NOIR TUÉ PAR UN POLICIER À MINNEAPOLIS « NOUS AVONS VU UN LYNCHAGE »

Former Chicago gang leader Jason Sole transformed his life in Minneapolis after spending time in prison. He notably obtained a doctorate in criminology, taught at the university and chaired the local branch of the NAACP, a venerable civil rights organization from 2016 to 2019. The Press met with him on Thursday about explosion of anger shakes the largest city in Minnesota, in the Midwest, since the death of George Floyd, this 46-year-old African-American suffocated by the knee of a white policeman during an arrest filmed by a passerby Monday evening .

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU SEEN THE VIDEO OF THE GEORGE FLOYD ARREST? I found the experience mortifying. It made me think of Eric Garner, who also died after repeating "I can't breathe" during his arrest in New York in 2014. It made me think of Jamar Clark, who died in Minneapolis in 2015 after being flattened on the ground and handcuffed behind the back. This is not our first rodeo, as they say. But I found the arrest of George Floyd even more brutal [vicious] than the others. In the video, we hear people say to the police, "Stop, stop, let him go. But the policeman shows no conscience, no remorse. And that's what we've been saying about the Minneapolis Police Service for years. We do not know if they have a conscience. They kill us. They form a deadly brigade.

HOW CAN YOU RECONCILE MINNEAPOLIS 'PROGRESSIVE IMAGE, OF WHICH THE MAYOR TALKS ABOUT VOLUNTEERS OF SYSTEMIC RACISM, WITH THE PORTRAIT YOU BRUSH OF HIS POLICE SERVICE? We only seem progressive, we really aren't. We are among the worst in the United States in terms of racial disparities. But we are excellent at public relations. The City has put in place an infrastructure that allows it to camouflage incidents and injustices affecting our community. As the head of the NAACP, I tried to show what was going on behind the curtain. And the reality is that these progressive elected officials who sit on city council are at the service of an unchanging system. We are fighting against white supremacy. We are attacked.

HOWEVER, FOR THREE YEARS, THE MINNEAPOLIS POLICE SERVICE HAS BEEN HEADED BY AN AFRO-AMERICAN, MEDARIA ARRADONDO, WHO HAS ACCESSED THIS POST AFTER DENOUNCING THE LAXISM OF THE FORMER DIRECTION AGAINST RACISM AMONG POLICE OFFICERS. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HIM ? Arradondo tries. He has a foot in the community, a foot in the police service. It is always a pleasure to see him because we know he has the heart in the right place and that he is doing his best. But when you have to deal with a system that is the extension of white supremacy, there are limits to what you can do. People are still trying to minimize the police problem by reducing it to a rotten apple. What we have is a rotten apple and a good apple. On a human level, I have always found Arradondo to be fair and empathetic. But he is surrounded by wolves.

ARE YOU COMFORTED BY THE DISMISSAL OF THE FOUR POLICE OFFICERS INVOLVED IN THE ARREST OF GEORGE FLOYD AND THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION CONDUCTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND THE FBI? No. It’s a good first step, but I’m not optimistic. There are still seven or eight steps to take. The police must be arrested, denied bail and sentenced to prison. I will be comforted when this happens. In the meantime, I cannot be optimistic until the four police have paid for their crimes. It was the modern equivalent of a lynching. We saw a lynching take place before our eyes.

DO YOU PARTICIPATE IN THE EVENTS? I passed the torch. But I'm on hand to distribute water, provide legal advice, and so on. Having been on the ground at several such events, I can tell you that the current energy level in Minneapolis is unlike any other event. If the authorities do not announce charges before the weekend, I think it will be total chaos over the weekend. WHAT DO YOU RESPOND TO THOSE WHO MAKE PROBABLES THE PILING AND DESTRUCTION OF BUSINESS? Let the insurers take care of that. What is broken or burnt will be replaced. But George Floyd will not be replaced. I am not an old sage who says, "Do not burn this, do not plunder it", for material things can be replaced. I focus on the current mission. We demand justice for the guy who was slaughtered.

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