Minneapolis, MN
From promise to reality: transforming public safety in Minneapolis
There are other models, too — including the city’s violence interruption work, which unfortunately seems to have stalled over the past year. Violence interruption is premised on the idea that we can fund community members to intervene in cycles of violence in their own neighborhoods. Often staffed by formerly incarcerated men who want to give back to a community they harmed as young people, violence interrupters can form a visible presence on the streets on “hot” blocks and in the lives of the people most likely to perpetrate violence, helping them to build a new path out. Yet in order to work, such groups must be consistently funded and supported.
None of these experiments in safety will automatically solve our urban crises any more than sending in police has solved violence in America. But what they can do is reorient how we as a city respond to human suffering, sending in support and resources in lieu of handcuffs and criminalization where possible. And in doing so, they can serve as at least a partial answer to the question of how to secure justice for Floyd.
Police reform, as we’ve seen throughout the decades in Minneapolis, is a long and difficult task, prone to failures and backsliding. It seems unlikely that the city will win major concessions in the union negotiations to come, although the new flexibility to expand civilian investigator positions in the revised union contract is a start. We can also work to help make sure the ongoing work of reform is pushed forward through the ongoing consent decrees with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and U.S. Department of Justice. But so, too, do Minneapolis residents need to push for the broader vision of public safety demanded in summer 2020 that not only builds a better model of policing, but more holistic approaches to suffering. In a city in which mental health professionals, violence prevention specialists and public health administrators are called in alongside the police to respond to crisis, we all have a better chance of getting the answer right.
Michelle S. Phelps is professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota and the author of “The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America.” She is on the community advisory board for Canopy Roots’ behavioral crisis response program.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The local Iranian community in Minnesota is expressing mixed emotions following the recent joint U.S.-Israel strike on Iran.
Local reactions to the strike
What we know:
The strike resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to President Donald Trump and Iranian state media. Many Iranians in Minnesota feel this could lead to freedom for their country.
Nazanin Naferipoor shared that her sister in Iran was initially happy about the strike, believing it might bring about freedom. However, communication has been cut off since the strike began, leaving many worried about their loved ones.
The other side:
Hamid Kashani from the Minnesota Committee in Support of a Democratic Iran expressed mixed feelings about the strike. While he hopes for change, he is concerned about the potential loss of innocent lives.
Fazy Kowsari emphasized that the attack targeted the government, not the religion, and criticized the political motivations behind the strike.
Upcoming rally at Nicollet Mall
Why you should care:
A rally is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at Nicollet Mall and 11th Street. Organizers view the U.S. strike as a rescue operation for Iranians held hostage by the regime, rather than an act of war.
AUBURN, CA — Former Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering his father-in-law and attempting to murder his mother-in-law in a 2021 ambush-style shooting at a Lake Tahoe-area home.
A Placer County jury previously found Serafini, 51, guilty of fatally shooting 70-year-old Gary Spohr and seriously wounding Spohr’s wife, 68-year-old Wendy Wood, on June 5, 2021, at their home on the lake’s west shore. Wood survived the attack but died a year later.
In a statement obtained by The Associated Press, Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said that Spohr and Wood were loving grandparents and detailed how Serafini’s crimes had affected the couple’s family members and friends.
“The impact of this attack has extended far beyond the immediate victims, deeply affecting family members and the broader community, and highlighting the lasting harm caused by deliberate violence,” Gire said.
On the day of the shooting, Serafini’s wife, the victims’ daughter, had taken the children to the lake to visit their grandparents.
Prosecutors said the deadly ambush stemmed from a dispute over a $1.3 million investment in a ranch renovation project. The victims had reportedly contributed the money.
In one text message shown in court, Serafini wrote, “I’m gonna kill them one day,” referencing a dispute over $21,000, prosecutors said.
He also sent other threatening messages, including “I will be coming after you” and “Take me to court,” according to ABC10.
Jurors also found Serafini guilty of several “special circumstance” sentencing enhancements, including lying in wait, use of a firearm, and that the attack was willful, deliberate and premeditated. He was also convicted of first-degree burglary.
Prosecutors had also charged Serafini with child endangerment, saying he put his infant and toddler sons at risk by having a gun in the home. Jurors found him not guilty on that count.
The case also involved a second defendant, 33-year-old Samantha Scott, who pleaded guilty to being an accessory in February, according to the New York Post.
A left-hander, Serafini was a 1992 first-round pick for the Minnesota Twins. He also played for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies, pitching for six MLB teams over seven seasons.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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