Protesters made a collection of demands and shut down a downtown Rapid City street on the Fourth of July. The protest focused on policing of the local Native community. Now, police are responding to these pleas.
The march was nonviolent, though it demonstrated clear gaps between some members of the Native community and local law enforcement.
The protest was organized by Rapid City-based Native advocacy group NDN Collective. Sunny Red Bear is a local organizer with the group who gave a list of demands at a press conference before the march.
“Number one is ending the killing of indigenous people by police," Red Bear said. "Two, an immediate civil rights inquiry into the Rapid City Police Department and Pennington County Sheriff's Office. Three, release of all body camera footage. Four, the removal of school resource officers. Five, rescind SB-4. Six, defund the police and increase community-controlled education programming and funding. And seven, third-party investigations of police and sheriffs’ offices.”
SB-4 is a South Dakota law that allows the court system to recommend repeat juvenile offenders to the state Department of Corrections.
In response, RCPD spokesperson Brendyn Medina focused on the scope of these issues.
“We’ve heard their demands loud and clear, and the reality is it’s going to take more agencies than just the Rapid City Police Department and Pennington County Sheriffs’ Office to come to the table," Medina said. "We’re willing to be at that table moving forward – but it’s going to take more than just us.”
The Pennington County Sheriffs’ Office did not return request for comment.
Medina said good communication from both parties kept the march in order.
“In terms of peaceful demonstration – or what you’d call a peaceful protest – this was a pretty good example of that," Medina said. "For the majority of the event, the demonstrators and people participating in it did a good job of marshalling themselves. They definitely had public safety in mind too with many of their participants, and we were just very, very thankful for their collaboration in ensuring this demonstration went off in the safest way possible.”
In the days leading up to the demonstration, then-mayor Steve Allender declared a “public safety warning” and encouraged the public to report what he called “suspicious activity.”
