The Experience of Ron EdwardsA Renaissance Black Man in a White Man's WorldA Beacon for Freedom in the City
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September 28, 2011 Column #39: Murderopolis continues to flourish. 16-year-old African American male the latest victim
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Pullquote: The fact that $33 trillion has been spent on the War on Poverty and North Minneapolis and other inner cities are worse in education and jobs reflects the purposeful policy of discrimination.
Newspaper and Internet news headlines:
• June 30, 1996, New York Times, “Nice City's Nasty Distinction: Murders Soar in Minneapolis” (cited the city’s “Murderopolis” moniker with 97 murders in 1995).
• July 27, 2006, Minneapolis.metblogs.com, “Murderopolis once again.”
• November 5, 2010, MinnPost.com, “Minneapolis murders on the rise: Tracking the data.”
• December 15, 2010, MinnPost.com, “Minneapolis murders 2010: Not 'Murderopolis Redux'” (Really?).
• February 16, 2011, U.S. News & World Report website cites Minneapolis as number 10 on the “11 most dangerous cities in terms of crime risk” list.
Key number: 61 percent of Minneapolis murders are committed in North Minneapolis, as politicians (Democrats and Republicans), corporations (large and small), and U.S. presidents (Black and White) fail to address the real cures for poverty and crime: education and jobs.
According to the 1996 NY Times article, Star Tribune boosters said the Minneapolis “way of life” is "superior to that in most places on earth," raising the question of why this “idyllic city is shattered by violence, with gang turf wars and drive-by shootings on streets where children play games of kick-the-can”? Answer: The North Side is continuously left out of real planning by Black and White “leaders.”
September 19, 2011: 16 year old Juwon Osborne, African American teenager, died in a hail of gunfire as African American youth fought amongst themselves in North Minneapolis. Over 300 Black youth gathered at the location the next day.
September 20, 2011: According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a community “leader” says there are not enough “resources” to “stop the bleeding.” Question: How many resources do “leaders” need — another million dollars? $2 million? $3 million?
The War on Poverty has spent $33 trillion since 1965 in the U.S. Where did it go? Didn’t it go to self-appointed community and political “leaders” who became self-appointed bureaucratic dispensers/distributors of War on Poverty money to their favored agencies, churches, nonprofits, other organizations, leaving North Minneapolis and its education and job situations what they are today?
The fact that $33 trillion has been spent on the War on Poverty and North Minneapolis and other inner cities are worse in education and jobs reflects the purposeful policy of discrimination by Minneapolis and other city governments and corporations, and their purposeful lack of accounting.
Vast resources have poured into the community through the hands of “leaders” who say they are dealing with the problem. Results? Continued poverty, murder and mayhem.
As local NAACP President Booker T Hodges suggested in this newspaper a year ago, it’s time for an audit, time to add up the dollars as well as the casualties due to the resources not being used to properly address the community needs of education, jobs and economic development. Too many “leaders” profit from the labor of others, are neighborly and helpful only if paid, whose pretense of good intentions trumps fiscal audit responsibility, silencing efforts for real peace, prosperity, and equality of access and opportunity.
Needed is a passionate commitment to young, old and unemployed African Americans instead of the troubling re-birthing of Murderopolis, resulting in the tragic murders of teenagers like Ray Jon Gomez.
There are some within the police department who feel that finding the murderer of Ray Jon Gomez does not deserve attention due to the mistaken belief that this 13-year-old child fired on police officers near 3219 Penn Avenue North on July 25.
It was not until Milo Gomez, 18 years of age, was arrested on the 15th of September that police realized that cousins were carrying the same last name, and that the 13-year-old Gomez was not the one terrorizing police officers. Is this why there has been no progress in identifying suspects? The family and the rest of us want and deserve to know. Instead, the family has not been treated with the kind of respect and dignity they deserve.
Has “vendetta” by authorities against the Gomez family become a guiding force for police instead of the pursuit of justice? If so, it puts us all in danger, risking a continued escalation of murder and mayhem in Murderopolis.
There are those within the White community applauding the death of young African Americans, a view that can only result in further reprisals and vendettas with the worst possible consequences.
