Black Lives Matter Protest Planned Wednesday at Mall of America

They have been trying to draw attention to the shooting death earlier this year of a black man by Minneapolis police officers, an incident that remains under state and federal investigation. The 24-year-old black man died the day after he was shot by Minneapolis police responding to a recent assault complaint. It is in dispute whether he was handcuffed when he was shot by police.

Gov. Mark Dayton said the protest was creating a “very, very unsafe situation”, and he urged protesters to stop blocking access to part of the airport.

After starting chants of “no justice, no peace” and “release the tapes” – referring to the video of Clark’s death – protesters by the hundreds left the mall and packed light rail trains to the airport, where they briefly shut down roadways to both terminals on one of the busiest flying days of the year. The protest was organized by Black Lives Matter activists. “You have to ask, ‘Would you want us to permit a demonstration by white supremacists?’ Of course not”.

“We accomplished exactly what we came here to accomplish – we wanted to shut down the highway, shut down the airport and show solidarity with other Black Lives Matter groups”, Michelle Barnes of Minneapolis, one of the protest organizers, told the Star Tribune. Paul International Airport, where they blocked traffic and chanted, “Black lives, they matter here”.

Hennepin County District Court Judge Karen Janisch barred three protest organizers named as defendants in the mall’s lawsuit from attending the demonstration, but she limited her order to them. The judge did say three organizers were not allowed at the mall. They removed themselves and quickly moved by light rail to Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, where they blocked access to one of its two terminals for around two hours, and then to the streets, where they blocked traffic around the airport.

Bloomington police report four protest-related arrests at the mall.

“The Court does not have a sufficient basis to issue an injunction as to Black Lives Matters or to unidentified persons who may be acting as its agents or in active concert with the Black Lives Matters movement”, she wrote. Deputy Bloomington Police Chief Denis Otterness declined to discuss any additional security measures the mall may put in place Wednesday.

Minneapolis airport officials acknowledged the protest on social media and warned of “significant traffic backups”. “Just barring three of us does not mean that you’ve stopped our work”, she said, saying the Wednesday protests would proceed.

Organizers hope the Christmas Eve demonstration will be a repeat of another Chicago protest when hundreds of people disrupted shopping on Michigan Avenue on Black Friday, Fox News reported.