Unspotted, Ilhan Omar Has Attended Protests 'Almost Every Night'

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Rep. Ilhan Omar wasn't planning on making a speech when she joined the crowd of mourners and protesters on Wednesday. Then someone recognized her.

"I've been here almost every night," the Minnesota Democrat said in remarks captured on video and by Brut America. In an impromptu speech, Omar touched on the present and future goals of the protest movement, as well as her own anguish watching sections of her city burn.

"I really did not intend for any of you to recognize me," Omar told the crowd. "I was joking with the Somali youth here, I said 'You're the only ones who can pick me out of crowd with my mask on because everyone else sees me as everyone else here."

In her speech, Omar noted that while Minneapolis is considered a "liberal haven," the city's successes are not shared by its black and minority populations. After expressing condolences to the family of George Floyd — whose killing has led to charges against former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, as well as the three other officers who did not intervene as Floyd said "I can't breathe" shortly before he died — she added that she wanted to have "a conversation with my black brothers and sisters here tonight."

As she talked, Omar mentioned her own son, and her hope that he, just like the black protesters around her, would one day not be forced to internalize the handed-down strategies for avoiding the fate suffered by George Floyd and others.

"No other community in the United States goes through a process in which they tell their children how not get themselves killed by police," she continued. "That conversation needs to end. Because what we want is not just the ability to breathe, but to live and thrive."

Also this week, Omar announced that she is introducing four bills that would, among other things, create "a new federal agency to investigate police misuse of force."