Thread by @IlhanMN

Amir Locke had barely opened his eyes when he was executed by a Minneapolis Police officer. He was 22 years old. And now, because of the violent, unchecked, and unreformed behavior of our city’s police, his life has been taken.

Once again we’re left only with the empty words of police and the Mayor. Words that, at best, are meant to mislead the people of Minneapolis, and at worst are quite simply lies aimed at portraying Amir as a criminal.

The Mayor ran for reelection on having ended no-knock warrants. Amir was killed in a no-knock raid.

https://twitter.com/RobinGarwood/status/1489327976919584773?s=20&t=A6qd12qrgFwOD-B1zi9OAw

Conveniently, the group that poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into reelecting the Mayor and defeating the public safety charter amendment has scrubbed all mention of this lie from their webpage.

https://twitter.com/maxnesterak/status/1489636492741857287?s=20&t=2PuDbdTcdB_FtQLRQW8bFg

Once again the Minneapolis Police Department has proactively smeared the person they murdered. The MPD referred to Amir as a “suspect” four times in their initial press release about the killing.

https://twitter.com/webster/status/1489422824532025345?s=20&t=WOixKog8DCeXAVkVxsfFPQ

Amir was a guest in the apartment. He was not a suspect. When asked, the Mayor couldn’t explain this. Chief Huffman’s explanation was they didn’t have as much information as they do now.

https://twitter.com/WedgeLIVE/status/1489436041475883009

We are fortunate to have Attorney General Keith Ellison in office to investigate this injustice. Attorney General Ellison is one of the few voices this city can trust in the wake of this kind of violence.

It is shameful that we have to rely on him, once again, to investigate this crime due to a complete lack of trust in local officials and institutions.

We are also more than a year into a Department of Justice investigation into the patterns and practices of the MPD after the murder of George Floyd. It’s tragic that before that investigation is complete, we are facing another murder that would warrant its own.

There is justifiably no public trust in the MPD, and I am calling on the DOJ to do everything in their power to expedite this investigation and take action to reform the department if the Mayor is unwilling or unable to.

It feels perverse to offer my prayers to Amir’s family. How many times have the families and friends of people murdered by the MPD had to sit as our city’s leaders offer them their thoughts? How many more times will they have to before we finally repair this broken system?

Rest in power, Amir.