2020 Summer Incident Digest

The Duluth Inaction Digest highlights and reflects on the variety of local actions and impacts on the Duluth community related to policing and the carceral state. The goal of this blog is to ensure our community is aware of ongoing injustices carried out by police and city administration and is informed about ways systems of policing are impacting us everyday.  

To kick off this project, this post will feature major incidents from the summer of 2020. We recognize this is not an exhaustive list of occurrences, but we hope this attempt at providing details and insight will aid our community in envisioning a world without policing one day at a time. 

We will be doing an overview of protest activity throughout the summer and another featuring highlights from September as future posts so keep checking back for new installations and share any feedback, news items, or personal stories with Duluth InAction here. 

June 9 – Incident of DPD police brutality against citizen 

The details: 

A widely circulated video showed four Duluth police officers aggressively detaining a young Native individual on the corner of 4th St. and 6th Ave. E in the Whole Food Co-Op parking lot. 

The issue: 

Details of the reasoning or outcome of this assault are uncertain but the force used and the disregard for human life is evident. Videos like the one depicting this incident are all too familiar to our communities, but just because they are common does not change the reality that any interaction with police increases the likelihood of brutalization and violence. 

What is also common is police agencies reviewing their own actions and deeming themselves justified in actions the average citizen would view as excessive, out-of-line and needlessly violent. We should be concerned about how we are conditioned to view violence at the hands of police, whether we’re watching it on video or in person, as reasonable or normal when internal reviews or messages from the police chief assure us that what we saw was appropriate behavior by patrol officers. 

July 3 – 13 – Caravan of trucks depicting hate symbols seen traveling around Duluth, Lakeside resident hangs confederate flag outside home, Duluth residents respond with Educate Against Hate event

The details: 

On the weekend of July 4th, a caravan of roughly 6-10 pick-up trucks were spotted in several locations around Duluth/Superior/Hermantown. These trucks were accessorized with large flags including blue line, confederate and trump imagery. 

On July 3, word spread about a Lakeside home displaying a confederate flag. Duluth Inaction shared a photo of a local youth protesting on the public sidewalk in front of the home, which garnered lots of attention from both supporters of the protester and antagonizers who support the hate symbol or the resident’s right to display the flag. Local news coverage reported that the resident also intended to hang the flag on July 13. 

Days before the homeowners intended display date, the same caravan of trucks sporting hate symbols were spotted at the Lakeside home. Images shared on social media show the truck-owners gathered on the front lawn of the resident. 

In response to this planned display of the confederate symbol, neighbors of the Lakeside home and other supporters coordinated an “Educate Against Hate” protest to spread information about the history of the confederate flag and condemn its presence in the community. 

The issue: 

It’s an election year, so one might generally expect to see signs and other depictions of support for presidential candidates. However, the pairing of trump flags with blue line and confederate symbols is important and intentional. 

The tandem display of these symbols speaks loudly to the dependent relationship and roots of each. The current presidential administration has notoriously amped up anti-Black, racist, and xenophobic sentiments and has emboldened an ideologically similar voter(fan)-base. This base has contributed to a rise in discriminatory actions against others and has motivated white supremacist demonstrations in ways that have not been witnessed in quite this way for several decades. 

As we already know, the history of policing is also rooted in and formed by white supremacist ideals and functions today as a mechanism for controlling and debilitating BIPOC and protecting the interests of those in power. 

The confederate flag very clearly stands as an emblem of the historical attempt to continue slavery and though we had an entire war that resulted in the defeat of the confederate’s cause, the mentality behind maintaining slavery has not been defeated. In fact, an entire effort around resurrecting the “Lost Cause” of the confederacy has molded a movement that believes we will return to a time of white superiority and enslavement. The flag stands for the assurance that that day will come. The display of this symbol is extra alarming (and confusing) when we acknowledge that Minnesota was not even part of the confederacy. 

Some commenters on Duluth Inaction’s Facebook post about the young protester outside the home of the Lakeside resident talked about “the homeowner’s right to hang the flag,” focusing on individualism and personal/private property. This assertion is short-sighted and we don’t care to get tangled up in such a debate surrounding freedoms and liberties of individuals, because these “rights” are rooted in the same white supremacist ideologies that we are fighting against. Ultimately, these symbols of hate have no place in our communities and the tactics we use to educate, agitate, and protest against them are all valid. 

Throughout the summer and continuing into this Fall, this caravan, these symbols and these interrelated ideas have been terrorizing members of our community. Individuals sporting these symbols have shown up to counter-protest against actions led by BIPOC in response to police violence. Similar imagery has also been seen printed on people’s masks in general settings like stores and tourist attractions. We anticipate this will get worse as we get closer to and even past the November election. 

July 25 – DPD use of force against 21-year-old in Denfeld neighborhood

The details: 

Video circulated on social media shows three DPD officers trying to pull 21-year-old Jacob Schroers from his vehicle. Schroers is still seatbelted into his vehicle as officers try to pull him from both sides of the car. Throughout the video, taken by a friend of Schroer’s and passenger of the car, Schroer’s can be heard screaming for help as he is pulled and contorted until he is removed from the car. 

One officer identified in the incident is Officer Joel Hopps, who has been with the DPD since 2011. After internal review, it was determined all officers were justified in their use of force and were following proper protocol. 

The issue: 

Anyone who had the displeasure of viewing the video or hearing about the incident can tell you there’s quite a bit to be angry about here. 

Let’s start with the “reason.” According to the St. Louis County Jail roster where Schroers was detained, he was arrested due to outstanding warrants. Meaning, the decision of the arresting officers to exert force and yank Schroers from his vehicle was not rooted in an immediate risk or concern for their or others’ safety, but because of an existing criminal record. 

Having already granted themselves justification to forcibly remove Schroers from his car, the officers proceeded to use multiple, contradictory methods– causing Jacob to shout and writhe in pain as officers pulled him from both the driver’s and front passenger seat while he was still restrained by his seatbelt. The video shows officers treating the Schroers like an elastic toy that can bend and twist in multiple ways, rather than a human being with pain sensors, nerve endings and bodily autonomy. Almost two months after the murder of George Floyd, many Duluthians subjected to watching the video or watching first-hand as the assault of Jacob Schroers took place cringed as similar tactics that ended Floyd’s life were used to cause immense harm against Schroers. 

We are left to wonder, and be concerned about, what this implies about how those who interact with the criminal injustice system are doomed to continue being vilified and violated by its control. Having warrants for previous interactions with law enforcement or courts cannot serve as a justifiable reason for harassing, demonizing or assaulting citizens in unrelated interactions, or even in instances where warrants are being used as fodder for police action. As we’ve seen in the murder of Breonna Taylor, serving warrants has become a spectable embolding police departments across the country to deploy SWAT teams into civilian homes under the guise of “getting drugs off our streets” or “prevening violence.” At what point does SWAT raids and the daily interactions of patrol officers become indiscernible? We believe we may already be there.