Minneapolis, MN

Letter carriers raise alarm over assaults, call for protections

Published

2 years ago

January 7, 2024

Letter carriers raise alarm over assaults, call for protections

Letter carriers rallied Sunday outside the downtown Minneapolis Post Office to raise awareness and call for on-the-job safety for their ranks.

Previously rare, attacks on letter carriers have spiked in recent years, with more than 2,000 violent attacks nationally since 2020, said leaders of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC). Letter carriers in Detroit, Phoenix, Cincinnati and other cities have rallied with a similar message in recent months, according to media reports.

“Since the Postal Service was founded nearly 250 years ago, letter carriers in uniform have been able to walk down the meanest streets of this country without incident,” NALC President Brian Renfroe said to an crowd of more than 60 that turned out in below-freezing weather. “Nobody messed with us, remember that? That’s no longer the case.”

Joseph Tiemann, NALC Branch 9 executive vice president, said Minnesota wasn’t on the list of places that had seen such attacks until November, when carriers in Edina and Brooklyn Center were robbed at gunpoint within 24 hours of each other.

“Fortunately, in these two cases, nobody was physically harmed, but the trauma lives,” Tiemann said, adding that he had heard Friday that a suspect had been caught in the cases. “This is something that a letter carrier should never have to experience.”

Patrick Johnson, NALC regional national business agent, said there have been more than 30 violent attacks against letter carriers in Region 7, which includes Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, in 2022 and 2023, including the Dec. 2022 shooting death of Milwaukee letter carrier Aundre Cross. Nationally, Johnson said, only 14% of assaults on letter carriers resulted in prosecution.

Assaults are increasing as fraudsters have developed schemes that make getting access to mail profitable, Renfroe said.

One of those schemes is check washing, which involves stealing checks from the mail, changing information on them, such as payee name and dollar amounts, and then depositing or duplicating them, Renfroe said.

“Gaining access to the mail is not the reason for 100 percent of these crimes, but the vast majority — either to steal the mail directly or to gain access to our keys that we use to access mailboxes,” Renfroe said.

Speakers at the rally called for the U.S. Postal Service to do a better job of protecting workers, and for the U.S. Justice Department to deter attacks by heavily prosecuting people who attack letter carriers.

In May of 2023, the U.S. Postal Service and Postal Inspection Service launched Project Safe Delivery, an effort to reduce postal crimes with measures including enforcement surges, installing more secure mail collection boxes and replacing old locks with electronic ones as carriers were targeted for their keys.

At the rally, NALC leaders also asked community members to keep an eye out for carriers, just as carriers often serve as the eyes and ears of the neighborhoods they work in.

“If you see your letter carrier walking down the street, watching them walk to the end of the block could literally be the difference between this happening or this not happening. Just keep your eyes open,” Renfroe said.

Daniel Brito, who delivers mail south of downtown Minneapolis, showed up to the rally with a homemade sign that read, “My safety is flat rate priority.” He said he and his father are both letter carriers and the prospect of either of them being assaulted is terrifying.

Manon Wojack has been a letter carrier in north Minneapolis’ Lowry station for nearly 24 years. She said that in many cases, such as the unrest of 2020, postal workers have brought hope to communities.

“We stood together. Now we have to have hope that we make it home safe at night,” she said.

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Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis Blanketed With Snow Overnight

Published

4 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Press Room

Minneapolis Blanketed With Snow Overnight

Minneapolis residents woke up to snow on Wednesday, November 26, after the first snowstorm of the season dumped several inches of snow on parts of Minnesota. This footage filmed and posted to X by user @JonathanQ12345 shows snow blanketing a street in Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood on Wednesday morning. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), parts of Minneapolis received 2 to 3 inches of snow, while neighboring areas received 4 to 5 inches. Snowfall is expected to end on Wednesday, the NWS said. Credit: @JonathanQ12345 via Storyful

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Minneapolis, MN

Former Minneapolis teacher and coach sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting children

Published

23 hours ago

November 25, 2025

Press Room

Former Minneapolis teacher and coach sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting children

A former Minneapolis teacher and coach was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday in connection with 12 counts of rape and sexual assault of victims under 13 years old.

Aaron James Hjermstad (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Corrections)

Aaron James Hjermstad, 46, pleaded guilty in September to 12 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving victims under 13 years that took place between 2013 and 2021.

In addition to being sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years, Hjermstad must register as a predatory offender and will be on lifetime conditional release if he is ever paroled.

“My thoughts today are solely with the many victims in this case. What they endured as children is nothing short of horrifying,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “Mr. Hjermstad is being held accountable, and a sentence of this length removes the possibility of further harm at his hands for decades to come.”

The attorney’s office said Hjermstad had coached many of the children or one of their family members. Hjermstad worked as a physical education and health teacher at The Mastery School and a basketball coach at Hospitality House Youth Development and Harvest Best Academy.

At the time he was charged, he’d already been convicted for similar assaults against 3 other victims, but he fled the state before he was sentenced.

In December 2021 he was caught in Idaho during a traffic stop. Law enforcement officials found thousands of videos showing him assaulting children. Some of the videos were taken at his Brooklyn Center home including footage with the 12 victims which led to the additional charges.

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Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis rent price-fixing lawsuit settlement proposed by DOJ

Published

2 days ago

November 25, 2025

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Minneapolis rent price-fixing lawsuit settlement proposed by DOJ

DOJ says companies schemed to keep rent high

The U.S. Department of Justice is accusing major property management companies of conspiring to keep rent prices high with anti-competitive practices. FOX 9’s Mike Manzoni has the full story.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – The Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed a settlement with RealPage, the company that created an algorithm used by several major landlords accused in a rent price-fixing scheme, including four that operate in the Twin Cities, that would resolve a lawsuit brought earlier this year.

Justice Department proposal

What we know:

Under the proposal, RealPage would agree to limit the data it uses for its algorithm and modeling.

If accepted, RealPage would no longer be able to use real-time, nonpublic data to set rental prices nor train AI or algorithms on leases that are less than 12 months old.

RealPage would also be restricted from sending surveys landlords to get private pricing information.

As part of the agreement, RealPage also agrees to cooperate with the Justice Department in its lawsuit against other major landlords.

What they’re saying:

In a press release, the Justice Department says the agreement will help “restore free market competition in rental markets.”

“Competing companies must make independent pricing decisions, and with the rise of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools, we will remain at the forefront of vigorous antitrust enforcement,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division in a provided statement.

Ongoing lawsuit against landlords

The backstory:

Earlier this year, the DOJ sued six of the nation’s largest landlords, including Greystar Real Estate Partners, Cushman & Wakefield, Willow Bridge Property Company and Cortland Management, which operate in the Twin Cities.

The landlords were accused of using the RealPage algorithms and by sharing data with each other to drive up rental prices in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

“The idea is that landlords are conspiring to keep rents high for renters rather than allowing the market to normally set them to a rate that’s reasonable,” Julia Zwak, an attorney at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, told FOX 9 in January. “They’re getting information that normally competitors in the market wouldn’t be sharing with one another.”

After news of the lawsuit became public, the Minneapolis City Council passed an ordinance banning algorithmic rental price fixing.

Settlements reached:

After FOX 9 became aware of the lawsuit in January, Cortland Management announced it had reached a settlement with the Justice Department to stop using the pricing algorithms.

Last week, Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is involved in the lawsuit on behalf of Minnesota, also announced last week a settlement with the nation’s largest landlord Greystar. Greystar, which owns 950,000 rental units across the country including thousands in Minnesota, agreed to pay $7 million and stop using anti-competitive pricing algorithms to set rental prices.

HousingMinnesota

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