Hundreds of students walk out of school to protest police killing of Amir Locke
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Updated: 4:55 p.m.
Students across the Twin Cities walked out of class Tuesday to demand justice for Amir Locke, a 22-year-old Black man killed during a police raid in Minneapolis last week.
More than a thousand students marched from Central High School to the Governor’s Residence in St. Paul to protest the police killing.
The group, led by the nonprofit student organizing group MN Teen Activists, had a list of demands at the rally, including a ban on all no-knock warrants and the resignation of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and the city’s interim police Chief Amelia Huffman.
Central High senior Navaeh Wiley said she wants adults to understand teenagers’ are old enough to understand what is happening around them.
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“To see someone so close to our age, it is really nerve-wracking and heartbreaking. It makes you scared for your own future,” Wiley said. “So, I want everyone to understand that we truly want the best for our youth community and community in general, and we are just trying to make the world a better place for our future and futures of other youth"
Sandra Tougnon, the president of the Black Student Union at Central High School, said today's teenagers have grown up with nearly constant examples of Black youth killed by people who didn't value their lives.
"I wasn't fully aware of my place in society until the age of 9 when I heard of Trayvon Martin, this was when I learned that my life was neither valued or mattered to the white members of my community,” Tougnon said. “I lost my innocence at 10 when running outside I would decide against raising my hoodie to protect my ears because Trayvon Martin couldn't.”
The rally also called for Mark Hanneman, the Minneapolis SWAT officer who shot and killed Locke during the raid, to be fired immediately.
