[Mpls] More Police Misconduct the Weekend of May 14-16

[Russell Raczkowski]

Following the reported Art-A-Whirl police misconduct on Friday, May 
14. . .  

http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2004-May/032805.html

. . . another disturbing report of police misconduct on Saturday, May 
15.

Local activist and journalist, Chris Allison, ended up at the hospital 
after a  beating by Minneapolis police.

His account of what happened follows.

"On Saturday evening I was riding my bicycle home from a "mexican 
fiesta" theme party in the como/university neighborhood.  I crossed 
the river from dinkytown to downtown using the walk/bike bridge 
between the Washington bridge & the 10th Street bridge.  After 
crossing the bridge (somewhere between 10 pm & midnight), I was 
heading up towards 13th on West River Parkway.  As I crossed 
underneath 35w, a police car pulled up next to me without 
headlights on-- a police officer said my last name over the 
loudspeaker and I was immediately knocked off my bike by a car 
door.  The two police officers quickly pounced on me , kicking and 
punching me in the head repeatedly.  I am not sure if a club was 
used or not, but looking at the bruise pattern on my right thigh, it 
appears to have been hit with a police baton.  The police then left 
very quickly (as if they didn't want to make it easy for me to identify 
them). 

I have been to the hospital and am pretty beat up, but luckily nothing 
that will not recover.  I also have very good assault photos taken by 
staff at the hospital (my face is pretty ugly this week). 

As a 10-year local activist and community organizer (currently a 
board member of Sister's Camelot)-- I feel it is obvious that I was 
singled out and targetted because of my activist history, lifestyle, 
and influence."

My understanding is that Allison is asking the MPD to be allowed to 
look at photos of officers to try and identify his attackers.  Thus far, 
he has been refused.

Russell Raczkowski
Bancroft