This Week:

Quote of the Week

The Death of Abu Kassim Jeilani

Why To Speak Up and What You Can Do

Greetings,

Perhaps because Abu Kassim Jeilani lived in my neighborhood, his death at the hands of police last Sunday hit me very hard. I didn't know him personally, but my neighborhood is home to the largest community of Somalis in Minnesota, so I can feel the anger and fear in the post-September 11th environment more acutely than I would if I lived elsewhere. I'm glad I can feel this, and this week's issue of the Notes gives some context for this recent death, and some ideas about how we can and should respond.

So, this is a "Special Issue" of Nygaard Notes, I guess (I know, I know, they're ALL special!) as it is devoted to a single issue. Although it is focused on an incident in my own city, it's really a sort of case study, I think, with important lessons for people from all over the place.

I'll have a little more on this case next week and, if there's room, maybe a little bit about the CIA, about Southern Africa, the Drug War, and who-knows-what else.

Sometimes my fellow able-bodied citizens of European descent get upset when I use terms like "racism" or "white supremacy," as I do this week. Many people don't even know what I'm talking about when I use the word "ablism." So, although I ran out of room this week, next week I will publish: "Race, Xenophobia, and Disability: Resources for Beginners." I promise.

Note to all you new readers: This is how it is, nobody knows from week to week what to expect. Least of all myself! Well, anyhow, welcome aboard.

Nygaard

"Quote" of the Week:

"This guy [Abu Kassim Jeilani] was a very good guy. He just became sick. You can't be shot because you are sick. That is not the American way."

-- Mohamed Ahmed, a friend and neighbor of Jeilani, quoted in the Associated Press on March 11, 2002

The Death of Abu Kassim Jeilani

A Somalian man named Abu Kassim Jeilani was shot to death by Minneapolis police on Sunday, March 10th, at 2:19 p.m. This is the latest incident in a long history of misuse and abuse of power by Minneapolis police. Such abuses fall disproportionately often on members of the most vulnerable and oppressed segments of our community, and it's important for us all to speak up against it when it happens. After you read the following details, I hope many of you—especially those who are able-bodied, who are citizens, and who have white skin—will take some action in solidarity with people of color, immigrants, and people with mental illness.

I don't claim to know all of the details of the events of March 10th, but initial reports seem pretty clear on the basics. Mr. Jeilani had what appeared to be a fairly serious mental illness. When he came to the attention of police on Sunday, he was walking down the street carrying a machete and a prybar and calling out "Allahu akbar" ("God is great"). Police officers told Jeilani to put the (potential) weapons down, and he did not. Whether or not he understood the orders is unknown. The police then used a non-lethal stun-gun called a "Taser." It didn't work. The police then opened fire, shooting Jeilani sixteen times, it was reported, killing him instantly. "It seemed like they just unloaded their guns on him," said eyewitness Dendell Holley.

The entire incident, from the time Jeilani was spotted by a patrol officer to when he died, lasted only 11 minutes, according to police. The Star Tribune (Newspaper of the Twin Cities!) reported that "Police Chief Robert Olson said officers appeared to follow proper procedure. ‘Our plans went right down the line—by the book in fact,' he said."

The Disability Angle

Ablism (or "ableism") is ability prejudice plus power. It's the basis of the social oppression of people with disabilities. It is fairly universal for humans to fear things that seem strange or "different." By allowing the cultural myths of "normal" and "healthy" to continue unchallenged, we keep people with disabilities on the outside of mainstream society, where they appear to many as the frightening "other," and often become objects of derision, if not abuse, punishment, or death.

Bearing this in mind, it's difficult to avoid the suspicion that part of the explanation for Mr. Jeilani's death is the inability of Minneapolis police to deal humanely (or rationally) with people suffering from mental illness. That suspicion seems more plausible when we consider that Mr. Jeilani is the fourth person with mental illness killed by the force in the past three years. All were killed under questionable circumstances.

For those who think that the killing of Mr. Jeilani was simply a matter of bad police procedures for dealing with mental illness, keep reading.

The Race Angle

The Star Trib quoted a local Somalian woman as saying about Jeilani's shooting, "If he was a white guy, he is alive today. But he is not."

Clarence Hightower, president of the local branch of the Urban League, echoed the sentiment, adding, "I think the problem is [lack of] diversity in the Police Department, cultural sensitivity in the Police Department, and what we tolerate in racial profiling. Until those issues are resolved, we're going to be facing this time and time again."

So, at least two people with black skin have brought up the issue of racism in relation to Jeilani's death.

Although police shootings are not limited to people of color, by any means, it remains true that there is a long history of unjustified shootings of people of color by Minneapolis police. The names Tycel Nelson and Lawrence Miles—two African-American teenagers shot by Minneapolis police in recent years—are well-known among local anti-racists of all colors. Many more names could be mentioned. So I share the belief that Mr. Jeilani's chances would have been much better if he had white skin.

Racism is race prejudice plus power. When powerful institutions like the police inflict different treatment on people because they are members of "minority" groups, it is appropriate to use the word "racism" to help us understand what is going on. It is a descriptive word in this case, not an inflammatory epithet.

The Immigrant Angle

Here's another comment about Jeilani's death, this one from St. Paul Civil Rights director Tyrone Terrill: "He was shot because he was black. We need to be clear it wasn't about Somalia. It's like Malcolm said, it wasn't about Muslim or Christian. They're not going to stop you and ask you if you're Somalian. The issue is the color of your skin."

Here Mr. Terrill veers off into dangerous territory. To acknowledge the reality of racism does not require us to diminish the reality of anti-immigrant xenophobia. We need to struggle against both of them. In fact, Mr. Jeilani had black skin, and he was also Somalian, and he also suffered with a mental illness. In recalling him, we cannot split him apart, just as we in the community cannot allow ourselves to be split into separate groups, competing against each other.

Xenophobia is the fear and hatred of strangers or those defined as "foreign." In the post-September 11th world, many Minnesotans are suspicious, if not downright hostile, toward all immigrants. Somalians in particular are feared and mistrusted, despite the fact that Minnesota now has the largest Somalian population in the United States—some 25,000 people.

The Bush administration would have us believe that the country of Somalia "has links" to "terrorism," and thus bears "close watching" by U.S. citizens, a dangerous impression furthered by such propaganda as the #1 Hit Movie "Black Hawk Down." Minnesotans are no different from other Americans, who are rather famous for failing to distinguish between the politics of a nation and the people who live there. In my city this translates into a very threatening environment for Somalians, particularly when members of the majority don't raise their voices in dissent.

The recent shutting down of Somali money-transfer operations by the Bush administration has inflicted massive suffering by preventing recent immigrants from sending much-needed support to desperate family members "back home." I have witnessed very little outrage on the part of "white" Minnesotans to this Bush Administration policy. (As always, there are a few heroic exceptions to the rule, notably the folks over at the National Lawyers Guild – see Nygaard Notes #145.)

Just last week the U.S. deported 30 Somali immigrants (10 from Minnesota) back to Mogadishu. Robin Phillips of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights was quoted as saying that the sending of refugees into dangerous situations "violates a whole raft of international human rights conventions," including many that the United States has signed.

Beyond the legal issue, the sending of these people back to a chaotic country with no functioning government, where they may be suspected of being U.S. agents, places these people in very real danger. None were accused of any connection to terrorism. Yet this likely illegal process also failed to arouse any discernible outcry among the majority of Minnesotans, as far as I could tell. I'm not sure it was even noticed by most people. I've gotten surprised looks from some "white" people when I've mentioned it.

A recent study by the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News revealed that Minneapolis police shot more suspects than any other of the six comparably-sized cities that they looked at. "Minneapolis police shot 29 people since 1995, killing 12. Cincinnati police shot 22 people, 13 fatally," the Daily News reported last April. I remember being given a hard time by friends in Philadelphia in the 1970s because they had heard of the reputation of Minneapolis cops for racism and brutality.

The death of Abu Kassim Jeilani is another brick in the wall of distrust between the citizens of Minneapolis and our police. The death of Abu Kassim Jeilani presents an opportunity for people of good will to raise their voices for a change in the culture that allows tragedies like this to happen over and over. Elsewhere in this issue I give ideas of what you can do.

Why To Speak Up and What You Can Do

Having lived in Minneapolis for almost 28 years, mostly in the lower-rent parts of town, I have seen innumerable instances of police harassment and abuse directed towards citizens. The overwhelming number of the incidents I have witnessed were directed towards people of color.

Too often police violence is directed against people of color, and too often it is only, or primarily, people of color who speak up about it. This is shameful, but it's not only shameful. It also has practical effects for people of color, and really for all of us, on the streets and in our homes.

One of the practical effects of such silence on the part of so-called "white" people is that it allows our political leaders to continue to think of police brutality and abuse of power as "their" problem. "They" being anyone who is not "white," need I say. This fundamentally racist dynamic cannot be undone without the active engagement of the majority "white" population. And our silence allows it to keep working.

In a state like Minnesota, where political leadership remains largely in the hands of those of European descent, white supremacy is so ingrained that the voices of people of color are typically given little weight, if they are heard at all.

There are many "majority" people—so-called "white," native-born, English-speaking, able-bodied—who are upset about the needless death of Mr. Jeilani and the deeper problems of which it is a symbol. I know because I have spoken with a number of them. I fear that not enough of us are taking the time to speak up in the community, however.

Show Up, Speak Out

There will be a march and rally on Saturday, March 23rd, starting at the intersection where Mr. Jeilani was killed—Franklin and Chicago Avenues in Minneapolis—and ending at City Hall. the march is sponsored by the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul. For more information, call 651-602-9912.

In the meantime, take a moment to call your elected officials and tell them your opinion about the case. Write a letter to the newspaper, or call the local talk radio and say that you are paying attention and are concerned about the behavior of the police. Talk about the issue in your church group, your union, or with your friends. If you call the center mentioned above, I'm sure they will have other ideas of how you can help.

The important thing is to do something. History will record not only what happened on March 10th, but also how our community responded to it. By showing that our majority community has "zero tolerance" for brutality against any member of our community, a loud chorus of solidarity with this particular victim of the Minneapolis police will, ultimately, make the city safer for us all.