Two officers grabbed Maddie Harrison’s legs, pulling them and lifting her body off the ground. Another two pried at her shoulders as she locked arms with the demonstrators next to her. Amid a cacophony of shouts and screams, they dragged her away.
As St. Paul police described it, the arrest, recorded on video in front of the Governor’s Residence on Tuesday, was a necessary step in maintaining safety on the scene. In the eyes of Harrison and fellow demonstrators, it was a traumatizing illustration of police tactics they decry as callous and brutal.
Those frustrations were on full display in an emotional meeting Wednesday afternoon between demonstrators and a handful of St. Paul City Council members, in which activists demanded protection for the demonstrations and sweeping changes to the way officers conduct themselves.
Said Curtis Avent, the man who shot the video: “Everything has to change here.”
Council president Russ Stark promised to review what had happened and arrange a meeting with the mayor and police chief. He said there were reforms he too wanted to see, but cautioned that some changes “are going to take some time.”
A THROWN SIGN
Harrison was one of about 70 people arrested Tuesday and Wednesday in a series of tense encounters between police and demonstrators. Both groups have been a near-constant presence outside the Summit Avenue mansion since the July 6 shooting death of Philando Castile by a St. Anthony police officer during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights.
The wave of arrests that included Harrison and Jacob Ladda, a protest organizer, was apparently precipitated by someone uprooting a temporary “no parking” sign and throwing it into the street. A group of officers rapidly moved in, while protesters sat down and linked arms.
Police said the protesters were attempting to prevent officers from reaching the person responsible. At least one demonstrator corroborated the account.
Harrison said the protesters were trying to protect a memorial to Castile that police had torn down in previous sweeps.
Harrison said she told officers not to touch her as they pulled her away from the group. The experience was made worse, she said, when a male officer started to frisk her without warning — an unsettling experience for Harrison, who adds that she is a rape survivor.
She asked for, and was eventually handed over to, a female officer. Harrison spent several hours in jail and was told she’d be mailed a citation; she didn’t know what it was for.
Ladda played the video of her arrest for Stark and other council members during their meeting on Wednesday. He said police injured his arm during his arrest. Other activists described similar experiences, along with police conduct ranging from ignoring harassment of protesters to heavy-handed destruction of their property.
“We have pressing concerns,” Ladda said, “that need to be addressed now.”
‘QUICKLY AND SAFELY’
Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman, said officers “took the actions necessary to make arrests and keep themselves and others in the area safe.”
Sgt. Mike Ernster, another spokesman, said that during chaotic situations, “we can’t meet everyone’s demands. Those officers are trying to make arrests with everyone’s safety in mind and they’re trying to do it quickly and safely.”
He encouraged anyone with complaints about police conduct to take it to the department’s internal affairs unit.
Stark said he and other council members would review footage of the arrests.
Said Dai Thao: “We also, in our own curiosity, want to know why the police officers behaved that way.”
Ladda and other activists pressed Stark for immediate action to change policing. Among broader calls for reform, they laid out three specific requests:
- A permit to demonstrate on a closed street in front of the Governor’s Residence.
- The right to keep food, clothing and shelter there.
- That officers patrolling the area wear only regular police uniforms, not riot gear.
Stark relayed the permit request to Mayor Chris Coleman — he tried to do so on the spot, but Coleman wasn’t available — and said he would follow up on the others. He promised to make the issue a priority.
“I’m sorry that it came to this,” he said. “I am.”
Mara H. Gottfried and Tory Cooney contributed to this story.