Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis politics post-Geroge Floyd: Four years later, what’s changed?
Aftermath of George Floyd: 3 years later
George Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, says he’s upset with the lack of progress that has been made since the death of his brother.
Fox – 26 Houston
MINNEAPOLIS — Four years after the murder of George Floyd, the close-knit South Minneapolis neighborhood that saw protests and provocative chants of “Defund the police” has mellowed −but certainly not forgotten − the death that triggered a national debate about social justice and police reform.
As local leaders and residents explore long-term options for the corridor globally known as “George Floyd Square,” many question whether there has been any consequential progress on policing reform in the city since the tragedy.
“I can’t say nothing has changed, but we need more support to fully realize that change,” said Muhammad Abdul-Ahad, executive director of T.O.U.C.H Outreach, a Minneapolis violence prevention nonprofit. “People see things through different lenses.”
The quick push to defund
On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on a defenseless Floyd’s neck in broad daylight for more than nine minutes. The horrific series of events was captured on cell phone video by Darnella Frazier, who was 17 years old at the time, and sparked a national movement.
For decades, local communities of color demanded action to their claims of police injustices, which were validated by a 2023 Department of Justice investigation. Cries to defund the police from protesters were augmented as local politicians tagged onto the demand.
In December 2020, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a budget that shifted $8 million from the police department toward violence prevention and other services based on city performance recommendations.
However, by 2021, many council members who wanted to disband the police began walking back their declarations. Some said defunding was not meant to be taken literally and some said it was up for interpretation. Only two members who called for defunding police still sit on the council, a number of those members gone did not seek re-election or were defeated in the polls.
“When it was asked to me, they were very clear it was getting rid of the police,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said recently to USA TODAY. “So, clearly, it meant many different things to many different people.”
Frey, who received intense backlash for rejecting calls to defund the department, was booed out of a demonstration by protestors when he said just as much.
Despite scant demands for Frey’s resignation, voters largely rejected the 2021 measure to replace the police and Frey handily won reelection. Meanwhile, Minneapolis police’s budget has grown − from $181 million in 2019 to $210 million in 2023 − as homicides, burglaries, and thefts are comparable to last year.
“My position hasn’t changed from the very beginning,” the mayor continued. “I said very clearly, ‘We need deep reform, we need a culture shift, but no, I don’t support defunding the police.’”
Part of that culture shift also includes having non-violence initiatives as police try to regain community trust, Abdul-Ahad said.
“There’s an unbelievable amount of hurt and pain that people still have,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told USA TODAY. “There’s no way of separating that trauma, whether it’s the people who live in the city and have lived through all of this, or the police officers from their experiences.”
The city will open two new community safety centers to provide social service agencies. The South Minneapolis center will also house the third precinct police station.
As city leaders praise measures that formed after Floyd’s death such as the Behavioral Crisis Response program, which sends out unarmed and trained staff specializing in intervention and mental distress, some council members express concerns about contracts of “violence interrupters.”
“We’re boots on the ground. We were there when the police weren’t, and we’re still here,” said Abdul-Ahad, whose organization does not currently have a city contract. “I hope the council understands the urgency to figure this out quickly. It’s getting warmer outside and that’s when crime heats up.”
Justice beyond conviction
After Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death, and the three other Minneapolis officers involved were convicted of violating his civil rights, Minnesota’s top prosecutor knew that the work towards justice wasn’t over.
“Justice implies, for me, some form of restoration, true change,” Attorney General Keith Ellison told USA TODAY. “I always felt that we had to win this case in order to get justice, but winning the case wasn’t going to be justice.”
After the 2022 death of Amir Locke at the hands of another Minneapolis police officer, the state legislature passed restrictions on “no-knock” warrants. A Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension report found that Hennepin County requested and executed the most in 2022.
O’Hara took over Minneapolis Police in 2022 and said a big area of reform he wanted to work on was culture and interacting with communities by auditing bodycam footage and taking corrective action.
The Minneapolis Police Officer Standards and Training Board couldn’t revoke Chauvin’s license without a criminal conviction for the murder. In 2023, the standards changed, and the board can now revoke licenses for conduct violations and use of excessive or unreasonable force.
O’Hara oversaw the Newark Police Department’s consent decree, similar to Minneapolis’, to hold its department accountable for reform.
“Our people are tremendous, they truly are. They’re just working in a broken system,” O’Hara said.
But Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty, who has singled out Minneapolis Police for not working closer with her office, has a different take. “We need all hands on deck here to support actual deep reform and we don’t have that here right now,” Moriarty said.
“There was a lot of optimism”
Four years ago, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, was hopeful the trauma her district and the Black community endured would start a transformation.
“There was a lot of optimism about what that moment could bring,” Omar recently told USA TODAY.
Omar once championed the call to defund the police, but now, she said, instead of draining the force, she favors some resources put towards racial equity and community safety programs.
“[It] was an aspirational call, an outcry,” she said. “It’s something a lot of people hold onto and what is possible, the desire for there to be an allocation.”
She added congressional inaction on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the Amir Locke End Deadly No-Knock Warrants Act stalled hopes for federal legislation. “The lack of transformative change has been heartbreaking,” Omar said.
Abdul-Ahad said while many would like to move on from Floyd’s death, collective action and results will help make that happen.
“We’re not just trying to rebuild the city’s infrastructure, we’re trying to rebuild its character, the trust, the communities. Even love.”
Sam Woodward can be reached at swoodward@gannett.com. Terry Collins can be reached at tcollins@gannett.com.
