Minneapolis, MN — For the 31st annual National Day of Protest Against Police Brutality on Oct. 22, activists drew the connection to the violence perpetrated by local, state, and federal law enforcement as they marched from the memorial site of Alex Pretti to Renée Good‘s memorial and ended at George Floyd Square.

Organizing the march for the twenty-sixth straight year was Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB). “We want to draw the lines, make the connections, help people understand that it does not matter whether that brutality is by a local law enforcement, a county law enforcement, a state police, or the federal law enforcement. It doesn’t matter when somebody loses their lives to police brutality, misconduct, and abuse of authority. We will always be out here demanding justice. That will never change,” said Michelle Gross, the president of CUAPB.

Before the march started from Alex Pretti’s memorial at 26th St. and Nicollet Ave., Brass Solidarity band got the crowd moving and singing along to their resistance songs. In attendance for the action were several impacted families and friends of families with stolen lives, including, but not limited to, Tekle Sundberg (Minneapolis Police), Paul Castaway (Denver Police) and Kobe Heisler (Brooklyn Center Police).

Toshira Garraway, whose fiancé Justin Teigen was found dead in a recycling center after an interaction with the St. Paul Police in 2009, spoke at the rally and reminded the crowd that before the deadly Operation Metro Surge, Minnesota police have been deadly.

“Let’s think about the brutality and the evil and the corruption that we were facing right here in Minnesota by our local law enforcement before the Ice agents even showed up,” said Garraway, “and then the ICE agents showed us up and brutalized us even more.”

After marching to Good’s memorial on 33rd St. and Portland Ave., activist Jae Yates noted that Good’s “identity was erased repeatedly after she was killed. Nobody wanted to talk about the fact that this is also violence against the queer community,” they said, “that this is violence against a queer mom who moved here specifically for the safety that she thought that she would find in Minneapolis.”

“This is what we mean when we say all of these struggles are connected. Because if you can murder a white queer woman in the street. What do you think is happening to Black and brown people? If you can kill a Native woman [Allison Lussier], not investigate her death, and then face zero consequences within your department? What do you think is happening to the rest of your neighbors?”

Jae Yates

Also at Good’s memorial, Jaylani Hussein, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) reminded the crowd of the collective power that the Twin Cities community showed to push out the federal occupation.

Hussein noted that it was Minneapolis neighbors looking out for their neighbors like Renée Good “who stood on the streets with their whistles and with their phones,” that got Greg Bovino, the former “commander at large” of the Border Patrol and Kristi Noem, the former Homeland Security Secretary, fired. He implored Minnesotans never forget what happened and to continue to make strides toward justice.

The march ended at George Floyd Square where the community met at independent photojournalist KingDemetrius Pendleton‘s Listen 2 Us Studio on 37th St. and Chicago Ave for refreshments and rides back to the march’s starting point.

Images, including the cover image, are from screen grabs of video contributed by L. Cam Anderson.

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