Details emerge about airport protest arrests

There were more than a dozen arrests in #BlackXMas protests in Los Angeles and Minneapolis Wednesday. In this December 21, 2015 photo, Kandace Montgomery left and Miski Noor of Black Lives Matter speak with media after a hearing at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis.

A similar protest at the mall last year drew as many as 3,000 people and disrupted one of the busiest shopping days of the year, the Star Tribune reports.

Five people were arrested on various charges, including trespassing, disorderly conduct and an unrelated outstanding arrest warrant, said Denis Otterness, deputy chief of the Bloomington, Minn., Police Department, according to CNN.

Montgomery said the retail site was the flawless venue for their demonstration to pressure authorities involved in the investigation of Clark’s death to release video footage.

Protesters were asked to leave the Mall of America grounds and were told that their demonstration was illegal.

Around 500 people showed up in the mall, but they did not stay long after running into an advancing blockade of police officers, a reaction which they would have anticipated, given that plans to bring in a contingent of state troopers was made clear well in advance of the action. Some protesters took a light-rail train to the airport after the nation’s largest mall was closed by police.

Airport officials said access to one of two terminals was blocked, which also caused backups on nearby roads. “I think it was really effective”.

The group says the airport was its main protest target and used the mall disturbance as a decoy. Justice! When do we want it?

Protesters get on light rail at the Mall of America transit hub.

The demonstrators blocked traffic for about 30 minutes, the San Francisco Chronicle said.

Neither mall officials nor Bloomington police said what security measures they put in place to prepare for the protest, though special-event staff members were searching bags and were stationed at every mall entrance. Three organizers were banned from attending, but the judge said she doesn’t have the power to prevent others from showing up.

“Although protests and actions within shopping malls or other spaces have been an issue of legal disputes and requests for injunctions for decades”, she reasoned, the court could not, issue “a broad temporary restraining order enjoining the future acts of unidentified individuals or the public at large”.

However, the judge said she could not grant an injunction against Black Lives Matter Minneapolis in general, as they were not a legally recognized entity. “Just barring three of us does not mean that you’ve stopped our work”. “My mom is a little bit annoyed, but she’s going to see me this holiday season”.