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis, Hamel women accused of stealing millions in federal funds due in court Thursday
5 EYEWITNESS NEWS continues to track the latest fraud developments.
Two of the 15 defendants accused of stealing federal program money back in May are due in court on Thursday morning, and a deal with prosecutors could be taking shape.
Fahima Egeh Mahamud, 50, of Minneapolis, and Jillaine Mertens, 42, of Hamel have plea agreement hearings at the Minneapolis federal courthouse.
Prosecutors say Mertens collected more than $400,000 in fraudulent claims across three childcare centers in Ramsey, Rochester and Kasson.
Mahumud is accused of taking $5.5 million in taxpayer money through her daycare, Future Leaders.
Both cases are set for plea agreement hearings Thursday morning in federal court.
Top federal officials came to Minnesota in May to announce the charges against the 15 defendants.
PREVIOUS: DOJ charges 15 defendants accused of collectively defrauding $90 million
They are alleging that fraudsters exploited programs meant to help vulnerable populations — including the now-defunct Housing Stabilization Services program, which was designed to connect homeless Minnesotans with housing, and the Early Intensive Behavioral Development Intervention (EIDBI) program for children with autism.
This is a developing story. Download the KSTP app below to get the latest updates.
Dozens of community members flooded Minneapolis City Hall Wednesday to express concerns about a proposed drone program for Minneapolis police.
Nearly 50 people signed up to speak at the City Council’s public health, safety and equity committee meeting. Residents filled all of the seats in the council chambers reserved for the public, and an overflow room next door.
“We just spent months enduring a brutal winter of military-equipped federal occupation and terrorization, and on the heels of that, you wish to provide military-grade drone tech to the cops in our already over-surveilled neighborhoods?” said north Minneapolis resident Will Reely, referring to federal immigration enforcement during Operation Metro Surge. “You can’t be serious.”
Speakers said they don’t trust how the police would use drones, and are concerned the technology could be used as surveillance and lead to invasion of privacy.
Several people also sat in the hallway outside of the council chambers and streamed the hearing. The 1:30 p.m. meeting began with Minneapolis police officials outlining a free, 75-day pilot program that would allow the police department to use drones as “first responders.”
The committee moved to put the pilot program for a vote before the full council on July 16, which will not feature an additional public comment period on the issue. Should the council approve the program, the trial period would begin as soon as July 20.
The project would be conducted in the police department’s Fourth Precinct on the city’s north side, and hopes to reduce 911 response times by using drones to livestream video of potential crime scenes before officers arrive. The drones, which would be equipped with parachutes, police markings and lights, would be provided by Skydio, a California company.
Several community members noted that Skydio is known to supply drones to the Israeli government, which has used the technology during their military campaign against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
“We see them as weapons of war and mass surveillance, and do not want them to be used to kill or control people at home or abroad,” Minneapolis resident Meredith Aby said of Skydio drones. “The people of Minneapolis do not want Skydio’s blood on its hands.”
More speakers questioned whether Minneapolis police would use the drones for the intended purpose, and questioned whether their use would actually improve safety.
“What I don’t understand is why we would implement a drone program under the guise of public safety,” Avery Winters told council members. “We the people don’t trust the people or the system administering this.”
Before the public comment period, Minneapolis police officials presented the pilot program to the City Council committee, saying that it would improve officer and community safety and help with staffing challenges. Andy Skoogman, chief of staff for the city’s Office of Community Safety, said officers can use drones to determine whether they need to report to a scene, improving the department’s efficiency.
“Drones are not a replacement for police officers, for firefighters, for EMS [Emergency Medical Services] personnel or other first responders,” Skoogman, who is not a police officer, told council members. “They’re simply a tool that helps ensure the right resources are sent to the right call at the right time.”
Thomas Campbell, deputy chief of patrol in Minneapolis police’s special operations division, said the drones would be operated remotely, would only be activated at potential crime scenes, and that their cameras would be pointed away from private property. Footage that isn’t considered evidence would be deleted after seven days, he said.
Minneapolis police have been using drones for other purposes since 2022, and have a fleet of 29 drones. Officers currently launch drones from the trunks of their squad cars, and deploy them after they’ve been requested by officers who are already present at a scene. The proposed program would allow drones to scope out a scene before officers arrive.
Minnesota law allows local police departments to use drones without a search warrant in specific cases:
- during or in the aftermath of an emergency situation that involves the risk of death or bodily harm to a person;
- at a public event where there is heightened risk to the safety of attendees;
- to collect information from a public area if there is reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, among other situations;
- to document evidence that is at imminent risk of destruction;
- to search for a missing person;
- to counter the risk of a terrorist attack by a specific individual or organization if the agency determines that credible intelligence indicates a risk;
- to prevent the loss of life and property in natural or man-made disasters and to facilitate operational planning, rescue, and recovery operations in the aftermath of these disasters;
- over a private area with the written consent of the occupant or a public area, for officer training or public relations purposes;
- to collect information for crash reconstruction purposes after a serious or deadly collision occurring on a public road;
- to conduct a threat assessment in anticipation of a specific event;
- for purposes unrelated to law enforcement at the request of a government entity provided that the government entity makes the request in writing to the law enforcement agency and specifies the reason for the request and proposed period of use.
Ward 4 City Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw, who represents the area where the pilot program would occur, wrote a legislative directive this spring that prompted the program. At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, she reassured community members that the goal is to reduce response times and limit police interactions with the public.
“This is not surveillance,” Vetaw said. “Someone has to call in for the drone to be dispatched, and the dashboard will be set up where people can track how the drone was being used and what for during the service.”
Committee members asked a few technical questions during the hearing about how the drone program would work, but several of them said they were saving more discussion and personal views of the program for the full council vote next week.
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