Justice 4 Jamar Unity March

December 21, 2015

On Saturday, the newly formed [Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar] held its first big action: a unity march for organizations, students, activists, concerned community members, etc. to come together and show support for the coalition’s demands, which are as follows:

direct prosecution of the officers who killed Jamar Clark [instead of a grand jury]
immediate [release of the tapes] of Jamar Clark’s murder
federal domestic terrorism charges against the white supremacists who shot 5 protesters, [who are currently only being charged with assault and “rioting,”] not even attempted murder
[community control and oversight of the police]

Hundreds showed up to march despite below freezing temperatures, starting at the Fourth Precinct in North Minneapolis and ending at the Hennepin County Government Center downtown, with several symbolic stops along the way. At every stop in the march, speakers addressed that site’s relationship to broader systems of racism in Minneapolis.

The Southwest Journal published some of these photos [here].

Wishful thinking outside the Fourth Precinct.

Jacob Ladda leads the marchers in chants.

Police Sgt. Steve Mosey talks to a man from inside the Fourth Precinct vestibule.

Protesters including 11 year-old Taye Clinton gather at the site of Jamar Clark’s death for a moment of silence. Clinton was maced by Minneapolis police in May when peacefully protesting with the Black Liberation Project.

The crowd marches from the HERC Incinerator, where speakers talked about environmental racism in Minneapolis, towards the Juvenile Justice Center downtown. That stop represented mass incarceration as well as the youth voice in the movement for racial justice.

Protesters stop on Nicollet Mall to highlight connections between racism and corporate capitalism and to call for workers’ rights.

The almost five-mile march ends outside the Hennepin County Government Center downtown.

A woman holds a cloth as part of a performance art piece organized by the Million Artist Movement. As Jayanthi Kyle with the Movement explains, “The red cloth represents all of the grief that we especially as African Americans and black people have to hold for the continuation of all of these deaths. Everyone put it to the earth…they put it to the sky first for the ancestors and to God, and then they put it to ground, and then they [bore] it on their shoulders, eventually leaving it on the ground.”