The St. Paul affiliate of Black Lives Matter held a peaceful protest and march Sunday Oct. 4 near the finish line of the Twin Cities Marathon to protest multiple grievances against racial injustices.

Though unsanctioned with the national movement known as Black Lives Matter, the St. Paul chapter has been in the local and national news for their protests over the last two months. The Oracle attempted to contact the national organization for a comment but were unsuccessful in doing so.

The group originally entered the news when they led a peaceful protest outside of the Minnesota State Fair on August 29, with police shutting down Snelling Avenue for a few hours to allow the protesters a traffic-free march to the fair. After the fair, the group staged a ‘die-in’ on the Snelling overpass of Energy Park Drive to bring further attention to those minorities who have been killed by police.

BLM St. Paul returned to the spotlight September 20, as they shut down the Metro Green Line trains between the Dale Street and Hamline Avenue stations before the Minnesota Vikings game against the Detroit Lions. They were protesting against the Metro Transit police for their responsibility in the injuries of Marcus Abrams, a 17-year old autistic black man who, according to the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP, was “brutally assaulted” by Transit Police officers.

The march today was in response to the killing of Philip Quinn, a 30-year old Minneapolis man who was killed by police on Sep. 24 who were responding to a report that Quinn was suicidal. The officers involved, Joe LaBathe and Rich McGuire, have been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into the case.

As reported in several news sources including the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press, the marchers had previously been dissuaded from their original intention of shutting down the marathon after a meeting between Rashad Turner, Hamline alum and protest organizer, and St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman.

Before beginning their march to the finish line of the marathon, protesters met in Boyd Park to speak to anyone who would listen. One of Philip Quinn’s aunts spoke to the crowd at the park. She talked about her little sister and her feelings about the police after this shooting.

“We try to raise our kids to trust the police; when you need help, call 911. That’s not the case no more. My baby is scared, there’s other little kids out here scared and they shouldn’t be scared. You call them for help, not for hell. You call them to save the situation, not make it worse,” she said.

Activist Mel Reeves was last to speak. He spoke out against “the system” and against the ideas that black people don’t care about what is going on in their communities.

“The same system encourages us to shoot one another in our community. They tell you you ain’t nobody, they make it so you can’t be successful, they put every roadblock in your way. And then they want to blame you for your own failure when they’re making it as difficult as possible for us to be successful,” he said.

After a song was played, the protesters left the park and headed towards the finish line of the marathon, with police quickly redirecting traffic around the group.

As they marched, they shouted slogans like “No justice, no peace, prosecute the police” and “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now!”

As the group arrived at the marathon site and began their demonstration, runners were seen to be holding their fists up in solidarity with the protesters. The protest remained peaceful throughout and no arrests had been made at the time of publication.