BY ED FELIEN We were feeling so hopeful, so optimistic. We were congratulating ourselves on our great victory over ignorance. We lit a cigar to celebrate. And then it blew up in our faces. We made some terrible mistakes. The banner across the front of the stage in Powderhorn Park…
BY ED FELIEN Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor shot and killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond in July of 2017. He was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Damond had called 911 to complain about an incident of domestic abuse happening in her alley. When the squad car passed her in…
BY ED FELIEN The five police officers involved in the Terrance Franklin killing have decided to get separate lawyers. That’s a big sign. It probably means Officers Andy Stender, Ricardo Muro and Mark Durand might be willing to tell the truth about what happened in the basement when Officers Lucas…
BY ED FELIEN On Friday, Oct. 8, the Minneapolis City Council voted seven to six to reverse course and put the city’s water yard in the Phillips neighborhood at the Roof Depot site. This was done primarily at the urging of Council President Lisa Bender. She said the city has…
Mayor: 1. Sheila Nezhad 2. Kate Knuth City Council: Ward 1: Elliott Payne Ward 2: Cam Gordon Ward 3: Steve Fletcher Ward 4: Phillipe Cunningham Ward 5: Jeremiah Ellison Ward 6: Abdirizak Bihi Ward 7: Nick Kor Ward 8: Andrea Jenkins Ward 9: Jason Chavez Ward 10: Aisha Chughtai Ward…
BY ED FELIEN Southside Pride sent the following to the two candidates running to represent the 6th Ward on the Minneapolis City Council, Abdirizak Bihi and the incumbent, Jamal Osman: “Southside Pride will be publishing a Guide for Voters in the 6th Ward in our upcoming Riverside edition coming out…
BY ED FELIEN Before there was a city of Minneapolis, there was the town of St. Anthony on the east bank of the Mississippi. Its Main Street was bustling with a thriving lumber trade. In 1861 when they incorporated, they looked at the federal system of government in Washington, D.C.…
BY ED FELIEN When I was a small boy attending Mass at St. Helena’s Church, I remember a sermon by my favorite priest, Father Don Schnitzius. The way Father Don told the story of The Ten Talents was slightly different from Matthew, Chapter 25, but the message was essentially the…
BY ED FELIEN On Sunday, June 27, Andrea Jenkins, the Black trans Minneapolis City Council Member, had her car surrounded by about a dozen protesters as she was trying to leave a Pride event in Loring Park. The ward she represents includes three of the four corners of George Floyd…
BY ED FELIEN On Thursday, June 24, Southside Pride wrote to Andrea Jenkins and Julie Stroeve, the two known candidates for City Council in Ward 8. We asked each candidate to please answer the following questions and send their responses by noon Monday, June 28. Only Julie Stroeve answered the…
BY ED FELIEN Late Sunday night, June 13, Nicholas Kraus drove his Jeep Cherokee through the barricades at Lake and Girard and killed Deona Marie Knajdek. Barricades had been set up to protest the killing of Winston Boogie Smith by U.S. Marshals on June 3 at the Girard Avenue parking…
BY ED FELIEN The people who have held George Floyd Square for more than a year issued the following list of 24 demands on August 7, 2020, that they believed must be met before traffic at 38th and Chicago could return to normal: 1. Recall Mike Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney.…
BY ED FELIEN Jawan Carroll has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder resulting from the shootout in front of the Monarch nightclub at 2 a.m. on May 22. He allegedly was with two other people. He had been identified by police authorities as a member of the Tre…
BY ED FELIEN Shocked at seeing human beings other than her father for the first time, Miranda, in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” says, “Oh, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in ‘t.” The forced isolation and sudden…
BY ED FELIEN Guilty! Guilty, as judged by the whole world. Everyone saw what happened. Millions watched 17-year-old Darnella Frazier’s iPhone video of Derek Chauvin squeezing the life out of George Floyd. The world was outraged. And local politicians acted surprised. Mayor Frey said, “That there will be Black Minneapolis…
Columns by Ed Felien