2015 Minneapolis Black Lives Matter Shooting

About

The 2015 Black Lives Matter Shooting was a violent altercation that involved the shooting of five Black Lives Matter demonstrators protesting the death of Jamar Clark in Minneapolis, Minnesota in late November 2015. By the next day, three suspects were arrested in connection to the shooting, whom many alleged were white supremacists who frequented the /pol/ and /k/ board on 4chan. All of the injuries sustained in the shooting were non-fatal.

Background

On November 20th, Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis, who had been in the midst of protesting a police shooting of a young black man named Jamar Clarke, posted that some white supremacists had attended their protest the previous night.^[10] They had suspected that the men were scoping out their protest for a future violent action by their behavior, which included filming the protests. Later, the activists found a video made by the men where they brandish guns and threaten the protestors with racist terms, including Dindu, and made a couple of references to 4chan's /pol/ (Politically Incorrect) board. The activists also found a Pastebin where the men were coordinating their plans for violence.^[9]

The two men in the video identified themselves as SaigaMarine and BlackPowderRanger; and it was later discovered that SaigaMarine is the name of a tripcode user on 4chan's /k/ (Weapons) board, which is specifically for the discussions of weaponry.^[5]

On November 23rd, activists were marching again in the same area, when the men arrived again wearing masks. Protesters asked the men to remove their masks. Moments later, the masked men open fired near the epicenter of the protests.^[4] Five people were injured. While initial reports accused the men of firing unprovoked, a video was subsequently uploaded to YouTube of two men claiming protesters assaulted the gunmen prior to the shooting (shown below).

Online Reaction

The shooting caused an outcry online. For two days, both the shooting and the arrest of the subjects trended on Facebook.^[6] In addition, a hashtag connected to the protests, #4thPrecinctShutdown, was used almost 76,000 times the night of the shooting.^[7][8]

Alongside, various people also questioned if the act of violence could be identified as "terrorism." Activists who were at the protest have been characterizing the shootings as a white supremacist terrorist attack. Meanwhile, the media was split on the term, with most labelling it as a shooting executed by white supremacists. The Independent^[11] kept it an open question, while the NY Daily News^[12] and the Huffington Post^[13] branded it as terrorism. Alongside, Alternet^[14] held an interview with media critic Todd Gitlin, a professor at Columbia University, over the definition of the term.

Several blogs and news sites, including the conservative Breitbart News Network, characterized the protesters as the aggressors in the incident, and claimed that the shooters acted in self-defense.^[15]

Search Interest

Not available at this time

External References