BY CAM GORDON On Feb. 2, the City Council received a report on police department staffing that recommends steps the mayor and Council could take to improve public safety in Minneapolis. The $170,000 study grew out of a City Council directive from 2019 and its results are reminiscent of the…
BY TONY BOUZA The Greeks were the finest expression of civilization ever. Why? Because they made their citizens better humans. How? By cautioning against hubris (pride) and avoiding hamartia (the critical flaw). The antidote? Merciless introspection. Oedipus was the toughest, smartest, most admirable—yet, came a cropper, wandering blindly in the…
BY ALLISTER ROSE “We have evidence that extremist agitators were hijacking protests to pursue their own separate and violent agendas.” – William Barr, The Wall Street Journal, 7/28/20 The video In the spring of 2020 we saw the images: a tall, white man dressed in black, wearing a gas mask,…
BY ED FELIEN Just before sunrise on Feb. 2, the MPD SWAT team bursts into a downtown apartment: “Police!” “Search warrant!” “Get on the ground!” Amir Locke is asleep on a couch, under a blanket. They kick the couch. Amir gets up, turns to the officers. He is holding a…
BY JOHN STUART Quaker social justice values are embodied in “Testimonies,” adherence to peace, equality, community and integrity. A year ago, members of the Minneapolis Friends Meeting began to talk about the policing of our city in the light of these Testimonies. Too often, we had seen violence in policing.…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE The outlook for the third summer of COVID In 2020, virtual summer camps were born. But when we published our piece on summer camps in early March 2020, we had no idea what was to come. And neither did the organizations offering summer camps, many of…
BY DAVID TILSEN Clyde Bellecourt Nee-gon-we-way-we-dun, “Thunder Before the Storm,” left his mortal body on the evening of Jan. 11, 2022. He left behind an Indian community, a city, and a world that is changed for the better because of his work and sacrifice. A man of principle, a man…
BY DAVID TILSEN Sixteen urban Indian organizations recently announced they are seeking private and public support to construct buildings to increase the capacity of organizations dealing with education, health care, affordable housing and Native culture. The junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers was originally an important intersection of commerce…
BY CAM GORDON On Jan. 10, the new Minneapolis City Council met for the first time, elected new leadership and approved new committee assignments. It also revealed an interesting council divide. While the historic election of former vice president and Ward 8 council member Andrea Jenkins as the new council…
This letter is written in response to the statement that Walz running for governor in 2022 would be helpful to Democrats. Many Minnesotans will not vote for Walz again. I’ll first note the many voters he lost after his state police froze 640+ anti-police brutality protestors that cold November night…
The Jones Day law firm is the fifth largest law firm in the United States. They mostly represent large corporations, but in the last election they represented the Trump campaign in lawsuits trying to overturn the election results. Jones Day has virtually taken over the government of our city, working…
As you certainly know, Winston Smith was killed by officers under the supervision of the U.S. Marshals on June 3, 2021. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension conducted a Use-of-Deadly Force investigation, resulting in a report of over 1,000 pages, submitted to Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan. Mr. Ryan then…
BY STEPHANIE FOX The time is 1950 and all of Korea is involved in a war between the North and the South, each side supported by large armies. Bina, at age 10, is the youngest of her family of apple growers. They produce some of the best apples in Korea,…
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE COVID-19: Both cities implement vaccine, test result checks On Jan. 12, both Minneapolis and St. Paul, reeling from the high rates of new COVID-19 omicron variant cases, announced mandates for restaurants and bars to check either vaccine status or a negative COVID test within two days…
BY ELINA KOLSTAD At a press conference in early January, Mayor Frey argued that schools should remain open in order to combat violent crime and increased carjackings often carried out by juvenile offenders. He specifically said, “When we don’t have that [schools open], boredom sets in. And boredom is no…
