Police and protesters clash during Jamar Clark protests as NAACP plans response

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/19/jamar-clark-minneapolis-police-shooting-naacp-vigil

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As protests in Minneapolis intensified over the death of an unarmed black man at the hands of police, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced a planned candlelight vigil and march for Friday, which their leaders would attend.

Jamar Clark was shot in the head by police in the early hours of Sunday morning after an altercation. Officials with the Minnesota police union said that Clark was not handcuffed and was reaching for the officer’s gun; but eyewitnesses disputed that, saying he was cuffed and pinned to the ground at the time he was shot.

On Wednesday afternoon, police demolished part of a makeshift camp that protesters had erected outside the police precinct near the site where Clark was shot. Protesters have blocked the entrance to the precinct since Sunday. As the afternoon turned to night, a tense standoff ensued. Protesters surrounded the precinct compound, and held up tarpaulins to protect themselves from chemical irritant sprays being used by police.

Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison posted a picture on Twitter showing his son being confronted at the protest by police holding a weapon.

Photo is agonizing for me to see. My son is PEACEFULLY protesting w/ hands up; officer is shouldering gun. Why? https://t.co/TTUBR0fxtS

In a press conference on Thursday, Nekima Levy-Pounds, the president of the Minneapolis branch of the NAACP, one of the US’s oldest civil rights group, and one of the protest’s leaders, said that two female protesters were “beaten in an alley” by police, and that the incident had been caught on video. She condemned the “militarisation of the police force”, and called for it to be placed under federal control.

She also said that there would be a candlelit vigil on Friday at 4.30pm at the precinct, followed by a march.

A Minneapolis police spokesman told the Associated Press that several officers sustained minor injuries from thrown rocks and water bottles, and that several squad cars were damaged.

Clark died in the hospital on Monday night, according to the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office, which ruled his death a homicide. On Wednesday, the officers involved in his shooting were named as Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze. Schwarze had previously been sued for civil rights violations.

The shooting is being investigated by the Minnesota bureau of criminal apprehensions.

On Monday evening, 51 people were arrested, including eight juveniles, after protesters blocked interstate 94 for several hours.