Tag Archives: Minneapolis PD

crime news

Jury rules correctly

Kim Potter messed up when she pulled her service revolver out of its holster and fired a shot into Daunte Wright, so a jury today ruled in a Minneapolis courtroom.

Potter is a former Minneapolis police officer who stood trial on two manslaughter counts in Wright’s death. The jury convicted her of first- and second-degree manslaughter. It was the correct verdict.

Understand that I was not at the scene when Potter killed Wright. I know what most of us know, which is that Potter said she thought she was reaching for her Taser but pulled out her pistol instead.

Police procedure tells me the Taser and the pistol are stored on opposite sides of the belt that officers wear. The Taser is a brightly colored device designed to stun a suspect … not kill him or her. The pistol is, well, a firearm on which cops are trained to use with proficiency.

I’m still scratching my head over how Potter could mistake one device for the other. Then again, I never have been involved in a life-and-death struggle, so I cannot judge whether Potter was thinking clearly when she shot Daunte Wright to death.

And of course, we have the racial element: Wright was African-American, Potter is white.

Accordingly, Minneapolis — which was torn asunder by the George Floyd murder while he was being arrested by local police — is likely to be spared the uprising one might expect had the jury gone the other way.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Defund police = losing strategy

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If an effort to “defund the police” can fail in a city such as Minneapolis, Minn., then where would any such effort succeed?

That is an situation facing progressive political groups and politicians as they ponder the results of this past week’s election in Minneapolis, the city that produced the horrifying image of the cop murdering George Floyd while making an arrest on an allegation that Floyd sought to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.

Indeed, writer Grace Curley says in an article published in the Spectator World, that the “defund the police” movement could be the death knell for Democrats everywhere.

She writes:

A ballot measure voted on this week read in part, “Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to remove the Police Department and replace it with a Department of Public Safety?” Voters rejected Question 2 handedly, with 56.17 percent of residents voting no on the amendment.

The results should have sent a shockwave across the cocktail parties of the liberal bourgeois in DC, many of whom proudly shout about defunding the police from the rooftops of their fancy apartment buildings. How could an uber-progressive dream like this fail to gain support from voters — especially in a liberal city of all places?! If this Squad-stamped idea failed in Minneapolis, where, if anywhere, could it succeed?

Defund the Police will be the death of the Democrats – The Spectator World

The term “defund” is what has caught the attention of everyone. To “defund” something implies you take money away from it. Defunding police departments, therefore, suggests one does not want to pay to have cops patrolling the streets, arresting bad guys/gals and keeping us safe from those who would do us harm.

I don’t doubt that many officers have acted badly. They are overwhelmingly outnumbered by decent men and women who take their oaths to protect and serve seriously.

I hope the progressive movement can step away from the defund the cops notion. It’s a loser at the ballot box. It’s also a loser on our city streets.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

What will AG find?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

My curiosity is killing me.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has announced a Justice Department investigation into the Minneapolis, Minn., police practices. Garland wants to get to the bottom of policies that resulted in George Floyd’s death a year ago when former cop Derek Chauvin suffocated him while arresting Floyd on a charge of passing counterfeit currency.

I am left to wonder: Why?

Police Chief Medaria Arradondo testified during Chauvin’s trial that what he did was not in keeping with the PD’s policy. He said that Chauvin violated the police department’s policy and standard when he pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.

So what is the AG intending to determine?

I happen to support Merrick Garland’s position as the nation’s top law enforcement official. I supported President Biden’s decision to nominate him to be the next AG.

I just am wondering out loud whether this investigation is as much for show as it is for actually finding policies that routinely result in the ghastly event that the whole world witnessed on that Minneapolis street.

Is there systemic racism within the PD? Is the department training its officers adequately?

I hope the attorney general’s probe produces legitimate findings.

crime news

Chief stands for justice

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Medaria Arradondo stood tall today for the rule of law, for following policy and against the phony notion that police officers routinely cover for each other’s grievous misconduct.

