From [HERE] and [FTP] Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of downtown Minneapolis on Saturday demanding justice in the fatal police shooting of a young Black man, Amir Locke, during a “no-knock” raid on an apartment earlier this week.

The boisterous but peaceful crowd, chanting Locke’s name and the slogan “no justice, no peace”, rallied at Government Plaza in Minnesota’s largest city three days after Locke, 22, was shot on his couch by police.

The day after the killing, police released video footage from the raid, which showed Locke was holding a gun as he twisted beneath a blanket on his sofa after being roused by officers moments before he was slain.

The shooting occurred at about 6:48 a.m. in the Bolero Flats Apartment Homes building on Marquette Avenue between 11th and 12th streets, where Huffman said a SWAT team was executing a search warrant on the seventh floor of the building. 

Huffman said they were assisting the St. Paul Police Department and “loudly and repeatedly announced ‘police search warrant’” as they entered an apartment using a key fob. 

Nine seconds after police entered the apartment, they encountered a man with a handgun in his hand, “pointed in the direction of officers,” and “shots were fired” and the man was struck, according to an MPD statement released later Wednesday. Huffman said one MPD officer fired; MPD later identified him as Mark Hanneman. 

The warrant was issued in relation to a homicide investigation led by detectives from the neighboring Saint Paul Police Department. Locke was not named in the warrant, and Minneapolis police have acknowledged it was unclear how or whether he was connected to that investigation.

On Thursday, interim Minneapolis police chief Amelia Huffman told a news conference the county attorney’s office was reviewing the shooting, and that video from the incident appeared to show Locke’s gun pointed toward officers when they opened fire.

Activists at the protest said Locke had a right to possess a weapon in his own home and was never given the chance to disarm himself in the chaotic moments as police stormed into his apartment without warning.

At least 500 demonstrators assembled in below-freezing temperatures on Saturday, demanding an unconditional ban on no-knock warrants, the dismissal and arrest of officers involved in the shooting, and the resignation of the mayor and police chief.

A series of speakers led the crowd through chants demanding racial justice and denouncing police violence against Black people, who organizers said have been disproportionately targeted by heavy-handed, and discriminatory law enforcement tactics.

On Friday, Mayor Jacob Frey responded to the Locke shooting, ordering a moratorium on “no-knock” search warrants, saying he was acting to “ensure safety of both the public and officers until a new policy is crafted”.

The Locke shooting was the latest of a string of incidents to put Minneapolis-area police department under scrutiny.

Almost two years ago, George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, was killed by a white officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes during an arrest on suspicion of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Outrage over Floyd’s death sparked a nationwide movement challenging police brutality and bias in the US criminal justice system.

The video of Locke’s arrest showed police unlocking his apartment with a key and officers shouting, “Police, search warrant, get on the ground,” as they entered.

An officer then kicks at the couch where Locke was lying and as Locke turns, his arm emerges from under the blanket with a gun seen in his hand. Almost immediately, police fired at least three shots.

Lawyers for Locke’s family said he had no criminal history and legally possessed a firearm at the time of his death.

In reality “Defund the Police” was nothing ever more than a message on a sign, let alone being an actual crafted policy proposed to “legistraitors.” At best it is an ill conceived plan to somehow stop police brutality by giving the police smaller budgets. But having less money can have no effect on the granfalloon of “authority” or the right to forcibly control others. Police with small budgets in poor countries have no problem brutalizing citizens when they deem it necessary to do so. As such, “defund the police” was a reactionary slogan on sign that reflects real anger in the street about police authority and master servant relations between citizens and police.

The real threat to elites from “defund the police” is the fact that police services provided by the government can be summarily replaced by private security. Rather than reducing tax dollars budgeted to cops as a remedy to somehow stop police brutality, “Defund the police” or replacing police could simply mean community hired and fired trained security workers who have a contractual duty to aid people in peril and a natural right to come to the defense of others but who have no right to initiate unprovoked acts of violence on people. Therefore, there would be no need for a police department.

Security workers have the same rights that people have because all persons have the natural right to defend themselves and come to the defense of others if they believe the other person is in imminent danger from an aggressor. However, in the US legal system people have no general legal duty to rescue or aid other people in danger. Thus, security workers can be contractually obliged to aid people in peril and could be held accountable directly to the people who hire and fire them.

An essential difference between private security workers and police officers is that security workers possess no government authority or right to initiate unprovoked acts of violence on other people. Unprovoked violence against others or the use of “force” is the basis of all social evils and can only be used in the sense of attack not defense. As explained in FUNKTIONARY, “Unfortunately, governments only function by force. Once established, they put laws into effect by threatening persecution, imprisonment, fine, or death against all who don't comply with those laws--including the use of the force continuum.” [MORE]

If a “public servant," such as a police officer, is uncontrollable, unaccountable, can’t be hired or fired by you, has irresponsible power over you and provides a compulsory “service” then he is actually your Master. Lysander Spooner, stated “It is of no importance that I appointed him, and put all power in his hands. If I made him uncontrollable by me, and irresponsible to me, he is no longer my servant, agent, attorney, or representative. If I gave him absolute, irresponsible power over my property, I gave him the property. If I gave him absolute, irresponsible power over myself, I made him my master, and gave myself to him as a slave. And it is of no importance whether I called him master or servant, agent or owner. The only question is, what power did I put into his hands? Was it an absolute and irresponsible one? or a limited and responsible one?”

How did politicians and public servants acquire such powers?

Allegedly governmental power comes from the people. That is, we delegate our individual power to the government for it to act on our behalf. However, it goes without saying that people cannot delegate powers or rights that they do not possess. So if people have delegated their powers to lawmakers and lawmakers have empowered police officers to act on our behalf, how did police acquire the moral right to commit acts of unprovoked violence on people? Asked differently, if you don’t have the right to initiate unprovoked acts of violence against other people then how can you delegate or authorize police officers or anyone else acting on your behalf to do so? How did government representatives and police acquire such super-human powers? [MORE]