis Police. When the Minneapolis Police got out the car, they each took an arm. They arrested him, put him on the ground. The EMS commander put his knee on the man's chest, which is Jamar. And as soon as he put his knee on his chest, all you hear was a gunshot. We saw the man get shot. Smoke came out of him. Blood came up.

SPEAKER 1: 1424. Shots fired.

TIM NELSON: That was a little before 1:00 AM on November 15th. Clark was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to his head and put on life support for nearly two more days. But his life essentially ended on the side of Plymouth Avenue that morning. And that's where the questions begin. First among them, why? Here's the official version from Minneapolis Police Chief, Janee Harteau.

JANEE HARTEAU: This morning, at 12:45, officers in the 4th Precinct responded to an assault call, which was quickly changed to a help call as a suspect involved in the assault confronted paramedics. When officers arrived, there was a confrontation and struggle. Preliminary information shows that the man was not in handcuffs. During the struggle, an officer discharged a weapon.

TIM NELSON: Harteau said the department put two officers on leave. Dustin Schwarze and Mark Ringgenberg are both veteran police officers who have been on the Minneapolis force a little more than a year. Authorities have not said who actually pulled the trigger. Neither officer has spoken publicly about the shooting. But a few days after the incident, Minneapolis Police Union President, Bob Kroll, filled in some of the details that he said came from an attorney representing the officers.

BOB KROLL: When police arrived, Mr. Clark refused to show his hands or otherwise comply with police orders. While being legally detained, he chose to resist, fight officers, and seize control of an officer's firearm. Mr. Clark was given multiple opportunities to desist. Instead, he chose to engage officers in a life or death struggle for an officer's weapon.

TIM NELSON: Kroll said that at some point, Clark had physical control of the hand grip of the officer's gun while it was in its holster. But Kroll's third hand description of a defiant and potentially armed Jamar Clark differs fundamentally from several people who say they saw what happened. Hours after the shooting, as the first protesters started to gather, Tito Wilson said he saw the shooting from a social club across Plymouth Avenue.

TITO WILSON: Me and some friends, we were leaving out of the Elks last night. And when we got outside, we saw the cops that were here. And they had the guy pinned down on the ground. This guy wasn't fighting. He wasn't kicking. He wasn't-- he was perfectly still laying on the ground.

TIM NELSON: From her porch nearby, Kiesha Steele says she saw Clark's hands behind his back when the shooting took place. Nekelia Sharp, host of the party where it all started, says she also saw Jamar Clark subdue.

NEKELIA SHARP: This young man was in handcuffs. He did not resist. There was not a struggle. And no questions were asked.

TIM NELSON: Very little new information has come forward in the last few weeks that would resolve the wide discrepancies between the official accounts and those of eyewitnesses. One video purportedly taken after the shooting shows a motionless form on the ground. Some social media commentators believe they see handcuffs near the body, but the video is too dark and taken from too far away to make out much detail.

State authorities say there were handcuffs at the scene, but they were only investigating whether they were used on Clark. Those investigators also say they have video footage of the incident from several sources, none of which shows what happened in its entirety. Governor Mark Dayton viewed footage from a camera on the back of an ambulance and declared it inconclusive.

MARK DAYTON: And there's just a very brief fragment where Mr. Clark and one of the officers are encountered in each other. And then they disappear from sight. And there's no other view of them until one of the officers-- after the shot was fired, one of the officers comes back into the camera view.

TIM NELSON: Which raises the distinct possibility that even if critics get the last of their initial demands, the release of all video footage from around the time of Jamar Clark's shooting, we may never know exactly what happened that morning on the side of Plymouth Avenue. Tim Nelson, Minnesota Public Radio News, Minneapolis.

TOM CRANN: You're listening to special coverage of the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark and its impact here on Minnesota Public Radio News.

(SINGING) The day going to come when I won't march no more.

The November 15th shooting of Jamar Clark has prompted weeks of protests, including a freeway shutdown, a 24/7 vigil outside the 4th Precinct police station, and rallies at City Hall. Activists like Jason Sole of the Minneapolis NAACP have made it another reference point in the national debate over police interactions with Black communities.

