Notice of Press Conference on Thursday, 07/03 at 11 am at Hennepin County Gov't Center
July 2, 2025
MEDIA ADVISORY
Media Contact: Nekima Levy Armstrong
Email: nekimalevyarmstrong@gmail.com
Phone: 612-598-0559
Black Parents and Community Leaders to Hold Press Conference in Response to Recent Gun Violence
Minneapolis, MN — On Thursday, July 3rd at 11:00 a.m., a coalition of Black parents, youth-serving organizations, and community members will hold a press conference at the Hennepin County Government Center to raise urgent concerns about the recent surge in gun violence impacting local families.
In the past several weeks, multiple young Black women—some of them mothers—have been murdered at public gatherings, including parks. Most recently, a Black child was shot and killed near a park, deepening the grief and trauma experienced by the community.
“Parks should be safe spaces for children and families to gather, play, and enjoy life,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, civil rights attorney and founder of the Racial Justice Network. “Instead, we are seeing these spaces become sites of violence and tragedy. Enough is enough.”
Raeisha Williams, Executive Director of Guns Down Love Up, added:
“We are burying Black women and men while those in power bury their responsibility. This isn’t just a public safety failure—it’s a moral one. Our lives are being sacrificed while gun traffickers roam free. We don’t need more thoughts and prayers—we need action and accountability.”
Satara Strong-Allen, Executive Director of Love First, emphasized the importance of healing over harm:
“It’s time to break the cycle. We must teach and practice conflict resolution and restorative approaches to heal our communities—rather than internalize white supremacist ideologies that condition us to meet harm with more harm.”
Gun violence continues to be a crisis in Black communities, leaving behind devastation, fear, and countless unsolved cases. In response, organizers will issue a heartfelt plea:
- To young people: Put the guns down. The harm and loss are too great to ignore.
- To parents and caregivers: Stay vigilant about your children’s whereabouts and peer groups—especially with the Fourth of July weekend approaching.
- To public officials: Crack down on gun traffickers who are flooding our streets with illegal weapons and fueling the violence claiming our loved ones.
WHAT: Press Conference on Gun Violence in the Black Community
WHEN: Thursday, July 3, 2025, at 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: Main lobby, Hennepin County Government Center
ADDRESS: 300 S. 6th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415
WHO:
- Racial Justice Network
- Guns Down Love Up
- Love First
- Black Lives Matter Minnesota
- Parents, youth advocates, and community members
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Target’s Role in Prosecutorial Harm and Mass Incarceration in Minneapolis and Hennepin County
A Receipts Brief to Accompany the Open Letter to the National Baptist Convention
Prepared by frontline organizers in Minneapolis | June 26, 2025
1. Target Funded the Prosecutors Who Over-Policed Black Youth
For years, Target Corporation directly funded the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) under County Attorneys Amy Klobuchar and Mike Freeman. These funds were earmarked for “community prosecution” and “retail crime,” but disproportionately resulted in the criminalization of poor Black neighborhoods in Minneapolis.
At the same time, Target developed close relationships with Minneapolis Police (MPD) through surveillance partnerships like SafeZone, sharing private security footage, and helping fund downtown policing strategies that targeted Black youth and homeless people.
Bottom Line: Target used its wealth and power to demand criminal convictions, fund surveillance-heavy partnerships, and disproportionately criminalize Black communities. Target was not a passive donor. It helped design and promote these prosecutorial initiatives in partnership with local law enforcement.
2. Black Children Were Caught in the Crosshairs:
Target’s financial and strategic influence helped fuel a system that over-criminalized and incarcerated Black teens.
Three Known Cases of Harm
Myon Burrell
- Arrested at age 16 in a high-profile case during Klobuchar’s term as County Attorney.
- Convicted despite lack of physical evidence, with the case later deemed deeply flawed.• Sentence commuted in 2020 after public outcry, organizing, and investigative reporting by the Associated Press.
- Myon served 18 years in prison and is now seeking full exoneration.
Mahdi Ali
- Arrested at 15 years old, and tried as an adult—sentenced to life in prison.
- Target’s influence extended to the trial, where a so-called forensic expert with ties to the company provided key testimony.
