The U.S. Justice Department announced on Wednesday that two Minneapolis police officers will not face any charges in the death of 24-year old Jamar Clark in November of 2015.
The Justice Department decision comes two months after Hennepin County, Minn., Attorney Mike Freeman announced that there was no evidence to bring state charges against the officers Mark Ringgenberg, 30, and Dustin Schwarze, 28. Minneapolis police have said that Jamar Clarkhad reached for an officer's gun during a struggle.
"Although Clark’s death is undeniably tragic, the evidence is insufficient to meet ... substantial evidentiary requirements,'' Justice officials said in a written statement, referring to the high standard of proof required in such cases. "In light of this ..., this matter is not a prosecutable violation of the federal civil rights statutes.''
While police, who had been dispatched on a call of a man interfering with emergency personnel, state that Clark attempted to reach for an officer’s gun, initial reports as well as numerous witness statements said Clark was shot by police while handcuffed on the ground. Clark’s death set off numerous protests and an eventual encampment outside of Minneapolis’ 4th Precinct Police Department that lasted for 18 days.
Within minutes of the announcement that the two officers would not face federal charges, the head of Minneapolis’ police union slandered Black Lives Matter (BLM) which organized many of the protests:
Kroll reserved his harshest criticisms for Black Lives Matter, which he described as a “terrorist organization.”
“I don’t see Black Lives Matter as a voice for the black community in Minneapolis,” he said. “The disruption, the, you know, they firebombed the precinct. There were shootings outside the precinct, hundreds of thousands of dollars [of damage] to the precinct and squad cars.”
While it is true that there were shootings outside the precinct it was members and supporters of BLM who were shot by white supremacists who bragged about what they intended to do via the internet ahead of time. Police forcibly removed some protestors and their belongings from the encampment while other activists were meeting with the mayor at city hall; perhaps the police could look there for clues as to the damages of the precinct and squad cars. And let’s not forget about the Minnesota cop who gave out instructions on how to run over BLM protestors.
If anything, Black Lives Matter activists have been on the receiving end of terrorism, not the front end.
Wednesday also saw a Southern California Black Lives Matter activist convicted on a charge of “lynching.” Jasmine Abdullah Richards, an organizer with the Pasadena chapter of BLM, was charged with the crime of "attempting to remove someone from police custody" during a march for peace at a local park in August of 2015. In addition to the irony of an African American being charged criminally for lynching, Abdullah Richards' supporters assert that her charges were political
“The facts presented at trial did not support the charge. Attempted lynching requires a person to attempt to unlawfully take a person from the lawful custody of a peace officer,” Jasmine’s attorney Nana Gyamfi said before her hearing on May 19th. “It also includes an element of inciting a riot to do so.
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“Obviously, the police, District Attorney, and entire system are trying to make an example out of Jasmine, using this outrageous conviction to intimidate other organizers from fighting for an end to police terror and other forms of state violence against Black people,” said Black Lives Matter Los Angeles chapter organizer, Melina Abdullah. “It won’t work.”
...
“This prosecution of Jasmine [Abdullah] Richards is an attempted lynching of Jasmine and, by extension, the Movement for Black Lives in Pasadena, with the Pasadena District Attorney’s office and Pasadena Police Department as the lynch mob,” said Gyamfi. “In my 22 years of practice, I only know of one case where a person has been brought to trial on a lynching charge – this one.”
Actually, there have been other cases of “lynching,” and those cases just happened to have also involved activists; one was of an OccupyLA activist, the other of an activist with the International ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism).
Obviously, that’s the new thing now.
Abdullah Richards is scheduled to be sentenced on June 7. She faces a maximum of four years in state prison on the charge. A statement put out by Black Lives Matter International wants her conviction to be overturned; barring that, they are asking that Abdullah Richards receive no jail time, and any other charges that Abdullah Richards or other BLM activists might be facing for attempting to hold police accountable be dropped. A petition has also been started for Abdullah Richards.
Saturday, Jun 4, 2016 · 1:47:46 AM +00:00
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Thandisizwe Chimurenga
Below is raw video of the interaction with Pasadena police. Jasmine Abdullah Richards, the one convicted of lynching, is wearing a t-shirt that says “Black Lives Matter” on the back, and a baseball cap that is turned toward the back. She is nowhere near the individual that was taken into police custody, but she can be seen confronting police.