Sunday November 29, 2015
By Ricardo Lopez
Stakes are high as Keith Ellison negotiates between local black community, state and local leaders.
Congressman Keith Ellison encouraged protesters, who demanded answers over the death of Jamar Clark, to remain peaceful when he spoke Nov. 19 outside the Fourth Precinct police headquarters in north Minneapolis.
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison abruptly left Washington earlier this month to fly back to Minneapolis and emerged at the center of explosive confrontations between black activists and police outside the Fourth Precinct station.
In those first, uncertain days after a fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in north Minneapolis, Ellison displayed credibility among different factions of the black community, and also had stature in the mayor’s office and could help broker a sit-down meeting between Gov. Mark Dayton and the family of the shooting victim, Jamar Clark.
The unrest has elevated Ellison’s profile, but it has also become his biggest test yet as a political leader trying to negotiate a truce in the latest flare-up of long-running tensions between police and the local black community.
“People have successfully gotten the attention of political leadership,” Ellison said from the protest site, less than a mile from his home. “We just have to make sure we do not waste it, and we make sure we gather it up and turn it into some tangible benefits for the people here.”
Striking a tone that was conciliatory but also challenging, he added: “There’s absolutely no doubt that we have to get established, responsive government.”