Minneapolis, MN
Ron Edwards Memorial Plaque Unveiled at Minneapolis Fire Station 1
Ron Edwards Honored With Memorial Plaque at Minneapolis Fire Station 1
Ron Edwards, a civil rights activist and longtime Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder columnist, was honored with a golden memorial plaque at Minneapolis Fire Station 1 for his decades of work advancing racial equity and diversifying the Minneapolis Fire Department. Edwards’ legacy as an advocate, journalist, and community leader continues to shape public safety and civic life in Minneapolis.
Civil rights activist and longtime Minnesota Spokesman‑Recorder columnist Ron Edwards was honored with a golden memorial plaque at Fire Station 1 on 299 S. 5th Ave on Dec. 19, recognizing his decades of work to diversify the Minneapolis Fire Department and advocate for racial equity in public safety.
Edwards, who died of natural causes in 2020 at age 81, moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City in the 1940s and became active in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. He served as president of the Minneapolis Urban League in the 1970s and joined the steering committee for a consent decree in 1972 that required the fire department to hire more firefighters of color.
The impact of that activism is seen today in a department that remains more diverse than many across the country: about 14-16% of Minneapolis Fire Department firefighters are Black, compared with roughly 8% nationally, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data and local city statistics. Meanwhile, about 31% of the Minneapolis department’s sworn personnel are people of color overall, reflecting decades of gradual change since the all‑white force of the early 20th century.
“We all grew up together around Ron Edwards, and he taught all of us about spirit, believing in yourself, and being true to who you are,” said Walter “Q Bear” Banks, who had known Edwards since childhood.
Edwards’ advocacy helped shape programs that expanded opportunities for Black and Indigenous firefighters and, later, for police officers. “He opened doors for Black and Indigenous fire and police officers,” said Lisa Clemons, a Minneapolis police officer who joined the department in 1987. “He made it possible for all of us to have careers in public service.”
Charles Rucker, president of the Minneapolis African‑American Firefighters Association, credited Edwards with creating the EMS pathway program, which became a primary source of diversity in the department. “The next firefighter class was 97% white, male. Ron Edwards helped change that,” Rucker said.
The ceremony included tributes from members of the community, public safety officials, and local leaders. Crow Bellecourt, who attended the event, said Edwards’ legacy should inspire future generations. “We need more young people to follow in his footsteps,” she said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey praised Edwards’ lifelong dedication. “If you hear about the work Ron Edwards did, you know he cared about diversity, equity and inclusion before it was even an acronym,” Frey said. “He understood that public safety must reflect the people it protects, and that reflection is now visible in this fire department.”
Beyond his work in public safety, Edwards was a journalist, writing columns for the Minnesota Spokesman‑Recorder from 2003 to 2019. His work included reporting on civil rights issues, criticizing media bias, and covering incidents of systemic injustice, including alleged illegal wiretapping by the Minneapolis Police Department.
“I learned so much from Ron Edwards about journalism and respecting people,” Banks said. “He knew how to communicate across different levels of education and experience.”
Edwards’ influence extended across generations of public servants. Police officers, firefighters and journalists alike credit him for opening doors and setting a standard for civic engagement. Former Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and officers like Dolores Dunn, who joined the department in 1973, trace their careers back to Edwards’ mentorship.
“It’s only fitting that Ron Edwards, who worked tirelessly as a columnist, radio co‑host and community advocate, now has a permanent marker of his legacy,” said Tracey Williams‑Dillard, publisher of the Minnesota Spokesman‑Recorder. “He was a man of indispensable knowledge who shaped Minnesota’s public safety and civil rights landscape for decades.”
The golden plaque at Fire Station 1 now serves as a lasting tribute to Edwards’ lifelong commitment to justice, equity and inclusion, and as a reminder of the change one person can inspire in a community.
Clint Combs welcomes reader responses at combs0284@gmail.com.
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Big Honking Truck Parade heads to Minneapolis
A ?cavalcade of wheels? will line Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis on Thursday, July 31, for the first-ever ?Minneapolis Moves: The Big Honking Truck Parade? featuring vehicles from fire engines to snowplows.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Families can get up close to massive trucks and city vehicles as the Big Honking Truck Parade rolls back through Minneapolis on Thursday.
Big trucks take over Nicollet Mall
What we know:
The “Minneapolis Moves: The Big Honking Truck Parade” is set to line downtown with municipal, public safety, construction and big-wheel trucks in an effort to bring families together and highlight the people and equipment that keep the city running.
The event begins at 5 p.m. with a local vendor market featuring crafts and food. A parade then starts at 5:30 p.m., traveling down Nicollet Mall from East Grant Street to South Sixth Street.
Mayor Frey during the 2025 Big Honking Truck Parade. Credit: City of Minneapolis (Supplied)
Dig deeper:
The parade is said to feature City of Minneapolis cars, police and fire trucks, construction vehicles, semitrailers and more from local businesses and operators.
Two Minnesota Special Olympics athletes, Dequan Williams of Minneapolis and Niko Lichtscheidl of St. Francis will serve as grand marshals of the parade, ahead of the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games which officially kick off in Minnesota on Saturday.
After the parade, all vehicles will be parked along the Mall until 8 p.m. for a “touch-a-truck” experience, giving families a chance to explore the trucks up close.