Needed is a fierce passion on the part of all, Blacks and Whites, to be totally and absolutely committed to the preservation of our children and all segments of our communities. My columns and website solutions section offer suggestions for planning that can reduce the terrible effects of a renewed Murderopolis that threatens the stability of the society we all live in.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards' platforms for communicating with the community:
(1) Hosts "Black Focus," Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) Hosts “Black Focus,” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays, 3:00 pm;
(3) Co-hosts “ON POINT!" Blog Talk Radio’s Saturdays at 4 pm;
(4) Weekly column, "Through My Eyes";
(5) Order his two books,The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, and A Seat For Everyone: The Freedom Guide that Explores A Vision for America;
(6) Hear his readings from his book;
(7) Solution papers for community planning and development; (8)"Tracking the Gaps" Blog or web log.
Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted September 28, 2011, 6:35 p.m.
September 21, 2011 Column #38: United States Commission on Civil Rights Was in Town. To examine racial disparity in unemployment in the Twin Cities
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
September 21, 2011
When I learned that the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Mid-western Regional Office requested Chairman Martin R. Castro to be in Minneapolis on September 15, 2011, I could see truth to the rumors that the city was going to make an effort to sanitize two very crucial and critical studies of racial disparity (non-compliance) in Minneapolis unemployment and contracts.
The purpose would be to protect the image of Mayor RT Rybak and his administration’s Department of Civil Rights by sanitizing its reputation with the Obama administration. Two very in depth examinations of disparity and discrimination were published in April and October of 2010, painting a very unfavorable picture as they exposed the cover up of the City’s continued pattern of purposefully failing to be in compliance with its own as well as federal statues in minority employment and contracts.
The announcement said “Community Forum,” yet the agenda showed no intention to allow victims of racial discrimination to give testimony. In fact, some of the individuals on the panels to discuss unemployment disparities and its causes are directly responsible for carrying out the cover up of these barriers barring African Americans. And it is these barriers that contribute to continued poverty and poor education in the Black community.
Why would it take the advisory committee to the U.S. Commission On Civil Rights 16 months to decide that this disaster disserved a formal and legal examination, and then make sure that the community was not only not informed but not given an opportunity to offer testimony, counter to the rules of the US Commission on Civil Rights, unless the purpose is cover up, not exposure?
The Commission is obviously attempting to sanitize and protect the reputation of liberals, both Black and white. The statements made before the Commission September 15, 2011, at the University of St. Thomas, do not match in purpose what the Commission says on its own web site: “To investigate complaints alleging … fraudulent practices, … . discrimination or a denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color” nor “in the administration of justice.” Minneapolis has committed all of these fraudulent practices. If the Commission is not here to verify that it con only be here to cover it up.
All of these actions begin to add up to three days of infamy.
On September 13, a group of Black “leaders” met at the Urban League with the head of the Minneapolis Health Department to discuss funding for the mental health initiative directed against the African American community. For their troubles they were offered $40,000, which they rejected: they wanted $10 million.
On September 14, Mayor Rybak presented to the national Mayors Institute for City Design, Charleston, SC, his plan for the increased gentrification of African Americans in North Minneapolis (i.e, displacing them).
On September 15, the US Civil Rights Commission was asked to sanitize documentation of racial disparity and unemployment in Minneapolis.
These three dates will live in infamy as part of the grand plan for the final solution of removing Blacks from Minneapolis. The events of these dates reflect the level of disdain and disrespect white power brokers have of the Negroes, as well as the disdain and disrespect of our community held by their Black lackies.
If the Commission is serious about Truth, it will read my February 10, 2010 column that answers, with facts and figures, the question, Where did it all go wrong?and it will read my March 31, 2011 Solution paper, Planning For The Positive Future …..of the African American community,which lists the links to the facts and figures in over 5 dozen columns printed in this paper that the Commission should read, if it is serious. The columns are easily Clicking on the links uncovers the willful and intentional refusal to comply by this city’s administration and its Department of Civil Rights. Even worse is that these tragic circumventions of the law to discriminate against Blacks is being carried out by Black lackies exercising the city’s “pathology and moral dereliction” of exclusion.
Violence continues.
Violence in the City of Minneapolis remains out of control. Riot police and close to 1,000 African American youth and police fought downtown along the Nicolet Mall on the weekend of September 11th.
