Good morning, and congratulations for making it to Friday.
MPR News reports: Body camera footage of Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Amir Locke by Minneapolis police inside a downtown apartment shows a SWAT team entering the apartment with a key, without knocking, shouting “police search warrant” several times as officers enter and then quickly approach a couch with a figure wrapped in a blanket. An officer kicks the couch. Police can be heard yelling “get on the ground” and “show me your hands.” Locke, 22, can been seen stirring from the blanket and then holding a gun as he starts to move, just before he is shot about nine seconds after the police enter. “This video raises about as many questions as it answers,” Mayor Jacob Frey told reporters following the release of the footage late Thursday. “We intend to get answers as quickly as possible.” The search warrant was tied to a St. Paul homicide investigation. Locke was not named in the search warrant and it’s not clear if he figures into the St. Paul case, Amelia Huffman, the interim Minneapolis police chief, said after the video’s release. Ten DFL House members from Minneapolis sent a letter to Fry Thursday urging him to release the body camera footage.
Meanwhile legislators are looking for ways to attract more people to become police officers. Sign-on bonuses of $10,000, scholarships and special financial aid are a few of the law enforcement recruitment proposals in play at the state Capitol, MPR’s Brian Bakst reported . Minnesota Senate Republicans outlined a $65 million recruitment plan Thursday, which they said was just a slice of a public safety package the Senate’s majority will push this year. DFLers who control the House say they’ll also put forward a police staffing proposal. If the plans line up, it could present an area of consensus and it will mark a notable shift in the debate that has been more about police accountability in recent years. Sen. John Jasinski, R-Faribault, said a general labor shortage combined with a demoralized law enforcement profession are making recruitment difficult. “We are facing a crisis in the number of licensed officers available in Minnesota to even apply for the job openings we have,” he said at a news conference. “This might be most pronounced in the metro, but in many rural communities like mine we have struggled to recruit new officers to live and work in their communities.”
And a House committee discussed legislation Thursday that would provide more than $46 million in grants for local crime prevention efforts. MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports the money would be directed to community policing, law enforcement investigations and body cameras. Members of the House Public Safety Committee held a hearing on the proposal, which is one part of a larger law enforcement bill, but did not vote. Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, said his bill seeks to make innovations in public safety. “We need to fund best practices in policing but not with a blank check,” Frazier said. “Instead it has to be thoughtful, because it helps us avoid wasting resources and paperwork that keeps no one safe.” Other sections of the larger bill deal with grants to community organizations involved in crime prevention and policies related to police oversight.
Gov. Tim Walz says Minnesota lawmakers shouldn’t lose sight of continuing public health threats as they debate public safety plans. As the 2022 legislative session gets under way, crime proposals have gotten a lot of early attention. But Walz told WCCO Radio Thursday that the pandemic remains a significant concern. “One-hundred-and-fifty people have died in the last three days of COVID, and I haven’t heard one single word from the people in the Legislature,” Walz said. “Now, crime may be on people’s minds but statistically the fact of it is your chance of dying is going to be with COVID. We have to multi-task. We have to keep people safe on multiple levels.” Walz said he’ll back plans to shore up law enforcement as long as they’re proven strategies. On COVID-19, Walz said mitigation efforts are being tailored to the arc of the case rates and that vaccination remains the best way to fend off serious illness.
The Star Tribune reportsthe Minnesota Department of Education wants to terminate a food distribution contract with a second nonprofit named in FBI search warrants in January. The department notified Partners in Quality Care this week of the action, which would prevent the St. Paul organization from continuing to participate in federal child nutrition programs. The department took similar action last month against the St. Anthony nonprofit Feeding Our Future.
To end this morning and this week, Bill Lindeke at MinnPost has unearthed the saga behind Cathy Wurzer’s collaboration with Travis Norvell, aka the Peddling Pastor, to provide bike commuting conditions on the radio during Morning Edition. From the piece: “I was just listening to the news one day, and [Wurzer] talked about a car fire on Interstate 35-E,” Norvell explained. “On the next day, a semi trailer had jackknifed. [The information] was all for commuting, and I thought, ‘I wonder if she would possibly do a bike commute thing for people who get around not by car?’” The next week, Norvell leapt into action. He sent Wurzer a tweet with a short summation of bicycle commuting conditions, asking if she’d share the information with her listeners alongside the latest freeway congestion news. “She said ‘yes,’” Norvell exclaimed, like someone who’s just gotten engaged. “I was blown away when she read them verbatim.” I, for one, am looking forward to a follow up on Norvell’s winter commuting rig. And look out for that greasy gray mashed potato snow. It’s the worst! | 