Policing
June 25, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Minnesota Supreme Court order in Spann v. Minneapolis City Council this past Monday highlights facts salient to the future of Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Police Department has lost 300 officers since the summer of Saint George just two years ago — about one-third of the force. The city is obligated by its own charter to maintain a police department of 731 officers. Yet the city now maintains the department with
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June 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I have turned to today’s Star Tribune to check out the editorial board’s take on Monday’s Minnesota Supreme Court ruling against the city in Spann v. Minneapolis City Council. The city is short some 100 police officers of the minimum imposed by its own charter and has no prospect of coming into compliance any time soon. Even were it to achieve compliance, another 100 officers will leave the city short
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June 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson
On Monday the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled 7-0 that the Minneapolis mayor had breached his duty to staff the police department at the minimum level specified by the city charter. (The Supreme Court also ruled that the city council was in compliance with the related funding requirement.) For some reason or other, the police department has “lost” 300 officers since the summer of George Floyd. The city is now some
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June 21, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Minneapolis city charter requires the city to fund and employ a minimum number of police officers, yet the city resisted its legal obligation all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Yesterday the Court ruled unanimously that the city’s resistance to its legal obligation lacked merit. I have embedded Chief Justice Gildea’s 9-page order at the bottom of this post. Five of the Court’s seven justices, by the way,
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June 20, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Kyle Hooten recently rode along with the Minneapolis police during its Operation Safe Summer operation. Kyle briefly covered his ride-along in the Alpha News story here. The video is below. Minneapolis has fallen into a deep, deep hole with an undermanned and demoralized police department, an empowered criminal class, and an ineffectual judicial system. Over the past two years, the Minneapolis Police Department has lost almost 300 officers. Any sentient
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June 13, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Nothing so fully exposes the dream world of the left, in which good intentions and sentiments are thought sufficient to make reality bend to their will, than the enthusiasm for “re-imagining policing” that went along with the “Defund the Police” mania post-George Floyd. If we just “re-imagine” something, it will happen! We don’t even need to close our eyes and click our heels! And one of the leading ideas was
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June 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Alpha News reporter Liz Collin rode along with law enforcement — undercover officers from the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office Carjacking Auto Theft Team — for a look at the hot rod/street racing burnouts and getaways that have become a deadly threat all over Minneapolis and St. Paul (video below). The name of the unit denotes the frequent use of stolen cars in the burnouts. As Liz reports, although the street
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June 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Minnesota Department of Human Rights has filed a 72-page charge of discrimination over a period of 10 years against the Minneapolis Police Department. I commented critically on the charge along with a link to the charge itself in “Who will speak for the MPD?” We have yet to see any of the 480,000 pages of documents and other evidence gathered by the department in the course of its investigation.
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May 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Barack Obama remembers George Floyd on the second anniversary of his passing (tweet below). He doesn’t want to let our current focus on the Uvalde massacre distract us from attention to the anniversary and the shibboleth of “reimagining policing.” Obama puts me in mind of John Lennon: “Reimagine there’s no police. It’s easy if you try.” If you visit Minneapolis, by the way, you won’t have to do much in
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May 26, 2022 — Scott Johnson
As reporters ascertain what happened during the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, we have more to process. The Associated Press has reconstructed events outside the school during the shooting before and after the heroic Border Patrol agent entered the building. The AP story is “Onlookers urged police to charge into Texas school.” The story opens: Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s
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May 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about the massive discrimination charge filed by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights against the Minneapolis Police Department on April 28 in “Who will speak for the MPD?” I noted in an update later that morning that I filed a request for inspection of the underlying documents under the Minnesota Data Practices Act. The Department of Human Rights denied my request in a response dated May 10 that
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May 21, 2022 — Scott Johnson
When the Minnesota Department of Human Rights filed its 72-page charge of discrimination against the beleaguered and undermanned Minneapolis Police Department, I submitted a Data Practices Act request with the department for public inspection of the 480,000 pages of documents underlying the charge. I do not take the department’s charge at face value for reasons I suggested in “Who will speak for the MPD?” On May 10 I heard back
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May 17, 2022 — Scott Johnson
John Kass has posted a new podcast with the invaluable Heather Mac Donald on the war on cops, Chicago edition. “Everything the public thinks it knows about race and policing in this country, reverse it, and you’re likely to get the truth,” she said. Kass comments that Chicago Mayor Lori “lightweight” Lightfoot has turned over the downtown to the Black Lives Matters rioters. And now, with mobs cruising the Loop
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May 12, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Liz Collin’s Alpha News story exposing the fraudulent story retailed by Toshira Garraway about the death of her fiancé, Justin Teigen — supposedly beaten to death by the St. Paul police in 2009 — deserves the clichéd appellation “bombshell.” Liz quotes Garraway in a local media interview: “They caught him. They beat him to death. They threw him in the garbage…” Etc., etc., rinse, wash, and repeat. Liz reports: “Teigen’s
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May 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I wrote a set of critical notes on the April 27 Minnesota Department of Human Rights charge (a/k/a “report”) finding probable cause against the Minneapolis Police Department in “Who will speak for the MPD?” The charge has received enormous publicity in the Minnesota press, yet it is at the least problematic. I wrote in my notes on the charge: “The report cites supporting materials including some 480,000 pages of documents,
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April 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
This afternoon I was able to reach Sergeant Sherral Schmidt, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis. We discussed the pending Minnesota Department of Human Rights charge/report against the Minneapolis Police Department that I commented on in “Who will speak for the MPD?” After our conversation she forwarded the following statement at my request (below the break). I am grateful to be able to add her statement to our
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April 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was unaccountably denied a public defender to appeal his convictions in the death of George Floyd. Bill Mohrman answered my call for a Minnesota attorney to represent Chauvin on appeal. Bill filed his brief on behalf of Chauvin this week. It is posted online here. Derek Chauvin’s mother has set up a page to support the expenses of appeal here. Bill’s leading argument on
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