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About 300 protesters in Minneapolis rallied yesterday at City Hall after authorities dismantled their police-precinct encampment, the Star Tribune reports.
Following the fatal police shooting of Jamar Clark, a group of protesters set up a vigil outside the 4th Precinct headquarters in north Minneapolis. They vowed to remain there until authorities released surveillance video of the shooting. Witnesses said that Clark was handcuffed, which the police deny.
City officials cleared the encampment early Thursday morning, ending the 18-day occupation. By that afternoon, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis had reorganized and rallied at City Hall.
Protest leaders told the crowd that the occupation may have ended but it helped to launch a federal investigation. They are now focusing on other demands, including release of the video and the prosecution of the officers involved in Clark’s death.
“It’s because we showed up in the streets and we showed up at the door and said, ‘You have to stop killing us.’ You don’t have the power. This is real power,” organizer Adja Gildersleve told the crowd, according to the Star Tribune.
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Following the City Hall rally, the protesters split into two groups. Some of them marched to a law-enforcement social function. The others gathered at Bottineau Park to protest police-union President Bob Kroll, who has steadfastly defended the two officers involved in the killing and sharply criticized the protests.
The two groups later reunited and rallied near the northeast-Minneapolis police-union headquarters.
Read more at the Star Tribune.
