Thread by @UR_Ninja

NEW: Judge Cahill’s No-Knock Warrant Led to MPD Execution of Amir Locke
unicornriot.ninja/2022/judge-cah…
The judge who presided over Derek Chauvin’s #GeorgeFloyd murder signed an evidentiary search warrant to aid an investigation which amounted to a death sentence for Amir Locke.

Minneapolis city leadership previously promised to cease this dangerous practice. After reviewing Cahill’s record, activists say it reveals “a disturbing pattern.” Last week Mpls PD requested a no-knock warrant in a case where Amir Locke’s family claims it was unnecessary

February 5, 2022 Justice for #AmirLocke protest in Downtown Minneapolis. Photos by Chris Juhn.

Saint Paul police requested a standard warrant into the homicide investigation it was conducting, not a no-knock warrant. They said they requested Minneapolis’ help, but it was MPD that insisted on the dangerous no-knock warrant.
unicornriot.ninja/2022/judge-cah…

Twin Cities based activist Adnan Ahmed, recently compared Locke’s killing to the murder of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, which sparked international outrage and outcries to ban such deadly practices. > leftvoice.org/amir-locke-mur…

“​​The similarity between the murders of Locke and Taylor is not a mere coincidence… No-knock warrants have… been a big part of the racist war on drugs that began back in the 1970s, which has disproportionately targeted Black and Brown people.” -Adnan Ahmed

The Minnesota Legislature restricted the execution of no-knock warrants between the hours of 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. due to their dangerous nature reflected in the data. The raid that led to Locke’s killing was executed at 6:48 a.m., 12 minutes before state law permitted.

Critics complain loopholes nullify the policy entirely. Journalists, activists, Locke's loved ones want clarity: why SPPD have not used a no-knock warrant in five years but MPD applied for no fewer than 90 dangerous no-knock warrants since they said they stopped (@SimonBalto)

@SimonBalto In November 2020, @MayorFrey promised an end to no-knock warrants by MPD while gearing up for re-election. However, reports have spotlighted the discrepancies in the mayor’s rhetoric, pointing out that the city made changes to its policy but did not ban no-knock warrants.

@SimonBalto @MayorFrey A major campaign funder spending in support of Frey’s re-election bid, the group ‘All of Mpls,’ falsely advertised that the mayor eliminated no-knock warrants on its website and in campaign literature. It has since scrubbed its website of this claim.

@SimonBalto @MayorFrey .@WedgeLIVE dubbed All of Mpls Mayor Jacob Frey’s Political Action Committee because “it’s run by his former campaign communications staff person who is also the spouse of one of the mayor’s current policy aides.”

https://twitter.com/WedgeLIVE/status/1453478403374526468

@SimonBalto @MayorFrey @WedgeLIVE Former Mpls Ward 2 senior policy aide Robin Garwood recently called the mayor out in his lies. “...reelection campaign repeated the lie that he had ‘banned’ no knock warrants ...major part of his pitch as a “reformer,” and it was never, ever true.”

https://twitter.com/RobinGarwood/status/1489327976919584773

@SimonBalto @MayorFrey @WedgeLIVE Cahill came under criticism for lashing out at U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA43), saying she was “disrespectful to the rule of law” for encouraging protestors to “stay in the streets” and “get more confrontational” after Ofcr Kim Potter killed Daunte Wright
vimeo.com/538550927

@SimonBalto @MayorFrey @WedgeLIVE On December 31, 2020, Cahill signed a dangerous nighttime no-knock warrant to raid Dolal Idd’s family’s home, which failed to collect any illegal guns, after he was slain in an undercover gun purchase sting operation by MPD. Idd was just 23 years old.

@SimonBalto @MayorFrey @WedgeLIVE It’s a bust: “None of the items set forth in the search warrant” were found in the raid authorized by Judge Peter Cahill on December 31, 2020.
This “demonstrates a disturbing pattern,” activists say, and the judge “must resign.”

Calls For Resignations of the “Hidden Hand”
Protestors are demanding accountability from the top down this time. Keith McCarron, former Minneapolis 911 dispatcher turned activist, told Unicorn Riot he’s disturbed with Cahill being the “hidden hand” in these ongoing tragedies.

Former Minneapolis mayoral candidate Jerrell Perry and Minneapolis’ newly elected president of the Board of Estimate & Taxation Samantha Pree-Stinson (@senorapree81) both recently took to social media calling for Cahill’s resignation.

@senorapree81 Protestors who rallied three days in a row want murder charges brought against MPD officer Hanneman. A “checkered past” w three complaints filed against him. He was a major provider of illicit drugs to unhoused people & #OccupyWallStreet protesters in 2012
unicornriot.ninja/2022/amir-lock…

@senorapree81 Taking part in the raid that killed Locke along with Hanneman were officers also involved in the brutal MPD assault against an innocent Black man, Jaleel Stallings, during the George Floyd Uprising. unicornriot.ninja/2022/swat-offi…

@senorapree81 Protestors are demanding Mayor Frey’s resignation and MPD Interim Chief Amelia Huffman’s firing. McCarron wants to see pressure on Governor Walz too. “We’re not just going after the man who pulled the trigger. This trigger was pulled all the way down the chain of command.”

@senorapree81 Judge Cahill’s previous highest profile case was the conviction of a juvenile for a triple homicide. Activists believe the then-kid, now 27-year-old Mahdi Hassan Ali, is innocent and are calling for justice, saying Cahill presided over a trial that was unfair at every level.

@senorapree81 People believe the Ali’s trial was unfair, considering that Target Corp. was paying the prosecutor’s office, Mpls police, and an expert witness. Cahill and cty attorney Mike Freeman never disclosed Target’s relationship to the case, an apparent conflict of interest.

@senorapree81 Israfael said when he thinks about judges like Cahill “who have all that power to do good but instead commit harm,” like when he signed off on the no-knock warrant that led to Amir Locke’s demise, “It’s just politics as usual.” unicornriot.ninja/2022/judge-cah…

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