Militarizing Minnesota
On September 24, the Duluth City Council discussed purchasing $82,721 worth of riot gear for the second time. Water Protectors, the NAACP, church representatives, and many others packed the City Council to oppose the riot gear purchase. The decision was tabled for the second time.
It’s an interesting moment in Duluth. Two years ago, the Duluth City Council passed a resolution opposing the use of excessive force at Standing Rock during the DAPL protest. There, over $38 million was spent by North Dakota authorities, who brought in over 1,200 police and national guard from across the country, as well as using Tiger Swan, a paramilitary security force. Now we are talking riot gear for Duluth. As Tara Houska, Honor the Earth’s Campaigns Director noted, there has not been a riot in Duluth for l00 years. Well nearly so.
The last riot in Duluth was the 1920 lynching of three black men Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie. Charged with an unsubstantiated rape on June l5, three young black men who had come to town with a traveling circus were arrested. Word spread through the town, and that evening three of them were taken from jail and lynched by a white mob. Crowd estimates were between l,000 and l0,000 people (apparently they were sort of bad at counting in those days). That was the last riot .
Times are changing, the militarization of police is on the increase, and pressure by Chilean mining and pipeline companies to militarize northern Minnesota is bearing fruit. On June 28, this year, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission issued a rogue decision -- overriding all recommendations of state agencies, tribes and 68,000 Minnesotans, and approved a Certificate of Need for the Enbridge Line 3. During that meeting, Commissioner Tuma asked Enbridge if the company would underwrite the police expenses required to put in the Canadian pipeline. Since then, riot gear requests have increased.
In mid-September, an estimated 40 Fond du Lac tribal police forces guarded an informational meeting for band members on Enbridge’s Line 3 Agreement with the tribe. The controversial decision to sign with Enbridge has been opposed by Tribal Water Protectors and was done without community forums. Debra Topping, an elder, attended the meeting and was handing out literature asking for a referendum vote on the proposal when she was pushed aside, searched, and asked for a tribal ID by the police. Details of the agreement are not public, but the estimated $250 million deal is good money, no question. The deal has committed the Fond du Lac bandto insure the project’s future in their territory. Apparently, that means using tribal police to control tribal members. The question is, at what cost?
Read more: http://duluthreader.com/articles/2018/10/04/14713_militarizing_minnesota
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