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U.S. NEWS Monday 5 February 2018
Protesters block trains near Super Bowl, march on stadium

By STEVE KARNOWSKI social injustice.
Associated Press “We kneel, we stand, we
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Po- fight,” they chanted. “If we
lice arrested 17 activists don’t get no justice, you
who blocked a light-rail don’t get no peace.”
line carrying Super Bowl Squad cars cleared the
ticketholders to U.S. Bank streets ahead of the pro-
Stadium on Sunday in a cession as part of an op-
protest against police bru- eration that included top
tality and privileges en- officials in the Minneapolis
joyed by wealthy visitors Police Department includ-
that shut down trains for ing Chief Medaria Arra-
more than two hours. dondo, the city’s first black
Live video from the scene police chief, who took over
showed officers unlocking last year amid the political
or cutting through locks fallout over a pair of fatal
the protesters had used to police shootings in the city.
chain themselves to each “As chief I’m certainly
other and to fencing at Protesters chained themselves to fences and to each other to aware that there are con-
form a human blockade along light rail tracks at the West Bank
the West Bank Station on Station in Minneapolis near U.S. Bank Stadium prior to the start cerns that our community
Metro Transit’s Green Line. of Super Bowl LII on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minn. has had for a long time,
The handcuffed protest- Associated Press and will still have after the
ers were loaded onto a took a knee outside a secu- a movement by kneeling Super Bowl leaves town in a
waiting bus. Metro Transit rity gate in imitation of Co- during the national anthem few hours,” Arradondo said
spokesman Howie Padilla lin Kaepernick. The former in 2016, which sparked fur- in an interview just before
said officials didn’t expect 49ers quarterback started ther player protests about the march.q
the 17 activists to face
charges. Metro Transit re-
spects people’s right to
free speech and demon-
stration, he said.
Metro Transit used buses
to ferry passengers around
the blockage, and Padilla
said the agency was con-
fident spectators would
reach the game before
kickoff. The shutdown start-
ed about 2:15 p.m., and
the stop was finally cleared
about two hours later.
Chinyere Tutashinda, a
spokeswoman for the ac-
tivists, said they were pro-
testing police brutality, as
well as the light-rail lines
being set aside solely for
Super Bowl ticketholders
on Sunday. Non-ticketh-
olders had to use buses to
get around the metro area
instead.
The Green and Blue lines
were a major route for
many fans to get to Sun-
day’s game, with secu-
rity screening done before
passengers boarded.
The light-rail shutdown
came as Black Lives Matter
and several other groups
staged rallies to protest
police brutality and corpo-
rate greed.
About 300 people gath-
ered at a park as tem-
peratures hovered around
2 above zero with wind
chills in the subzero teens
and marched peacefully
a couple miles to the sta-
dium, where most of them