- Mahdi’s trial was marred by unreliable evidence and public outcry over wrongful conviction.
- A national campaign is underway to Free Mahdi Ali, now over a decade into a sentence for a crime he did not commit.
Marvin Haynes
- Convicted at age 17 after a deeply flawed case; eyewitness recanted; no physical evidence.
- Served 20 years in prison before his conviction was overturned in 2023.
- Awarded financial compensation after full exoneration.
These three young Black men are not isolated examples—they are emblematic of a system that Target helped fund and shape.
Between the 1990s and early 2000s:
- Prosecutorial practices in Hennepin County ramped up youth sentencing.
- Black boys were tried as adults and subjected to life-altering punishments.
- Surveillance and criminalization in downtown and North Minneapolis intensified.
From 1983 to 2018, Minnesota’s prison population grew by 306%, with Black residents incarcerated at 10× the rate of white residents.
3. The Political Payoff: From County Prosecutor to U.S. Senate
Amy Klobuchar’s aggressive prosecutorial record, bolstered by Target’s support, became a springboard for her political rise to the U.S. Senate. She built her reputation on being “tough on crime,” using cases like Myon Burrell’s to prove her credentials. It was not until public outcry that the flaws of her legacy were fully exposed.
Meanwhile, Black families and communities were left behind to deal with the consequences.
4. Target’s Alliance with MPD and Harsh Prosecutors
This is not a story of passive corporate philanthropy. This is a story of intentional influence over the justice system. Target helped fund and shape policing strategies in Minneapolis, including its controversial SafeZone program in downtown Minneapolis and surveillance partnerships with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD)—that same department that murdered George Floyd.
MPD has a well-documented history of:
- Racial profiling
- Excessive force
- Illegal stops and searches
- Abuses targeting Black youths and residents
Target’s partnership and financial investments legitimized and empowered this institution, even
as communities called for change.
Why This Matters Now
Target has never:
- Apologized to the families impacted
- Acknowledged its role in unjust prosecutions
- Taken accountability for the harm it funded and enabled
Instead, it has pivoted to DEI rollbacks and political payoffs—attempting to buy back Black trust with a $300,000 donation to the National Baptist Convention. As frontline leaders, we are demanding accountability—not just for what Target promised in 2020, but for what it enabled long before. The National Baptist Convention, and all Black institutions, must reckon with the full weight of this truth before aligning with any corporation that has caused this level of racial harm.
This Is About More Than Retail
This is about corporate complicity in mass incarceration and the systemic targeting of Black youth. Target’s complicity in mass incarceration is not just bad PR---it is a civil and human rights crisis.
- Black children were caged.
- Black families were torn apart.
- Black communities were devastated.
This was done with corporate backing, behind the scenes, in the very city where George Floyd was murdered.
We demand truth. We demand accountability. We demand justice that cannot be bought.
Citations
1. Target’s Funding of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office
Unicorn Riot – Target’s Relationship with Law Enforcement and Prosecutors
2. Myon Burrell Case
Associated Press – AP investigation casts doubt on teenager’s murder conviction
https://apnews.com/article/af6545f2945e43c2bd3c61e886907d4a
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder – Burrell family, activists push for full exoneration
https://spokesman-recorder.com/2021/10/13/myon-burrell-family-supporters-push-for-exoneration/
The Marshall Project – Klobuchar’s tough-on-crime legacy under scrutiny
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/02/28/the-burrell-affair
3. Marvin Haynes Case
CBS News – Marvin Haynes exonerated after nearly 20 years in prison
MPR News – Marvin Haynes awarded $1.2M after exoneration
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/12/19/marvin-haynes-awarded-compensation
4. Mahdi Ali Case
Unicorn Riot – Target-backed forensic testimony
FOX 9 – Family pushes for exoneration
https://www.fox9.com/news/mahdi-alis-family-ups-pressure-exoneration-2010-seward-market-killings
FOX 9 – "I’m Not the One" Interview
https://www.fox9.com/news/mahdi-ali-im-not-the-one.amp
5. Target’s Partnership with MPD + Prosecutors
DOJ Report (2023) – MPD’s history of racism and abuse
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1544536/download
Minnesota Reformer – Target’s SafeZone and surveillance partnerships
6. Incarceration Trends in Minnesota
Prison Policy Initiative – Minnesota Overview
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/MN.html
ACLU of Minnesota – Racial Disparities in Sentencing
https://www.aclu-mn.org/en/publications/unequal-justice
Open Letter to the National Baptist Convention
Open Letter to the National Baptist Convention
June 26, 2025
To the Leadership of the National Baptist Convention:
We write to you out of sacred responsibility and in the spirit of truth.
