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Friday 29 May 2020

I was on the ground during the Minneapolis protests and hit with tear gas. This is what the disturbing scene looked like.

Hannah Lindstrom

I participated in the Minneapolis protests over the last week that made national news.
I was teargassed and saw the confrontation between protestors and police first hand.
This was my experience on the front lines.
Hannah Lindstrom is a student in Minneapolis.
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On Monday, George Floyd died after being pinned to the ground by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer on duty, for around eight minutes.

In Minneapolis, where the event occurred, the killing has set off a firestorm. The city, along with the rest of the country, has seen police continue to fatally interact with black individuals, despite strong resistance and calls for justice from the communities.

In the aftermath of Floyd's death, protests have made national news in their impact and scale. As a Minneapolis resident, I participated in some of these protests, and have seen firsthand how the encounters between police and citizens are unfolding and intensifying in violence and destruction.

The lived experience felt like history in the making.

On Tuesday morning, my partner called me distressed, saying that there had been a police altercation and someone died two blocks from their apartment.

(AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The victim was Floyd, who was stopped by police in South Minneapolis. My partner lives three miles south of me. I live in an area of Minneapolis called Uptown, which is an area that serves mainly white middle- to upper-class residents of the city. My partner went to a protest Tuesday, which was peaceful, at the site of the shooting that day and night.

Wednesday I joined the protests.

Hannah Lindstrom

My neighbor Missy* and I met on the front porch of our apartment stoop and looked at social media at what protesters needed in terms of supplies. Protests had begun at the Third Precinct Police Station of Minneapolis four miles from my home and two miles from the site of the incident. The Third Precinct is where the police officers involved worked.

We saw on Twitter that people were being tear-gassed and needed milk to soothe the burning effect.

Hannah Lindstrom

I checked with an activist friend who informed me that water bottles that could be used as pressure eyewashes are more effective. We stocked up on supplies from a gas station and drove to the precinct, parking a mile away.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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