St. Thomas students were among several hundred protesters who gathered Tuesday in front of Minneapolis’ 3rd Precinct to protest the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson in the August death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
Protesters gathered for an initial demonstration in front of the University of Minnesota’s Coffman Memorial Union before traveling to Minneapolis and listening to various speakers. The demonstrators then marched down closed-off sections of Lake Street and Highway 55.
St. Thomas junior Jazzmine Jackson said she attended the protest because she needed “an outlet” for her anger.
“I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m sick of people dying, sick of worrying about my friends, my brother, my sister. I just want people to know that we’re not going to stand down anymore. We have a voice, and it deserves to be heard,” Jackson said.
Minneapolis police watched protesters and blocked off streets during the demonstration. Early in the afternoon, a woman suffered minor injuries after she was struck by a car driving through the protest. An ambulance took her to a hospital.
U of M student Fata Acquoi, who spoke at the U of M’s rally, said she was involved in the protest because she is tired of the university’s policy of stating a suspect’s race in its crime reports.
“Police brutality has got to stop. Especially here in Minneapolis, we’ve learned that Minneapolis has one of the highest, highest disparities within police arrests with African-American males,” Acquoi said. “I’m scared as a college students here of what my brother has to go through as a high school student; he may not even be able to make it to 30 from what I’m hearing.”
Sophomore Tim Stammeyer marched with a group of St. Thomas students and said he wanted to show solidarity with the protestors in Ferguson.
“We’re just here to show our support and that we’re sick and tired of letting people and really, the American machine, just oppress our brothers and sisters,” Stammeyer said. “We also acknowledge that personally me as a white man, that it’s my responsibility to use my privilege in order to work for social justice for all.”
Sophomore Shannon Twiss also attended to show solidarity and said police violence concerns her.
“The issues about this that are really important to me are the militarization of our police departments in the United States and the racism in our justice system,” Twiss said. “The jury that made the decision not to have an indictment for the officer that shot Mike Brown was 75 percent white, and I don’t think that’s right.”
Jackson said it is important for St. Thomas students to be aware of what is going on in Ferguson.
“St. Thomas is something like 85 percent white and the rest are people of color, and so they have a lot of power and privilege that they don’t acknowledge,” Jackson said. “They need to know that while their voice is not as important as a person of color’s, it is still useful in this movement, and they can still be a part of this.”
Grace Pastoor can be reached at past6138@stthomas.edu.