As Black, faith-rooted organizers and civil rights leaders based in Minneapolis—the very city where police stole George Floyd’s life—we have led the fight for racial justice, police accountability, and corporate responsibility before, during, and after the global uprisings of 2020.
On January 28, 2025, we—Nekima Levy Armstrong, Monique Cullars-Doty, and Jaylani Hussein—issued a national press release announcing a nationwide and indefinite boycott of Target, to begin on February 1, the first day of Black History Month. We launched the boycott with a press conference outside Target’s global headquarters in downtown Minneapolis—the very city where its betrayal began. Our action drew national press and a powerful, multiracial coalition.
Since then, the boycott has been successful, resulting in months of declining revenue and foot traffic, among other indicators. It has also inspired a wave of economic resistance actions across communities (i.e. The Latino Freeze, 40-Day Target Fast, Tesla Takedown, and actions by The People’s Union USA) and successfully pressured other corporations to recommit to DEI to avoid similar fallout.
We launched this boycott because Target quietly abandoned its $2.1 billion commitment to racial equity—a pledge made in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder to support Black-owned businesses, creators, and communities. Instead, the company eliminated diversity roles, severed ties with Black vendors, and dismantled its internal DEI infrastructure.
These rollbacks came amid mounting political pressure from the Trump administration, whose second term has accelerated attacks on Black history, racial equity, immigrant rights, voting rights, public education, dismantling DEI and civil rights offices across federal agencies, and reinstating aggressive federal policing support and militarization. Target’s alignment with authoritarian power was made even clearer when it made its first-ever donation to a presidential inaugural committee—contributing $1 million to the Trump-Vance inauguration.
But Target’s betrayal goes deeper.
Target has also played a disturbing role in reinforcing mass incarceration, particularly in Minneapolis and Hennepin County. For years, Target funded the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, working closely with former prosecutors Amy Klobuchar and Mike Freeman, and promoting a “tough-on-crime” agenda that disproportionately criminalized Black youth. That same office collaborated with the Minneapolis Police Department—a department known for its brutality and systemic racism, the very one that killed George Floyd.
This agenda helped produce several high-profile wrongful convictions of Black teenagers, including:
- Myon Burrell, convicted at 16 and imprisoned for over 18 years before his sentence was commuted in 2020 after investigative reporting by the Associated Press and an intense public campaign by Minneapolis activists demanding his release. He is now seeking full exoneration.
- Marvin Haynes, convicted in 2005 at age 16 for a murder he did not commit, based on a flawed process and coerced testimony. After spending nearly 20 years behind bars, he was fully exonerated in 2023 and later awarded a financial settlement for his unjust imprisonment.
- Mahdi Ali, arrested at 15 and sentenced to life in prison under deeply contested circumstances. His case involved junk science, questionable expert testimony, and heavy prosecutorial pressure. He has maintained his innocence for over a decade.
These are not isolated cases. They are part of a broader pattern of over-prosecution, harsh sentencing, and racial targeting—all backed by a corporate sponsor that profited while young Black lives were stolen. And yet, Target has never acknowledged its role. It has not apologized. It has not made amends.
Instead of meeting with the organizers of this boycott, Target has turned to familiar PR tactics: platforming figures like Pastor Jamal Bryant and Rev. Al Sharpton—neither of whom had any involvement in launching the boycott—as the public face of a movement they did not build.
Let us be clear, Pastor Jamal Bryant was fully aware of our boycott from the beginning. He received our press release and expressed interest in joining a coalition effort. But when it became clear that he intended to co-opt, rather than support, he was confronted—and responded with gaslighting and misdirection.
Over a month after our launch, Bryant repackaged our work as his own, created a separate campaign called the “40 Day Target Fast,” and misled the public and the press. He did not amplify our work. He erased it.