JASON SOLE: We've been saying for a significant amount of time that Minneapolis is one bullet away from Ferguson. That bullet was fired last night.

TOM CRANN: Minneapolis hasn't yet erupted in the level of violent unrest Ferguson saw following the shooting death of Michael Brown last year. But for decades, anger and tension in Black communities across the city have roiled and occasionally boiled over. As Brandt Williams reports, the distrust many African-Americans in Minneapolis have toward police officers, has been fueled not only by police shootings but also by what they see as a lack of accountability for officer misconduct.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: In the late 1960s, Minneapolis was among several American cities that saw outbursts of intense and sometimes violent demonstrations by African-Americans. Longtime Minneapolis resident, Ron Edwards, remembers seeing members of the National Guard in his neighborhood.

RON EDWARDS: It is not a comfortable feeling when you see a Jeep driving up and down the street with at least three military personnel and a 30-caliber machine gun. We had that in North Minneapolis.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: That street, Plymouth Avenue, is the same street where Jamar Clark was shot and killed by police. As in other cities, Edwards says the riots in Minneapolis were the culmination of decades of frustration over discrimination, racism, and unchecked police brutality.

RON EDWARDS: We were angry 47 years ago. We felt disillusioned. But at the same time, we had a sense of perseverance.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Edwards says that anger, disillusionment, and perseverance on the part of African-Americans and others was born out of a feeling that City Hall was unable or unwilling to hold officers accountable for acts of misconduct.

[CROWD CHANTING]

EUAN KERR: The marchers converged from three points in the city, the north side, the south side, and the university, and met outside Mayor Don Fraser's office to repeat demands made more than a week ago. The crowd, which consisted of representative--

BRANDT WILLIAMS: MPR's Euan Kerr covered a protest march following the deaths of Lloyd Smalley and Lillian Weiss in 1989. The African-American senior citizens died in a fire caused by a flash grenade deployed during a botched drug raid. Protesters demanded the arrests of the officers. US Congressman Keith Ellison, a student at the University of Minnesota Law School at that time, urged fellow protesters to keep a close eye on the officers who were watching the demonstration.

KEITH ELLISON: They forgot their riot gear. I wonder where they forgot it. Don't be fooled by these. These people are vicious.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Despite the urging of the demonstrators, the officers involved in the deaths of Smalley and Weiss were not arrested or charged. The next year, the city's Black community would once again rise up in anger after a white police officer shot and killed a Black teenager named Tycel Nelson. Police said Nelson was a gang member and had a gun when Officer Dan May killed him. Those accounts were disputed by many community members. The Reverend Jerry McAfee spoke at a raucous, two-hour long rally at North High School.

JERRY MCAFEE: Everybody is talking about gang, gang, gang. Let me tell you, chill it.

[CROWD SHOUTING]

Exactly. The police are just a big of a gang as any other gang.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: A special investigator examined the shooting, but a grand jury cleared May of criminal charges. May was later awarded the department's Medal of Valor, but he returned it amid a flurry of community outrage. Reaction to the deaths of Smalley and Weiss spurred the city council to create the Civilian Review Authority to investigate allegations of excessive force, use of inappropriate language, and other possible offenses.

Advocates for police accountability worried the body would be ineffective because it lacked the subpoena power to compel witnesses to testify. And the police union worried that civilian complaints could wind up on an officer's record, even if the officer wasn't eventually disciplined. The CRA was completely revamped in 2012. The new Office of Police Conduct Review has met with much of the same criticism that very few officers named in civilian complaints receive any discipline.

According to city records, out of nearly 1,200 complaints processed by the new body, only 13 have resulted in discipline. The most common allegation is use of inappropriate language or attitude. But that doesn't mean officers actions go uncorrected. Jenny Singleton, a commissioner with the Police Conduct Oversight Commission, says many minor offenses are forwarded to police supervisors for so-called coaching that doesn't show up on an officer's record.

