Vigil for Philando Castile Becomes Uncontrollable

Anonymous submission to Conflict Minnesota

Despite a coordinated campaign of pacification deployed by activists, non-profit organizations, and the police (separately but also collaboratively), on the morning of July 8th, determined rebels took to the streets to fight back. Since the evening of Philando Castile’s highly publicized murder by the cops, protests have been ongoing, first at the scene of the shooting in Falcon Heights before quickly moving to the governor’s mansion in St Paul. Many of those responsible for quelling the unrest around the shooting of Jamar Clark were able to enforce their control over the demonstrations within the first hours, but it didn’t last long. The following is excerpted from Unicorn Riot:

As night fell, the crowd thinned out. Around 1 a.m. some more community members arrived saying they didn’t want any press.

This group of 15-25 community members and friends of Philando, mostly masked-up, were fed-up with the pacification of anger by the ‘activists and organizers’. They confronted police in their cars on Oxford and Summit Avenues, prompting the police to drive away. To view this, watch here (around the 33:15 – 36:20 mark).

The attention then was focused on an empty police car that suffered some lashes of anger from the community. The vandalized car gave reason for a line of riot cops to approach the protesters. The police pointed their crowd control weapons at the protesters which backed the crowd up enough to get their car out and then they retreated.

Confrontations continued as the crowd moved to the upscale Grand Ave. saying “let’s go fuck Grand up…fuck these rich people!” Almost immediately police were shining lights as a few rocks were thrown and a window of a jewelry store was broken.

These actions caused the St. Paul police to unload the riot squad again and start firing rubber bullets into the crowd, as well as using chemical spray.

A standoff ensued for over an hour. The community chanted, linked arms, sang, and tossed a few water bottles, apples, and insults at the police. The police reacted with brandishing an array of firepower, shooting what sounded to be rubber bullets, threats of “riot munitions to clear the block”, shining flashlights, and making one arrest.

The arrest-tee was the same person who was sprayed with chemical irritant. He also had a mask on most of the night and was walking with a camera. The explanation for his arrest by St. Paul officer Joshua Lego was that he was ‘sprayed with chemical irritants, we all saw it, and he was arrested’. Video of arrest is in tweet below: