http://www.startribune.com/police-u...-chant-at-black-lives-matter-march/323465911/
A short video posted on Twitter shows that at one point in the march, at least several protesters were at the front carrying a banner and shouting, “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon!” as the camera pans to show police on bikes, squad cars and a utility vehicle.
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The man who shot the video, who wanted to be identified only as Niko, said the chant occurred near the end of the demonstration as protesters walked away from the fairgrounds. He said it lasted about 30 seconds, and he added that when the chanting ended, a police officer laughed and made a joke about bacon.
Rashad Turner, the lead organizer of Black Lives Matter St. Paul, who helped set up the protest, said the chant was not a threat against officers’ lives.
“It was a chant,” Turner said. “I think that the crazy thing is that there’s all this uproar about rhetoric but there isn’t uproar about the facts. … Just because they provide us with their self-appointed escort does not mean it erases the fact that they are the deadliest police department in the state.”
Beginning in 2009, St. Paul police have shot and killed 11 men, nine of whom were people of color. No other law enforcement agency in Minnesota has used deadly force more often over the past six years.
Saturday’s march was the latest in a series of Black Lives Matter rallies and protests around the country, which have largely centered on police brutality in the aftermath of police killings of black men and women across the country.
Monday afternoon, when asked about the chant by an anchorwoman on CNN, Turner restated his concern that too much focus was being placed on “rhetoric.”
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When asked by CNN if the chant by protesters in St. Paul Saturday incites violence, Turner said that the Black Lives Matter movement does not condone violent acts.
“We do not want to see black people being killed,” Turner told the Star Tribune. “We don’t want to see cops being killed.”