JENNY SINGLETON: So while there might be corrective action being taken, I think that because it's not called discipline, it can be unsatisfying to a lot of people.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Civil rights advocates have also pushed for federal oversight of the Minneapolis Police Department, something some people want in response to the Jamar Clark shooting. Such a call went out after a 2002 melee that erupted in the Jordan neighborhood in North Minneapolis. An officer reportedly fired at a charging pit bull as he and other officers entered a home during a drug raid and accidentally wounded an 11-year-old Black child.

More than 100 people, most of them African-American, poured into the intersection of 26th and Knox Avenues. Rioters damaged a local TV news truck, burned an automobile, and assaulted two newspaper reporters. Patricia Glenn, a mediator with the Justice Department's Community Relations Service was summoned to the city.

PATRICIA GLENN: I think what's going on in Minneapolis is actually echoed really across the country.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Glenn spoke to MPR's Cathy Wurzer in 2002 after her first visit to talk with members of the community. Glenn expressed hope that the city's effort would be successful.

PATRICIA GLENN: With mediation, you get a chance, actually, to sit at the table and discuss your own issues. You identify your own issues. And I think that makes a difference within communities. Because then there's ownership of the outcome.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: The mediation led to an agreement and the formation of the Police Community Relations Council or the PCRC made up of community activists and police officials. It disbanded in 2008 after the city declined to renew the mediation agreement. But this and other efforts to foster better police community relations have been complicated by data showing disparate treatment of African-Americans by police.

A recent analysis by the ACLU found that people arrested in Minneapolis for low-level offenses are nearly nine times more likely to be Black than white. Police chief Janee Harteau has said she welcomes input on addressing such disparities. She wasn't available for comment for this story. But earlier this year, she said a large part of why African-Americans are arrested at higher rates is because many live in high crime neighborhoods.

JANEE HARTEAU: Frankly, if my officers weren't in those areas, I'd be asking the question, why aren't you where the crime is? That would be my question. And so it's not surprising to me that you're going to have lower level offenses at a higher rate in an area where officers are to try to combat violent crime.

BRANDT WILLIAMS: Harteau and other police officials have said one of the best ways to repair relations with communities of color is to make their neighborhoods safe. But aggressive policing can come at a cost. Since 2003, the city has paid out nearly $24 million in police conduct lawsuits, judgments, and claims.

Civil rights advocates like Ron Edwards say large payouts could be avoided and faith in the system could be restored with stronger independent police oversight. He says that would go a long way toward addressing the frustrations that have flared regularly since he saw National Guard troops in his neighborhood 47 years ago. Brandt Williams, Minnesota Public Radio News, Minneapolis.

TOM CRANN: And we continue with this MPR News Special Report on the shooting of Jamar Clark. The response to it has often been angry and defiant. Activists have made demands very specific to the Clark case, the release of video recordings, for instance, or a federal investigation of the shooting.

But the rhetoric at rallies and news conferences has often also shifted to broader themes such as justice and systemic change. And at times, the demonstrations have had the feel of a movement.

SPEAKER 2: The dancing and the smiles and the camaraderie that was going on tonight helps to give you a little one more little dose of hope. That maybe something will occur because of what we're doing.

TOM CRANN: Doualy Xaykaothao reports now on what's ahead for demonstrators and other stakeholders.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: Felicia Perry has lived in North Minneapolis for three decades. She lives down the road from where Jamar Clark was shot. Hours later, in front of the 4th Police Precinct, she joined Black Lives Matter activists and later found herself sleeping inside the precinct's doorway.

FELICIA PERRY: I'm here because my neighbors are being killed.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: She has two kids, a five-year-old and a 14-year-old. Both of them are afraid of the police, she says.

FELICIA PERRY: You just get tired of growing up in a place where the people that you're told as a child are supposed to be almost the guardians of your community. But then they turn into the terrorists of the community.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: The Minneapolis' Urban League is only a block away from the 4th Police Precinct. The organization's interim president, Steven Belton, says the community is rightfully angry about the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark because it fits a national pattern.

STEVEN BELTON: Nobody wants to see another Jamar Clark. Nobody wants to see another unarmed African-American or any other person shot and killed in this community.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: Belton says initially, the protest at the police headquarters made sense. But he and other Black leaders later called for an end to the encampment that drew criticism from Black Lives Matter activists and supporters who wanted to continue to occupy the precinct. The difference of opinion shows the African-American community is not a monolith, Belton says. And there isn't a single African-American voice.

