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Students march in protest of UMPD involvement in West Command Task Force

Hundreds of students gathered at the UMPD station on Saturday to demand the University cut ties with the countywide policing task force.
Protesters+marched+through+campus+on+Saturday%2C+April+17.+The+protest%2C+organized+by+the+Black+Student+Union+and+Students+for+a+Democratic+Society%2C+was+in+response+to+the+deployment+of+UMPD+officers+to+Brooklyn+Center.
Image by Ethan Fine
Protesters marched through campus on Saturday, April 17. The protest, organized by the Black Student Union and Students for a Democratic Society, was in response to the deployment of UMPD officers to Brooklyn Center.

Amid the Derek Chauvin trial, the police killing of Daunte Wright and the University Police Department’s (UMPD) role in suppressing protests in Brooklyn Center, student groups at the University of Minnesota are coming together to fight for change.

In a march organized by the Black Student Union (BSU) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), hundreds of students gathered at the UMPD station on Saturday to end the deployment of UMPD to quell protesters in Brooklyn Center. Featuring speakers of color from different student and community groups in Minneapolis, the protest served as a space for people to share their frustrations, tell their personal stories and put pressure on the University to cut ties with the West Command Task Force.

UMPD officers were deployed earlier in the week during protests over the police killing of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center. UMPD is one of 35 police departments in Hennepin County participating in the West Command Task Force, a group that formed after the police killing of George Floyd to assist member police departments “in the event of an emergency that exceeds their own capacity,” President Joan Gabel said in a campus-wide email on April 12. All departments in the task force pledge 10% of their force to assist one another when needed.

Representatives from BSU, the Minnesota Student Association (MSA), and Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar chanted Daunte Wright’s name and called protesters into action by asking them to go beyond posting on social media and actively joining protests and organized actions.

Student organizers offered protesters signs reading, “Convict Killer Cops,” during a protest on Saturday, April 17. The protest, organized by the Black Student Union and Students for a Democratic Society, was in response to the deployment of UMPD officers to Brooklyn Center. (Ethan Fine)

“We all have similar issues on campus,” said Khalyma Robinson, an officer of SDS. “They’re all related, they’re all connected, and we’re all trying to get the same people to listen to us.”

The protesters marched through campus and their chants rang clear down University Avenue. For many, this was an opportunity to make their voices heard as protest leaders encouraged participants to be loud and express themselves.

University students and protesters Ogechi Anyanwu and Gemini Madison saw the protest as a way to be recognized.

“It’s really important for us as students to come out here and use our voices,” Anyanwu said.

“There’s not a lot of Black voices here [on campus] so it gives us a chance to get out there and just fight for something that’s very important to all of us in America,” Madison added.

As the protesters marched on, onlookers stopped to observe the march and listen to the chants. All were invited to join and show their support. The march ended back at the UMPD station with one last chant to remind students of their own power: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom!”

“I think that the Black Student Union did a good job of trying to bring everyone, not just Black students, but everyone within the community to come and stand up for what they believe in,” said Odell Sackie, another protester and University student.

Student groups such as SDS have plans to continue collaborating with the community and other student groups to organize activist events for the upcoming weeks and summer months, Robinson said.
“We can build connections and build a community,” Robinson said. “We can help each other maintain pressure [on administration].” SDS has been calling for the demilitarization of UMPD and the creation of a Campus Civilian Police Accountability Council, composed of University community members with oversight over University police.

“This is the beginning of a revolution,” said Samiat Ajibola, president of the Black Student Union and MSA vice president-elect. “This is the beginning of something new. This is the beginning of reimagining what our campus looks like.”

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  • Enn Arre
    Apr 19, 2021 at 6:45 pm

    https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=292a52a52b354387a94020db10c19749
    10 people shot, about 80 more instances of gunfire captured by shot spotter in the past 7 days. Is this ok? If not what is the plan to stop it?

  • A Gopher
    Apr 19, 2021 at 10:12 pm

    They were shot because cops exist! If you just gave the criminals all the money you were going to pay the cops they’ll stop hustling’. At least, that’s what RaKeonte told me. s

  • A Gopher
    Apr 19, 2021 at 10:09 pm

    Enn Arre, you are using facts, reasoning, and logic on barely older then teenagers driven by wokeist thinking and emotion. They don’t care about black lives, they never did. They care about appearing to care and getting lots of likes on Instagram and other social media. If you ever talk to one of these “activists” ask them why they don’t move to predominantly black community or why their parents moved to the far reaches of the metro area in the first place? This is the look at what I say not what I do generation.

  • Enn Arre
    Apr 19, 2021 at 6:42 pm

    I live in this neighborhood. Two days ago a man was shot several time in the legs. Over the past several months there were at least 4 deadly shootings withing a few miles from me and multiple others injured. Do these students “Say thier names?” I have not heard any discussion of these tragedies. Are they less loved by their Mom’s and friends, less worthy of being recognized for a live stolen by another community member?

    My elderly neighbor suffers from PTSD fighting for your right to peacefully protest. The thanks he gets? To be inundated with helicoptors flying circles over our houses way past curfew, when it is no longer considered peaceful protesting, night after night, creating such anxiety that he has to take medications to knock him out.

    The other thing that is missing in all of this…..their proposed solution besides complete removal. The reason there are no solutions is because it is way more difficult than simply saying if there are no police there will be no crime.

    Please do put police out of work, but if you try to do that before there is nothing for them to respond to what will you have?

  • A Gopher
    Apr 19, 2021 at 2:43 pm

    With the first window broken, the first item stolen, the first fire set, the first bit of graffiti your protest becomes a riot. Rioting, looting, and arson are all crimes that are not protected by the first amendment. UMPD is preventing crime, truly peaceful protests are fine and no one is stopping anyone from those practices. You do not have the right to damage property or excuse those who participate in such activity and those who do should be expelled.