MINNEAPOLIS — Five people were ticketed and all were released from jail after a protest on Interstate 94 in Minneapolis at the Lowry Tunnel on Monday.
There is one misdemeanor charge for obstructing a public highway and four charges of interfering with police.
The Minnesota State Patrol arrested eight people for blocking the eastbound lanes of I-94 with their cars.
These types of protests trigger strong reactions from those on both sides: the protesters and those stuck in the backup.
Between 2015 and 2020, protesters aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement on several occasions marched onto Minnesota freeways — blocking traffic as a method of spreading their message.
Monday night on I-94, at the Lowery Tunnel, that sort of tactic again took shape as pro-Palestine demonstrators ended up blocking traffic for an hour.
One of the men arrested said that they were in a car caravan — not marching onto the highway.
"There was no total stoppage of traffic on I-94 until the state patrol came and blocked traffic," said Wyatt Miller.
Regardless, a state patrol spokesperson said in a statement:
"We support the right to exercise one's First Amendment rights, but the freeway is not the place to do so. The closure of an interstate freeway for the purposes of a demonstration is unacceptable."
It's also illegal to block traffic on a freeway in Minnesota.
Miller believes what they did is being mischaracterized.
"That was a political decision, and we see it as an attack on our right to protest and an act of repression against the movement in solidarity with Palestine," Miller said.
Law enforcement leaders believe there should be zero tolerance for blocking freeways.
"It's so unpredictable and its so unsafe," said public safety consultant and former St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell.
Axtell points out that police often allow protests that block city streets.
"And sometimes allow lower level laws to be broken in order to facilitate some of those activities," Axtell said. "But again, when those activities are occurring on the freeway, that's when you have to draw that hard line."
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota in our YouTube playlist:
WATCH MORE ON KARE 11+
Download the free KARE 11+ app for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and other smart TV platforms to watch more from KARE 11 anytime! The KARE 11+ app includes live streams of all of KARE 11's newscasts. You'll also find on-demand replays of newscasts; the latest from KARE 11 Investigates, Breaking the News and the Land of 10,000 Stories; exclusive programs like Verify and HeartThreads; and Minnesota sports talk from our partners at Locked On Minnesota.
- Add KARE 11+ on Roku here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Roku Channel Store.
- Add KARE 11+ on Fire TV here or by searching for KARE 11 in the Amazon App Store.
- Learn more about the KARE 11+ app for Apple TV in the Apple App Store.
- Learn more about KARE 11+ here.