Hmong

250 Hmong community members and anti-police brutality activists rallied in St. Paul on Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours after a rural, all-white jury found that "excessive force" was not used in the 2006 shooting of unarmed Hmong-American Fong Lee.  Lee was shot eight times in the back by Minneapolis police officer Jason Anderson. Allegations that a gun was planted by Lee's body were ruled irrelevant to the case.  Judge Paul Magnuson instructed the jury to “use their everyday life experiences” in their decision, noted several court witnesses.  The judge also read the verdict while Lee's family were at lunch, so that the family heard the verdict from a reporter.

“On June 26, 2006 Lee was a victim, on June 28, 2008 he was still a victim, and he will remain a victim,” said rally organizer Tou Ger Xiong. Speaking about conflicting police testimony during the trial, he produced a Q-tip several feet long: “I brought this today to clean out all the crap I have been hearing in the last week.” Speaking to the crowd, Michelle Gross of CUAPB said that Fong’s murder was “the most blatant, disgusting case of police brutality” she has ever seen in her 25 years of advocacy against police brutality. Pablo Tapa, spoke of the common experiences of racial profiling practices by police who detain and often brutalize Latino people in order to “check their documents.”