Arradondo is the chief of the Minneapolis, Minn., Police Department. He is the same chief who fired Derek Chauvin in the wake of the hideous arrest — and death — of George Floyd this past year. Chauvin is now on trial on charges of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

I’ll be honest. I was waiting for Chief Arradondo to drop the hammer on Chauvin. He did when he said that in no way, shape or form did Chauvin follow MPD policy when he pressed his knee on the back of George Floyd’s neck for 9 minutes 29 seconds, squeezing the life out of a suspect who was being arrested for passing a counterfeit bill in a convenience store.

He said Chauvin should have delivered first aid after the “first few seconds” of arresting him. Chauvin not only didn’t follow MPD policy on that matter, he killed a man who had been handcuffed and who was begging for his life.

I thought that Medaria Arradondo was the prosecution’s most compelling witness to date.

Yep. This trial has me hooked, man.

crime news

Don’t do this, Minneapolis City Council

Talk about the Mother of Overreactions.

The Minneapolis City Council, which governs a city reeling from the death of George Floyd, the black man killed by an white police officer in an incident that has spawned an international protest movement, is considering disbanding the city police department.

Yep. Nine of 12 council members have signed on to a plan that would eliminate the police department and apparently start over. They want to build a new department from scratch, from the ground up.

Hold on here! I believe that would a monumental mistake.

Yes, George Floyd died because he was brutalized by four officers of the Minneapolis Police Department. One of them is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter; three others face charges of complicity in the actions of the one rogue cop. I hope they are convicted and are sent to prison.

I also believe the Minneapolis Police Department needs a top-to-bottom review of its policing strategies and tactics. But … disband the department? Remove it? Wipe it out? Is this what’s on the horizon?

PDs across the nation are undergoing intense public scrutiny. There is this “defund the police” movement developing in some communities, again as an extreme overreaction to what is without a doubt a hideous example of police brutality against an African-American citizen.

I want there to be reviews done within police departments. We need to end this terrible trend of cops treating racial and ethnic minority suspects differently — and more harshly — than they treat white folks. That has to stop! Now!

Disband departments while potentially leaving communities without police protection? This crisis can be resolved without such drastic overreaction.

crime news

Is this the tipping point? Finally?

I am numbed by what the nation keeps witnessing.

Another African-American man has died at the hands — or more to the point, at the knee — of a police officer. For what reason? Well, he was being arrested for a non-violent crime. George Floyd did what the cops asked him to do. Yet he was put on the ground and a Minneapolis, Minn., police officer kept the pressure on Floyd’s neck until he passed out.

Then this man died.

The outrage has been horrific. Then again, the incident is horrific.

The police department fired the four officers who were involved in Floyd’s arrest and death. And today one of them, Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

This clearly isn’t the end of the story. We still have the three other officers apart from the one who pressed his knee in the back of George Floyd’s neck. The charges could be enhanced to something more severe. The other three (now former) cops are facing criminal prosecution.

What happens now? My goodness. I am trying to fathom the gravity of what we have witnessed yet again in this nation. George Floyd now joins a long and distressing list of victims of police brutality.

The nation has acted with outrage before. People have rioted. They have destroyed property. Then the outward anger subsides. We return to the lives we knew. The cops also return to doing what they have done all along.

Then the cycle repeats itself with another incident such as the one that has gripped the nation.

I am mourning my country. I grieve for the good police officers who do their jobs diligently and with honor. I am pained by the rioting and the damage that has been done to business owners who have played no role in any of this madness. My heart breaks for African-American men and women who have been victimized and those fellow citizens of ours who live in fear that they might be next.

I also am angry at Donald Trump who decided to call Jacob Frey a “very weak radical left mayor.” Disgusting.

I am tired of feeling numb at the spasm of violence that has brought us once again to this flash point. When will this ever end?