A speaker called for more political violence during a protest Saturday in downtown Minneapolis, held in response to the police shooting of 22-year-old Amir Locke.
Minneapolis police shot Locke during a no-knock raid on a Bolero Flats apartment unit Wednesday morning. They were executing a search warrant in connection to an ongoing St. Paul homicide investigation and discovered Locke asleep on a couch inside the apartment.
Locke rolled off the couch with a gun in his hand and was shot three times by officer Mark Hanneman.
“Since the lynching of George Floyd, Dolal Idd, Daunte Wright, Winston Smith, and now Amir Locke, nothing has changed,” a protester said during Saturday’s march. “Let me ask you a question: why do you think Derek Chauvin is inside a jail cell right now? The reason why is because we burned down that f–ing precinct.”
From Saturday's Amir Locke protest: 'Power to the looters. Power to the rioters.'
'Build barricades, burn precincts, reappropriate what they’ve stolen from you for thousands of generations.'
Chauvin is in jail because 'we burned down that f–ing precinct.' pic.twitter.com/8rXuEyNycs
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) February 7, 2022
The demonstrator said no amount of “peaceful protest will get us justice in this cruel, grotesque, settler-colonial, white supremacist society.”
“No amount of reform is enough, only complete and total abolition,” he continued. “I’m asking you, I’m pleading with you, fill your anger fully. Be mad, be mad because your anger is justified.”
He concluded by calling for the destruction of another police precinct. Rioters burned down the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct following the death of George Floyd.
“Build barricades, burn precincts, reappropriate what they’ve stolen from you for thousands of generations,” the activist said. “Power to the looters. Power to the rioters.”
Saturday’s protest was followed by a demonstration outside the home of Minneapolis Police Chief Amelia Huffman Sunday night.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
