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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 14 April 11, 2016
(front page)
‘Prosecute cops who killed Jamar Clark’
in Minneapolis
Fibonacci Blue
Hundreds demonstrate in Minneapolis March 26 to keep spotlight on police
killing of unarmed Jamar Clark, 24, last November. Investigators have
still not released video of shooting.
BY JACQUIE HENDERSON
MINNEAPOLIS — More than 400 people rallied at the Hennepin County
Government Center here March 26 to demand the prosecution of Mark
Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze, the Minneapolis police officers who
killed Jamar Clark, 24, last Nov. 15. Clark, who was Black, was unarmed.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman announced March 16 that he will
not send the case to a grand jury but will decide himself by the end of
March whether or not to indict the cops. Several eyewitnesses say that
cops handcuffed Clark before shooting him in the head. The cops claim he
was not handcuffed, and reached for an officer’s gun.
Freeman said March 30 there would be no charges.
“For almost four months they have covered this up,” Minneapolis NAACP
President Nekima Levy-Pounds told the crowd, referring to several videos
of the shooting that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension
refuses to release until its investigation is complete.
“We’re here to demand the cops be prosecuted now,” said Mel Reeves, an
organizer of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar. “We have to
keep protesting.”
“I want to see these officers prosecuted,” James Clark, the adoptive
father of Jamar Clark, told the rally. “What happened to my son could
happen to anyone.”
Bill Kirvelay, whose brother Michael was killed by the police nine days
after Jamar was killed, also spoke. Clark walked across the platform to
shake his hand. The Kirvelays are Caucasian. Other speakers included
relatives of other victims of police brutality, students, artists and
representatives of groups that have organized protests since November.
Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau released a violence-baiting video
to the press two days before the rally warning that “anyone who
violates” the law during protests “will be held accountable.” Her video
included selected footage from weeks of protests that followed the
shooting, highlighting confrontations between a handful of protesters
and cops.
For 18 days after the shooting of Clark, protesters occupied a street in
front of the Fourth Precinct police station. On Dec. 2 cops in riot gear
closed down the encampment, arresting seven protesters.
“We will not let threats of violence from the chief of police stop us
and shut us down,” Levy-Pounds told the crowd. “She can’t stop us from
exercising our rights to free speech.”
“This rally is excellent,” Collin Robinson, a Southwest High School
student, told the Militant. “We are people from all kinds of experiences
and backgrounds coming together to fight for justice.”
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‘We were lied to a lot’ in shooting by police
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