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Policing expert: Minneapolis should not hire outside agencies
A leading criminologist is questioning the wisdom of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s proposal to spend roughly half a million dollars hiring outside agencies to help the city’s Police Department respond to 911 calls. “It’s a profound failure of imagination to think that this is the only possible strategy that could be pursued with this huge […]
Minnesota votes: with COVID-19, for racial justice, from Trump to Green Party and for the community
Minnesota voters are poised to set an even more impressive turnout record in 2020, with many saying they felt this is the most important election of their lifetime. Before polls even opened on Tuesday, the state had accepted a whopping 1.8 million absentee ballots — more than half of all votes cast in 2016. As […]
Hennepin County chief public defender, known for fierce advocacy, not reappointed
A state board declined to extend another four year contract to the chief public defender of Hennepin County Mary Moriarty Wednesday, despite praise by activists and fellow public defenders for her fierce advocacy on behalf of her clients and outspoken efforts to end the criminal justice system’s race and class biases. After the decision, which […]
Protecting the Crown: One block’s struggle for safety in Minneapolis after George Floyd
Photos by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer. Like many residents of Minneapolis, the people who live off Lake Street in South Minneapolis had to learn to live without a lot of basics this summer. The pandemic and the civil unrest following the police killing of George Floyd either closed or destroyed many neighborhood stores the community had […]
Hennepin Commissioner condemns misuse of ketamine by county emergency responders
Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley condemned the misuse of ketamine by paramedics in a Reformer interview Tuesday, following new allegations that Hennepin Healthcare EMS used the controversial sedative on a Black man experiencing a diabetic seizure. “My reaction is sheer disgust, disbelief, because we shouldn’t even be using ketamine in that way anymore. Why are […]
Area around George Floyd memorial is a no-go zone for cops, residents say
On the evening of June 25, Michael Grunke was watching TV in his apartment on the 3600 block of Columbus Avenue — about a block and a half away from the George Floyd memorial — when he heard a series of loud bangs and glass shattering. He called 911. While he waited for police, he […]
Workers growing concerned about wage theft as bosses struggle with lack of revenue
Workers are increasingly concerned about wage theft and other forms of labor exploitation during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the state Department of Labor and Industry. The agency’s Labor Standards Division received 3,807 calls in March and April, compared to an average of 2,460 every two months for the year prior, a 55% […]
Minneapolis investigating major landlord for discrimination, hostile housing environment
The Minneapolis Civil Rights Department is investigating allegations of discrimination and retaliation against one of the metro area’s biggest landlords, according to public records obtained by the Reformer. The city’s civil rights agency has spent nearly six months investigating Sherman Associates for alleged violations at Riverside Plaza, a complex of six towers in the Cedar […]