On December 20th, 2014, during the Black Lives Matter protest at the Mall of America, Bloomington Police arrested Tadele Gebremedhin, an employee of the Microsoft Store, while he and a coworker were returning from their lunch break. When he pointed out his work ID badge and said he was not a part of the protest although he supported the message, police officers tackled him, arrested him, and charged him with trespassing--forbidding him from entering his place of employment.

Despite claiming that he would get an “exemption” allowing him to enter and exit for the purpose of getting to and from work, the Mall has refused to grant this to Tadele, forcing him into unemployment. Multiple times, Tadele went with his supervisor--who didn’t want to lose a well-liked and well-respected employee, and who wants him back--to try and obtain this exemption, and were turned away. As a result, he has spent the last few months jobless.

This is one of the many stories of the ridiculous and heavy-handed overreaction of the Police and the Mall of America at this protest and since. Tadele is not the only Mall employee who was arrested that day (although he is the only one, to our knowledge, who was forced to quit his job under threat of arrest). Among the other people arrested at this event are Mall employees trying to get to work, protesters trying to obey police orders and leave the building, and customers; all who happened to be in front of police officers who felt that they ‘looked like they weren’t supposed to be there.’

#####TADELE’S STORY#####

“ My name is Tadele Gebremedhin I was previously employed by MOA Microsoft store. On December 20th, 2014 I was scheduled to work 8AM- 4PM, this was the same day Black Lives Matter held their protest at the Mall of America. Protesters started arriving at the mall at 2PM, which was the same time I took my hourly lunch break. From the beginning of my break my intentions were to grab lunch and purchase a hat with one of my co-workers, Brianna Ortiz.

Around 2:30 PM more protesters were filling up the mall, same with the number of officers. My co-worker and I started walking in a circle on the second floor but then we were told to leave The Mall of America officials even though we worked there. We informed the mall officials and the Bloomington police that we were not part of the protest but me personally I do support the protests, as it is my right to support something I believe in. My co worker and I had about 20 minutes left to get to work, so I personally approached one of the officers and asked if I could go back to my job but he completely ignored me. I turned around and asked another official the same question with my work badge but I was denied again. I tried this approach for the last time--but the last thing I remember was six Bloomington officers jumping on me yelling, “ARREST HIM”.

After they arrested me they took me downstairs where they were trying to ask me a bunch of questions but I declined to answer them because I believed they didn’t have a valid reason for arresting me. When they noticed I wasn’t cooperating they started calling me names, telling me to shut up, and telling me I couldn’t speak to my boss or anyone, which resulted in me being upset. After being locked up in a police van for 15 minutes they drove us to the drop off area where they wanted to take more pictures and give us the trespassing papers stating that I would be arrested if I was in the Mall of America again for a year. Before I was released to walk all the way back in mid winter with just a sweater on, I was promised that I would receive a permit from The Mall of America to continue working at the Microsoft store.

I guess that wasn’t the case because the next day I was denied for the permit and ever since then I have been jobless for about 4 ½ months now. This has been very hard for me, I have been struggling both mentally and financially. I just want people to read my story and help me in any way that they can. I really want to get my job back. I am a young, hard-working African- American man who’s trying to have a decent life but how can I do that without my job? So I ask once again, please help me get the justice that I deserve.”