According to officials, the parade route will:
- Begin at East Grant Street
- Travel down Nicollet Mall
- End at South Sixth Street
Hoping to expand upon its first year in 2025, the parade is said to feature City of Minneapolis cars, police and fire trucks, construction vehicles, semitrailers and more from local businesses and operators.
What they’re saying:
“The Big Honkin’ Truck Parade is one of those uniquely Minneapolis events that brings families together while showcasing the people and equipment that serve our city every day,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a press release. “It’s fun, it’s educational, and it’s a great reminder of all the work happening behind the scenes to keep Minneapolis running.”
The Source: Information provided by a City of Minneapolis press release.
Minneapolis, MN
ICE’s Unseen Toll in Minneapolis: Suicide Helpline Calls More Than Doubled During Surge
More than six months after federal agents descended on Minnesota, the toll of the immigration crackdown on the Twin Cities continues to mount.
The latest revelations about the far-reaching and deeply felt impacts of the campaign known as Operation Metro Surge come in a Human Rights Watch report published Thursday.
Based on more than 130 interviews, video analysis, and government arrest data, the report documents a dizzying array of abuses over the multi-month siege of Minneapolis and St. Paul — from lethal violence to free speech violations, unlawful detentions, and more.
While many of the abuses are well-known — including the killings of Minnesota residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents — others occurred in the shadows of the infamous campaign.
Among the most troubling accounts are those provided by healthcare and mental health professionals.
According to the report, the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Minnesota saw a 120 percent increase in calls and a “significant increase” in the number of people struggling with suicidal thoughts or actions during Metro Surge. One medical provider knew of at least three teenagers who attempted to take their own life after their parents were detained in the crackdown, with one of the adolescents doing so on a “frequent” basis.
“One goal of the report is to bring light back to the full scope of the harm, and not only the harm that we saw in terms of violence in the streets, in terms of abusive detentions,” Reagan Williams, the author of the new report, told The Intercept, “but also the effects that that had for aspects of daily life for everybody here — the impact it had on people’s ability to leave their homes, to go to doctor, to go to school, to go to work.”
Human Rights Watch found the combination of violence and racial profiling that defined the crackdown caused many Minnesotans to forgo medical care.
The day after Good was killed, nearly a third of one healthcare provider’s patients — mostly Somali or Spanish-speaking immigrants — did not show up for pre-scheduled appointments. Another provider said the number of in-person visits at their office dropped by as much as 50 percent.
When Williams arrived in the Twin Cities, her focus was the kind of violent interactions documented in viral videos proliferating from Minnesota. She soon learned those weren’t the only issues community members were desperate to discuss.
“People that we talked with expressed emotions of exhaustion, fear, frustration, immense stress,” she said. “They expressed particular concerns for children, medical providers in particular, the impact of missing school, of knowing violence is happening in their communities — for immigrant children and children of color, the fear of having a parent taken, of themselves being taken.”
“Children are particularly vulnerable to long-term impacts of this kind of acute violence and stress,” Williams added. “Those are impacts that will continue on.”
“Near-Total Impunity”
Described by Trump administration officials as the largest immigration enforcement operation in history, the crackdown in the Twin Cities began in December and stretched into February. Thousands of officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol conducted roving arrest operations throughout the area.
More than 4,000 immigrants were arrested during Metro Surge. At roughly 100 arrests per day, it was the highest per capita arrest rate in the country; 64 percent of immigrants arrested in the campaign had no criminal record.
“In Minnesota, US citizens and immigrants alike were racially profiled in the ordinary course of their day — approached by federal agents while driving, while at work, or while shoveling snow,” the report said. “Minnesota residents of Somali and Latin American descent were notably targeted, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of these communities are US citizens or have green cards.”
A hotline run by the National Lawyers Guild recorded 524 cases of the U.S. citizens detained during the surge, though the figure is believed to be a significant undercount. A survey by the U.S. Immigration Policy Center at the University of California, San Diego earlier this year found that nearly a third of Minneapolis residents experienced an interaction with federal agents; of those interactions, nearly half occurred “at or near a school, healthcare facility, childcare facility, courthouse, or place of worship.”
The new report follows a fresh tally from Minneapolis officials, announced last week, estimating that Metro Surge cost the city nearly $700 million. A nonprofit serving tenants in Minnesota described the economic fallout as a “crisis,” the Human Rights Watch report said, with an 85 percent increase in people seeking rent payment assistance.
“If I told you every time ICE was near a school, you’d stop reading my messages.”
In one Minnesota school district, attendance dropped by nearly a third during the government operation. At least 14 incidents of immigration enforcement reported at or near campuses, including the arrest of a preschool teacher, a special education staff member, and a parent at a school bus stop.
“If I told you every time ICE was near a school,” the district’s superintendent told Human Rights Watch, “you’d stop reading my messages.”
Considering the sweeping impacts of the crackdown, Human Rights Watch is calling for an overhaul of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Border Patrol; congressional investigations into the actions of officials involved in the operation; legislation to prohibit immigration arrests at sensitive locations such as schools and hospitals; and a host of other reforms.
To date, the report said, “The many abuses committed by federal agencies during Operation Metro Surge have so far been met with near-total impunity.”
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