On Friday, March 3, the following letter was mailed to Gov. Mark Dayton, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau. It was also read to the staff at Freeman’s office by members of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar Clark. As we wrote to them, we feel that everybody should know everything, so we are sharing it here.

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Dear Governor Dayton, County Attorney Freeman and Police Chief Harteau,

Our names are James and Wilma Clark, and we are the parents of Jamar Clark, who was killed by Minneapolis police on November 15, 2015. We are writing you today because we want justice for our son. That can only happen with an open trial, and no grand jury. We feel that everybody should know everything that went on.

We are upset and sad. We don’t understand why this happened. If this had happened on the streets, we could halfway understand it. But the police did this, people who are supposed to protect and serve. That’s not right. We don’t understand why they used deadly force. Shooting someone in the head, that is deadly force.

We just want justice for Jamar. We want the police officers to pay for what they did. They know what they did. Our son is gone, and we want to see somebody pay for what they did. They didn’t have to take his life.

There is just no way that Jamar would have brought this on himself, because he knew the consequences of his actions. He was a young man who had his whole life in front of him. We feel the police are just covering up for mistakes they made. With anyone else, if that had been their son or daughter, they’d want the truth to come out about why deadly force was used. Jamar deserved to live just like anybody else, regardless of the color of skin.

A lot of people are scared of the police. Why should you be afraid of them? They’re supposed to serve and protect. But they don’t serve & protect, they go around destroying. We want a change. We want to be treated like everybody else, respected, loved & treated like a person, not a wild animal. In many ways, they say that’s what we are, but we are human beings. We love our family, we love our kids. We like to have fun, to take a vacation, or hang out in the park … just like everybody else.

We pray to God, and hope the truth comes out. That’s all we want. We think it should be in open court.

Sincerely,

James Clark and Wilma Clark