Teachers attending a convention of the American Federation of Teachers were among those arrested Tuesday afternoon during a protest in Minneapolis over the fatal police shooting of Philando Castile in Falcon Heights.
Minneapolis police reported 21 protesters were arrested willingly after blocking Eighth Street at Nicollet Mall and refusing orders to disperse. The protesters, many of them members of the St. Paul and Minneapolis teachers federations, started their march at the Minneapolis Convention Center, site of the biennial convention of the American Federation of Teachers.
“Today, we march to remember Philando Castile, our student, our co-worker, our union brother,” Kimberly Colbert, secretary of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, said in a statement.
Castile, a kitchen supervisor at J.J. Hill Montessori School in St. Paul, was shot to death July 6 by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop, and his girlfriend’s videostream on Facebook was seen around the world.
All 21 of the protesters arrested in Minneapolis were ticketed and released, according to the St. Paul Federation of Teachers.
The presidents of the St. Paul and Minneapolis police unions said in a statement Wednesday that they were “appalled” to learn that the teachers unions “choose to protest against their union brothers and sisters, men and women who put the safety of others before their own each and every day, many who help keep students and teachers safe in classrooms.”
“The one-sided message of blatant disrespect for law enforcement these educators are sending our young people is horrifying and will only exacerbate distrust and fear,” the police unions said in the statement. “… Over the past few years, far too many people have been far too quick to judge police officers’ actions before all the facts are known. … Educators should demonstrate more common sense than rushing to judgment along with radical activists hell-bent on destabilizing our communities.”
