When news of Alton Sterling\u2019s killing at the hands of Baton Rouge police spread \u2026 and then the next day killing of Philando Castile here in Falcon Heights \u2013 again at the hands of police \u2013 Rep. Keith Ellison took them personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ellison, who represents Minnesota\u2019s 5th Congressional District, said when he heard the news he thought: \u201cThat could have been one of my three sons.\u201d In fact, in the wake of the uprising following the killing of Jamar Clark at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, it almost was<\/em> one of his sons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy son came face-to-face with an officer pointing a riot gun at his head,\u201d said Ellison, discussing the freighting incident involving his son, Jeremiah Ellison, who was protesting the killing of Clark. \u201cThat was a deeply disturbing moment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully, Ellison\u2019s son survived his encounter with police. Countless others have not. And because of the all too common killings of Black, Brown and Native people at the hands of police, Ellison is calling for change. But the legislator admits the change he seeks won\u2019t come easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t get here overnight,\u201d said Ellison, who looked visibly tormented when discussing the issue. \u201cThis is a problem with a lot of history. It sparked the riots of the 1960s; then we had Rodney King and it continues today. But it seems it\u2019s a problem no one really wants to solve. I mean these things happen (issues of police brutality) and we may get a civilian review board to hold police accountable, but the second you take your eye off the problem, the board somehow goes away and it\u2019s business as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ellison said he knows it is not all police that are committing acts of brutality \u2026 and in many cases \u2026 homicide, but he said the actions of few have soiled the entire image of law enforcement when it comes to communities of color; and in particular, poorer communities of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost police go to work to help people. I truly believe that,\u201d said Ellison. \u201cBut at the same time, in economically disadvantage neighborhoods we continue to have these instances of abuse of power. We don\u2019t see that in Kenwood (an exclusive neighborhood of Minneapolis) or in Edina \u2026 unless it\u2019s against a Black person, who they don\u2019t think has the means to be in those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ellison said Castile\u2019s stop was most likely solely based on Castile\u2019s skin color. Falcon Heights is a city that is more than 90 percent white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think the officer thought he could pull Philando over and it wouldn\u2019t matter at all. No one would care,\u201d said Ellison. \u201cPeople perceived as lower income bear the brunt of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legislatively, Ellison is calling for Congress to pass his co-sponsored Police Accountability Act along with other legislation concerning body cameras, prompt release of any video footage of alleged brutality and uniformed training guidelines for law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ellison said he will be drumming up support for legislation this week during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When news of Alton Sterling\u2019s killing at the hands of Baton Rouge police spread \u2026 and then the next day killing of Philando Castile here in Falcon Heights \u2013 again at the hands of police \u2013 Rep. Keith Ellison took them personal. Ellison, who represents Minnesota\u2019s 5th Congressional District, said when he heard the news […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[959,29,2703],"class_list":["post-4343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-keith-ellison","tag-minnesota","tag-philando-castile","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-17.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4345,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4343\/revisions\/4345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}