Anti-police brutality protestors march on MPD Fourth Precinct

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“Indict, convict, send them killer cops to jail; the whole damn system is guilty as hell.”The refrain rang out as roughly 100 protesters against police brutality marched Wednesday night from North Commons Park in Minneapolis to the Fourth Precinct of the Minneapolis Police Department and at times blocked residential traffic, in an effort to raise awareness around their demands for justice.When they arrived, however, no officers were there to greet them – save for one that had accompanied the march.This is a Community Voices submission and is moderated but not edited. The opinions expressed by Community Voices contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the TC Daily Planet.The demonstration was sponsored by twelve local activist organizations, among them Communities United Against Police Brutality and Twin Cities Save the Kids. It was part of “Ferguson October,” a nationwide solidarity struggle emanating from out of Ferguson, Missouri, where 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot, unarmed, by officer Darren Wilson.Activists from Ferguson have been calling for sustained nationwide protests this month to demand that Wilson be charged with a crime and arrested. Protests in Ferguson are expected to intensify immensely if this demand is not met.To those ends, activists in Minneapolis planned this demonstration as part of a week-long program of protests and other educational events.The protestors arrived at the Fourth Precinct and surrounded the main entrance, putting police tape up around the pillars in front of the door. In addition to chants that seemed to taunt Police Chief Harteau, Mayor Hodges was the target of some rhetoric, calling into question the seriousness of her efforts at improving police-community relations.“I think a lot of [Mayer Hodges’] efforts are really just sort of window dressing; we have given the city a list of 31 concrete actions they could take right now with no law changes…let’s see some action on those,” said Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality.“Police brutality is a local and national epidemic. Continue Reading