This is not a misunderstanding—it is misrepresentation.
And it reflects a long, painful history of Black women organizers being pushed aside, their labor claimed by male leaders seeking visibility or political favor. This is a painful and familiar pattern. Just as Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Septima Clark, and Diane Nash were sidelined during the Civil Rights Movement, Black women organizers today continue to face erasure, co-optation, and disrespect—even within our own institutions.
A Call to Conscience
We urge the National Baptist Convention to reconsider its alignment with a corporation that has caused such profound harm.
Target has:
- Rolled back its public commitments to Black communities,
- Funded and enabled the mass incarceration of Black youth,
- Aligned itself with authoritarian politics and the Trump administration,
This $300,000 payment does not heal—it deepens the wound. It appears to be a payout for silence and an attempt to regain Black consumer trust without accountability. Can the moral authority of the Black Church be bought for $300,000?
Who does the National Baptist Convention answer to—God, or corporations that bow to authoritarian leaders?
We are not here to be placated.
We are not here to be silenced.
We are here because justice requires truth. And the truth must be told—by those who carry its weight, not those sent to soften its edge.
The future of our people cannot be brokered behind closed doors. We will not allow it.
We call on the National Baptist Convention to:
- Return the $300,000 payment from Target as a public act of moral leadership.
- Refuse to act as intermediaries for corporations seeking image repair without accountability.
- Reject the corporate erasure of grassroots Black leadership—past and present.
- Demand a full reinstatement of Target’s racial equity commitments.
- Call for an official apology from Target to Black communities harmed by their actions.
- Support the release and full exoneration of those unjustly imprisoned—including Mahdi Ali—whose case reflects the brutal toll of corporate-funded prosecution.
In truth and solidarity,
Nekima Levy Armstrong
Civil Rights Attorney | Founder, Racial Justice Network | Former Minneapolis NAACP President
Monique Cullars-DotyCo-founder, Black Lives Matter Minnesota | National Racial Justice Organizer
Jaylani Hussein
Executive Director, CAIR-Minnesota | Human Rights Advocate
Black Voters Want Better Policing, Not Posturing by Progressives. New York Times Article by Nekima Levy Armstrong.
November 9, 2021
Black Voters Want Better Policing, Not Posturing by Progressives by Dr. Nekima Levy Armstrong
(Featured in the New York Times)
MINNEAPOLIS — This city always prided itself for being a progressive place where everyone could thrive. At least, that was true for white people. Black residents all too often faced persistent racism and inequality — in education, homeownership, income and employment — and in the way the police treated us.
For years, the Minneapolis police have persistently abused Black residents, even children. Several years ago I saw a white officer confront a Black boy who looked to be about 10, grab him by his shirt and slam him against the hood of a police car. I confronted the officer and notified the white police chief at the time. The chief shrugged as if there was nothing he could do.
It took the police murder of George Floyd last year, and an uprising by outraged residents, to finally call attention to the brutality and injustice Black people face every day here and around the country.
Those of us who had long fought for a reckoning over police abuse in Minneapolis expected to see a critical examination of the practices, laws, policies, contractual requirements and spending that undergird policing. We expected a well-thought-out, evidence-based, comprehensive plan to remake our police department.
Instead, what we got was progressive posturing of a kind seen throughout the country and a missed opportunity to bring about real change and racial justice.
This was made plain last week when voters rejected a proposal to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety. While many white progressives embraced the ballot measure as a sign of progress, many Black residents like me raised concerns that the plan lacked specificity and could reduce public safety in the Black community without increasing police accountability. The city’s largest Black neighborhoods voted it down, while support was greater in areas where more white liberals lived.
The measure would have removed from the City Charter a requirement for a minimum number of police officers per resident and enacted “a comprehensive public health approach” to public safety “which could include licensed peace officers (police officers), if necessary.” (Emphasis added.) It would have also diluted the mayor’s power over the police by having the chief executive and the City Council share control, and would not have required the head of the proposed new department to have any law enforcement experience.
The proposal would have almost certainly created a cascade of unintended consequences that would have harmed Black residents by reducing the number of police officers and the quality of oversight without creating an effective alternative.
