For example, what was the grand jury told — and not told?In June 2007, a Hennepin County Grand Jury was convened to evaluate the evidence and circumstances of the July 22, 2006, shooting death of 19-year-old Fong Lee on a school playground where he and friends were riding their bikes.The first big question is why it took 11 long months to convene the grand jury.The second big question follows: Why did Officer Jason Anderson of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and his partner that evening, a Minnesota state highway trooper, go after teenagers riding their bicycles on a school playground? The officers’ own statements suggest they were following the police racial-profiling tradition: The teens were Asian, therefore suspicious.The third big question is why Officer Anderson shot Fong Lee three times in the back, and then, after he fell on his back, fired five more bullets into his chest as he lay there?Why has it taken the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune nearly three years to cover the discrepancies in the MPD’s story when we covered them in this newspaper August 2, 2006?The key question remains: What was the grand jury told? Who made the decision on what they would be told? And what questions did the grand jury ask? This is a fair question, as all-White juries and all-White grand juries in Minnesota tend not to be very inquisitive when a person of color dies at the hands of a police officer.Was the grand jury told there was a significant dispute over which weapon that Mr. Fong Lee allegedly had in his possession, as well as the dispute over whether he had one at all? Continue Reading
