Minneapolis park police officers pulled their guns and detained four black boys who were hanging out in a local park after responding to a bogus 911 call.
Facebook user, Brianna Lindell, was at the park with her partner and tried to de-escalate the situation. She recorded and posted a video of the incident to Facebook.
“Today at Minnehaha Falls cops drew guns on four black kids ages, probably ranging from 9-12. When my partner and I arrived the kids were being harassed by a young white guy, who appeared to be around 17 years old,” Lindell said. “He was spouting racial slurs at them and aggressing them with a metal trash can lid and saying he had a knife. A girl with him was on her phone, I’m assuming with police.”
Lindell said the police officer refused to allow one of the boys to put his shirt back on, and said that cops immediately jump out of the car with their guns loaded and ready when they arrived at the scene.
“We walked further and heard shouting and when we came back around, we saw a squad car. Two of the children were handcuffed and in front of the squad car,” Lindell said. “One was begging for his shirt on the ground because he was being bitten by mosquitos. My partner tossed him his shirt and a cop jumped out of the squad car and started yelling at us that we were interfering with an arrest.”
She continued: “Both cops had jumped out of their cars, guns already drawn, with the guns right in the children’s faces.”
Lindell said the incident mirrors other events where white people call the cops on black people for no reason. “That’s what white people do now, they use the cops as their own personal service,” Lindell said in the video.
The police department said that they are investigating the situation and that the kids are now safe.
“The children in the video are safe and with their families,” Minneapolis Park Board President Brad Bourn wrote on Facebook. “The best thing the Park Board can do is invest in our kids and provide them a fun, positive, structured activities to engage in. For the last decade, investment in our youth has been virtually stagnant.”