Minnesota high school students protest racist police killings
Minneapolis, MN – Over 200 high school students from Patrick Henry, Hopkins and South High Schools came together here, Dec. 7, to protest racist police killings and the failure to indict the cops who killed Mike Brown and Eric Gardner. The students started at the steps of the Minneapolis Public Library with speeches and spoken word.
One woman's spoken word performance really resonated with the crowd, “The trust has been crushed...the fabric of a just society was has been shredded. This government that claims it respects me, claims to protect me, claims accepts me, claims to defend me. These claims are pretend and when will it end? This government is but a husk that contains the dreams of power hungry rich whites...founded by an obsession for oppression. Justice is prolong and a lot has gone wrong...but the youth is still here...we will always fight because this is our future and these our lives.”
After the speeches, the students took to the streets for a spirited march through downtown's business sections, chanting, “Black lives matter!” and “No justice, no peace! Prosecute the police!” The march continued across the Hennepin Avenue bridge over the Mississippi River and back, then on to City hall where protesters held a die-in to honor Mike Brown.
Larry Whiten, 16, South High School student stated, “It is important for the youth in our community to come together. To create awareness about the unjust crimes that is happening to youth just like us. We need to spread the awareness because incidents, such as the one in Ferguson, are no longer isolated.”
Maeve Handley, 16, also from South High school added, “It shows that we, the next generation, know and care about what is going on. We are standing up and speaking out because we don't like the government's responses to these killings. We know they are lying to us. We aren't going to take it.”