Protest takes another surprise turn in St. Paul
Nearly 100 protesters marched through St. Paul on Saturday, in a two-and-a-half hour demonstration that stopped light rail trains, vehicle traffic and weekend shoppers.
The demonstrators started their march calling for charges against the St. Paul police officers connected with the shooting that killed Phil Quinn, 30, during a confrontation in September 2015.
Demonstrators stopped traffic, including light rail trains, at the intersection of University and Snelling avenues, starting just after 1 p.m. The demonstrators then marched to a nearby St. Paul police station on Hamline Avenue.
The protesters quickly turned their attention to the big-box stores on University Avenue nearby. They blocked aisles and heckled shoppers in the St. Paul Midway neighborhood's Target, and then Walmart. At a nearby Cub Foods store they blocked the registers and chanted.
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The demonstration was organized by critics of the St. Paul police shooting, including a group calling itself Native Lives Matter. Organizers from both the Minneapolis and St. Paul chapters of Black Lives Matter also marched with the protest, including Adja Gildersleve. She defended the police protest among the Saturday afternoon shoppers in St. Paul.
"Capitalism is why police existed in the first place, is to protect capital, to protect a white man's capital. And we are there saying it's not fair. The system of capitalism is not fair. You've got folks in there, working for barely $10 an hour and the CEO is making $20,000 or more an hour. That doesn't make any sense," Gildersleve said.
Store personnel tried unsuccessfully to keep protesters out and get them to leave quickly, although the demonstrations were only inside for a few minutes at each store. Some shoppers joined the protesters' chants; a few others stormed out of the stores, visibly upset.
No injuries or arrests were reported during the march. The death of Phil Quinn remains under investigation and the shooting has not yet been reviewed by a grand jury.
Saturday's protest came weeks after a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mall of America moved unexpectedly to the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. Demonstrators briefly blocked the road to Terminal 1 and forced officials to close off security checkpoints there.