STEVEN BELTON: Fortunately, we have lots of vibrant, articulate, capable, passionate people in our community who are fully engaged in this struggle and who represent different interests. They're all leaders.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: 85-year-old Josie Robinson Johnson lives just 10 minutes from the 4th Police Precinct. The longtime civil rights activist says there is anger, frustration, and concern about the future for African-Americans.

JOSIE ROBINSON JOHNSON: We fought very hard for civil rights. A part of the marching and praying and begging for jobs, education, opportunity of all kind. We made the environment and the reception of that possible for other people. Our women benefited from it. Our other ethnic groups benefited from it, but not us.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: The problem, Johnson says, is that people across the country have been taught to see Black people as inferior.

JOSIE ROBINSON JOHNSON: Racism is reflected in laws, policies, programs. Supremacy helps build those laws and maintains the position that people are in and the sense of not being completely free.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: True change, Johnson says, will only come about when people of color get elected or appointed to positions of power where policy is made.

JOSIE ROBINSON JOHNSON: We have too many people who are liberal and feel they can represent us or speak for us. And they sit at the table and try to make decisions. And we're saying, no, you can't do that. You have to listen to those who are injured.

[PEOPLE SINGING]

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: Northsider DeAngelo Rogers is one of those people. He's been out of the Jamar Clark protests nearly every day for the last three weeks. He says he's felt empowered and doesn't want things to go back to the way they were.

DEANGELO ROGERS: I'd rather for all our people to not just come out when something happen and everything. I would rather for everybody to at least in the community throw a community meeting or like a Black party or whatever, you know, and meet up once a month or three times a year or something like that. Where people can keep each other close. We can keep this going, you know. Look at that. That's cool, man. I'm happy to be a part of this.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: Rogers is African-American and has had a number of run-ins with the police. He says he wants more officers to look like him. One recent cold evening outside the precinct, Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau told a Black Lives activist, it's not that easy.

JANEE HARTEAU: I can't find enough people right now that live in the city of Minneapolis to apply for the Minneapolis Police Department.

SPEAKER 3: Can you answer the question? I just want you to answer the question.

JANEE HARTEAU: That is my answer.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: Deputy Chief Medaria Arradondo says the department is working to better reflect the community. There are also ongoing discussions about the use of body cameras. Police supervisors recently completed a US Department of Justice pilot program to teach officers how to recognize their own racial, ethnic, and gender biases in order to reduce them. And this year, patrol officers in four of the five precincts received the same training.

MEDARIA ARRADONDO: Also, we'll continue to have dialogue with members of our community. We certainly were doing that prior to the demonstration. We were doing it during and we will continue afterwards moving forward.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: The Urban League, Steven Belton, wants more. He wants to scrap the current Minneapolis Police Review Board to create a new independent board appointed by the mayor and the city council and including African-Americans who live in the community. The new board, he says, must have subpoena power to discipline officers.

STEVEN BELTON: An overhaul, a complete overhaul. Nobody has any confidence in this system.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: And he wants Governor Mark Dayton to declare a war on poverty in the African-American community to address what he describes as alarming equity gaps between Blacks and whites in Minnesota, particularly in education, unemployment, and health. The governor has called for a special legislative session aimed at addressing economic disparities facing Black Minnesotans.

For Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis NAACP, the solution needs to include revolving loan programs for African-Americans, access to capital for Black entrepreneurs, and mentoring programs for Black-owned businesses.

NEKIMA LEVY-POUNDS: We need to see a robust investment in the north side community so that the quality of life will be enhanced and the disparities that we spend way too much time admiring will be closed.

DOUALY XAYKAOTHAO: While calls for ending racial disparities and injustices are not new, the hope among many is that the death of Jamar Clark will bring enough urgency to make the changes they've been seeking for years. Doualy Xaykaothao, MPR News, North Minneapolis.

TOM CRANN: Reporters Riham Feshir and Peter Cox also contributed to our special report this afternoon. Find all of our coverage related to the shooting of Jamar Clark online now mprnews.org.