MOA Protest Update

You may have caught Dunken's story yesterday about a group planning a protest at Mall of America during the busiest shopping day of the year. MOA has now stated its plan for those who break the mall's policies.

Mall of America is private property in the city of Bloomington. Because of a lawsuit in 1999, court action won by the mall (State v Wicklund), the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that the Mall of America is not a place for groups – regardless of cause or message – to protest or demonstrate. MOA has stepped up their response, stating that violators of mall policy will be arrested and banned from the mall for one year. While the mall has no issue with the group gathering in the lot directly across from MOA, "Black Lives Matter" says these are just "steps of intimidation," and have changed the way they'll convey their message; Instead of "protesting," they're planning on "caroling" in the mall's main rotunda for a #BlackXmas. There's even a carol, check it out here (BlackLivesMatter Facebook).

Catchy, though I think I'll have to practice that a couple times before I get all the words right.

The protest is one of many sparked by the controversial deaths of black men in Ferguson and New York. The group says they will not be intimidated or silenced -- and that they have no plans to cancel or move the event. Michael McDowell, an organizer with Black Lives Matter, says the goal is to make shoppers stop and think.
"When people are stopped like that they are forced to just sit with that message and figure out why they're stopped and figure out why they can't move down the hallway as fast," - much like they did on I-35, when they marched down the freeway, blocking traffic for several hours on December 4th.

Check out more on the story here (myfoxtwincities.com)

**NOTE** The following is my editorial of this story.  If you support this protest and can not tolerate a differing opinion, please refrain from reading the below opinion, as I do not wish to force my message by not warning you first.

Don't misunderstand what I'm trying to say; we are fortunate enough to live in a place where protest is not only allowed but encouraged! But do you think people will embrace or shun your message if they're FORCED to listen to it? Regardless of how passionate your message is about the lives that were lost, do you think those forced to sit on the freeway for hours felt more or less sympathy for those you're speaking for? Do you think that will change when you FORCE them to listen to you again during the busiest day of the year?

And why do only black lives matter? Are we to believe that excessive force is not happening to other races? What about excessive force to this Mexican(KDVR-Denver)? Does police brutality to this man NOT matter because he's NOT black? Your group's name is giving that answer, regardless of your stance.

Life is life, death is death, no matter the color. Many would contend preaching racism takes away the meaning of life for those who perished, as race becomes more important than the individual. The question is: Is that the goal or the consequence?