Supporters of the measure held no public hearings about it and made little effort to listen to Black residents’ concerns or the opinions of experts. The main issue that many Black people were worried about — the significant increase in gun violence, carjackings and homicides here in the past year or so — was largely ignored.
“Nothing about us without us,” opponents of the measure said, demanding a role in decision-making to make sure that any solution accounted for both Black people’s complex and troubling relationship with the police as well as the disproportionate damage crime and violence do to our communities.
Black voters were especially wary because the City Council members who pushed the measure had done little to rein in the Minneapolis Police Department over the years. The pledge that nine of them made to dismantle the department shortly after Mr. Floyd was killed was more about “looking” progressive to national and international audiences than about transforming policing in ways that most Black residents wanted.
The months of protests around the country and around the world motivated by George Floyd’s killing were intense and electrifying. But the aftermath of those protests help tell the real story. Far too many progressives took the route of proposing quick fixes, like simply cutting police funding, to address complex, longstanding challenges to policing. As election results in Minneapolis, New York City and elsewhere have shown, that’s not what the majority of Black people want.
What many Black people are demanding is a system that is effective, cost-efficient, non-militarized and transparent. We want officials to be accountable for who is hired, how they are disciplined and how they treat us. We want police leaders to admit that racism, white supremacy and misogyny are endemic in many police forces and we want them to commit to radically shift police culture.
For that to happen, there must be a re-examination of the purposes, practices, expenditures and almost unfettered power and discretion of the police. To responsibly reduce spending, elected officials must conduct a real cost/benefit analysis of hiring numerous officers to focus on low-level crime, traffic stops (as in the cases of Daunte Wright and Philando Castile), and small quantities of cannabis, to name a few. This would ultimately mean eliminating or reducing low-level traffic stops, repealing criminal laws and ordinances that do not improve public safety, and making a commitment to end the war on drugs.
Police departments must establish an early-warning system to flag problem officers and a robust disciplinary system when officers violate the law and people’s rights. Instead of continuing to allow police departments to investigate themselves when officers kill people, states should establish a special prosecutor’s office to investigate claims and bring charges when appropriate.
Police departments should analyze data to decide where officers are needed most and even where other resources, like mental health professionals, should be assigned. Receiving input and oversight from the public are important components to shifting police culture, as well as listening to Black people and taking our concerns seriously.
Black lives need to be valued not just when unjustly taken by the police, but when we are alive and demanding our right to be heard, to breathe, to live in safe neighborhoods and to enjoy the full benefits of our status as American citizens.
That all takes hard work, not just rhetoric, political posturing, and empty promises.
Dr. Nekima Levy Armstrong is a civil-rights lawyer and the founder of the Racial Justice Network and executive director of the Wayfinder Foundation.
The Racial Justice Network (RJN) is a multi-racial, grassroots organization, committed to fighting for racial justice and building bridges across racial, social, and economic lines. racialjusticenetwork.com
Myon Burrell is free
Tuesday, December 15th 2020 was an HISTORIC day for racial justice in Minnesota.
From the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder...
"Myon Burrell 34, who has spent the last 18 years of his life for a crime he insists he did not commit, may be home as soon as Tuesday night. The Minnesota Board of Pardons Tuesday voted unanimously to commute his life sentence to 20 years. Since he has already served 18 years, he will serve the remainder of his sentence on supervised release."
“It was powerful and refreshing to hear that the panel of prominent legal experts who
undertook extensive review of Myon Burrell’s case echoed calls from Myon’s family and the
community for his immediate release,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, who along with her
Racial Justice Network organization has worked to bring attention to this case."
Many activists from Minnesota, and around the nation, have been working together to fight for Myon's freedom for years. Efforts lead by Myon's sister Ianna, have gained national attention and support through social media campaigns, rallies, and community gatherings to raise awareness about Myon's innocence.
More information on Myon's story, along with ways to support and continue the fight, can be found here: website myonburrell.com
Myon will need our support as a community. Here is the link to his GoFundMe: gf.me/u/zcy6r9
https://spokesman-recorder.com/2020/12/15/free-at-last-myon-burrell-is-coming-home/