Black Lives Matter Starbucks!

The family of Dontre Hamilton, the young man who was shot fourteen times by a police officer and killed outside a Starbucks Coffee shop, tonight first saw police photos taken right after shooting. The pictures, close-up of the police officer, reveal no scars and bruises, although he claimed he shot Dontre out of self defense when Dontre had grabbed the club that he was beating him with. Dontre’s autopsy shows he was severely beaten before he was shot.

However, the rally for Justice for Dontre tonight was not about the police officer but about Starbucks who has a coffee shop in Red Arrow Park County Park. It was Starbuck employees who keep calling police about Dontre sleeping on a county park bench. The responding police told them not to call any more since Dontre was doing nothing wrong by being on the park bench. However, a third police officer, the one whose beat includes this park, came along later and without even talking to Starbucks employees or checking past police reports woke Dontre up, padded him down, took out his club and severely beat Dontre. When Dontre grabbed the police club, in self defense, the police officer, out of fear he claimed,took out his gun and shot Dontre fourteen times, including shots in his back and when Dontre was down. Eight months after the incident the District Attorney cleared the office of all charges in Dontre’s death.

The family has not given up seeking justice and tonight took the struggle to Starbucks. We entered the coffee shop, singing and read a letter to the company president condemning the profiling of this young black male and asking him not to hire racist employees like the ones that kept calling police on Dontre.

In the park there is also a public skating rink whose skate rental place shares the same space as Starbucks. After a while when police and sheriff deputies appeared, we took the struggle outside marching in chanting in front of Starbucks. We continue the marching and chanting for awhile and at one time just stared in at the people inside enjoying their coffee drink as nothing had happened as were the skaters circling around the rink outside. But something had happened, and as a result of Starbucks employee profiling, a black man’s life was taken by a white police officer. The three family members present did a die-in for fourteen minutes, one for each of the fourteen shots and eventually with a final plea for treating all people as family and that all lives mattered we prayed and disbanded. Black lives matter more than Starbucks black coffee.

The skating were on, around and around, and the black coffee kept being poured into cups but maybe someone heard our cry that “Black Lives Matter” and a young man should not have been killed for sleeping on a park bench.

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