As I have predicted in past columns, this has truly become the 2011 summer of Black rage, which is being reinforced by Black betrayal in education, jobs and housing.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; hosts “Black Focus” on Blog Talk radio Sundays at 3 pm; and co-hosts Blog Talk Radio’s “ON POINT!” Saturdays at 4 pm, providing coverage about Black Minnesota. Order his books at www.BeaconOnTheHill.com. Hear his readings and read his solution papers for community planning and development and “web log” at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
September 14, 2011 Column #37: Lt. Lee Edwards files against MPD
He won a $137,000 judgment against the City in 2009
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
“Lt. Lee Edwards files 2nd suit in police corruption probe” was the Star Tribune headline September 3. It is his second discrimination claim lawsuit against the City; the first came when he was part of the Mill City 5 Black Officers' lawsuit against the City.
This second suit charges the City with “retaliation for uncovering racial discrimination within Minneapolis police” in the first suit.
The first suit ended in May 2009, with a settlement of the case the Star Tribune reported was about “a 20-year pattern of discrimination against Black police officers.” The Mill City 5 Black officers were Lt. Edwards, Lt. Charles Adams, Lt. Medaria Arradondo, Lt. Don Harris, and Sgt. Dennis Hamilton.
Those close to the pattern of discrimination in the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) based on race are not surprised. This was also one of the common themes to come before the federally established PCRC (Police Community Relations Council) of 2004-2008, on which I served.
I applaud Lt. Edwards (who is not related to this columnist) for being an African American police officer willing to fight those trying to trample on his constitutional rights.
Recall the February 1, 2008 Star Tribune headline “Judge rejects city's motions as officers' bias case opens.” The judge was Federal District Court of Minnesota Chief Judge Michael Davis (see my February 6, 2008 column, Battle Lines Drawn in Federal Court).
Layer by layer, the process began for peeling back the layers of corruption and racial bias, discrimination and animus within the MPD directed against officers of color, as well as White officers fighting MPD corruption (as Sgt. Michael Keith: see my column of August 29, 2007, A profile in courage and integrity—the saga of Lt. Michael Keefe), in the battle to drive out corruption in law enforcement in the political home of the legendary Hubert Humphrey.
Under no circumstances could the current administrations of the mayor and the MPD chief be confused with the Humphrey legacy, an example of how far this city has fallen.
I commend officers like Lt. Edwards and Sgt. Keith for the court actions they are taking to seek justice, not only for themselves but also for their fellow officers. This is different from the lawsuit two White officers filed in order to cover up the earlier corrupt investigation of MPD Black police officers.
It is clear that in an email dated Monday, October 6, 2008, 9:17 am, to Capt. Amelia Huffman, head of the Criminal Investigation Division of the MPD, Lt. Andy Smith’s complaints reveal the panic within the MPD about the illegal wiretaps being conducted against Black officers who were involved with litigation against the MPD and the City of Minneapolis.
In another example of MPD corruption, documents have “disappeared” that reviewed the requests for wiretaps made during the February 2007 to December 2008 period.
It is quite clear that Lt. Edwards and his attorneys have discovered that privileged communication and conversation, specifically between the Mill City 5 and their attorneys, were being intercepted illegally and in violation of the rules of discovery of the federal court. Some suspect that the Mill City 5 attorneys did not want to believe that a government entity, such as the City of Minneapolis, would be involved in such egregious acts and violations of the constitutional rights of their Mill City 5 clients.
They didn’t seem to want to believe the City could be so defiant of the federal court authority and the trust the federal court placed in the City to protect of the rights of all the citizens of Minneapolis. And yet it happened.
These lawsuits need to go to trial, as even the Star Tribune has stated, as settlements deprive the public of the opportunity to hear the revelations and testimony that must be put forth, under oath, under the protection of the color of law.
The pioneers of civil rights and human rights, and those who have stood against discrimination and animus from law enforcement, deserve nothing less than a full review and exposure that can lead to a cleansing of one of the most corrupt departments and cities in the United States of America.
For more background, see “On the RACISM AND DISCRIMINATION in the Minneapolis Police Department,” July 10, 2008, updated through September 14, 2011 (lists 60 columns, 31 blog entries, and 12 “solution” papers at: ). The subhead, “Speaking over the silence of the major Twin Cities Dailies,” speaks to the scooping by this newspaper of the major dailies that often refuse to thoroughly report on this topic.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards: platforms for communicating with the community:
(1) Hosts "Black Focus," Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) Hosts “Black Focus,” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays, 3:00 pm;
(3) Co-hosts “ON POINT!" Blog Talk Radio’s Saturdays at 4 pm;
(4) Weekly column, "Through My Eyes";
(5) Order his two books,The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, and A Seat For Everyone: The Freedom Guide that Explores A Vision for America;
(6) Hear his readings from his book;
(7) Solution papers for community planning and development; (8)"Tracking the Gaps" Blog or web log.
Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted 9-19-11, 3:38 p.m.
[after original post of 9-14-1, 3:06 a.m., dropped]
September 07, 2011 Column #36: Minneapolis Streets are the Battle Ground for the Soul of the City. Violence Continues to Spiral Out of Control in Minneapolis
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
The Rybak administration pretends crime and violence is under control on the streets and in the neighborhoods of Minneapolis. My last column reported 22 shot or stabbed, with 3 deaths. I now add six more stabbings where one died and the firing of gunmen on a Mosque in South Minneapolis celebrating Ramadan, killing a 26 year old Somali. This was the second attack on a religious gathering in Minneapolis in less than seven days.
Can you believe that if gunmen fired on white Lutherans and white Roman Catholics I’d even have to point this out?
Can you believe the silence of the ecumenical leadership of our city, both Black and white, in light of this sectarian violence? “Leadership,” Black and white, seems to be petrified, as if there are no answers to the violence and terror gripping the neighborhoods and streets of our city.
The foundations, churches and interest groups that hold “what shall be done” meetings should check out the solutions offered on this column’s web page. Instead, they ignore who lives here and make promises of safety to visitors that Minneapolis is not a Little Belfast, like to the 10,000 strong American Legion that again came to Minneapolis for their annual convention.
Even the Legionnaires, veterans of combat in different theaters of conflict around the world, can read between the lines. They read newspapers. They watch TV in their hotel rooms and wherever else they may be. Although guaranteed safety I question if they understand the level of terror gripping this city.
And yet, still, with the exception of this column, silence continues. Here is an example of the muzzling of the 4th Estate in this city: five days ago, snipers in the vicinity of 29th and Morgan in North Minneapolis, fired from ambush on Minneapolis police, the second time in a month and a half that this column has reported this.
Minneapolis police are wondering when their superiors will show some concern for the safety of law enforcement officers in our city.
When you refuse to discuss the continued acts of violence, as the Rybak Administration and City Council and church communities have chosen to do, democracy and free society become precarious, and could evaporate or go up in flames.
Despite the people in our city being shot, knifed, maimed and killed, the silence continues. Silence is not acceptable. Not since the days of Prohibition 80 years ago have Minneapolis police officers been fired on from ambush by snipers. What is the explanation? What are we up against as a city? Is Europe coming to America? Have we now fallen into a period of sectarian violence as Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s?
Ask yourselves this: how safe are our 13 and 14 year old children seeing how 13 and 14 year olds are being gunned down on the streets of our city? This city pretends it is not Detroit, Newark, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Memphis, or Baltimore, an honor roll that lives in infamy in terms of violence on the streets of those cities. We act as if we are above those references and identification tags.
Either our city officials refuse to address how their policies contribute to this violence or they are afraid to express their views. The violence from guns, knives, feet and fists continue. The dust briefly settles and the Medical Examiner moves on, but the casualty figures continue to increase.
The mayor and the city council are doing nothing to enable citizens to feel safer. We must not allow ourselves to become the Belfast or Rio de Janeiro of North America. Minnesotans and Minneapolitans deserve better.
Hubert Humphrey would cry tears of humiliation if he saw this violence in his city now. Cecil Newman and Nellie Stone Johnson would pray for the salvation of African Americans. All three of these great patriots would cry over the darkness that has descended over this city during this period of outrageous violence, as our leaders, white and Black, cower fearfully, hoping this American tragedy just goes away. The establishment must act, for around the world, the young are rising up against establishments trying to keep them down. Minneapolis should be leading not retreating our youth.
I don’t understand why African American leaders, sitting on $600K for Tornado recovery, are not offering $5K for information that can help apprehend the shooters of the 13 and 14 year olds.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards' platforms for communicating with the community:
(1) Hosts "Black Focus," Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) Hosts “Black Focus,” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays, 3:00 pm;
(3) Co-hosts “ON POINT!" Blog Talk Radio’s Saturdays at 4 pm;
(4) Weekly column, "Through My Eyes";
(5) Order his two books,The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, and A Seat For Everyone: The Freedom Guide that Explores A Vision for America;
(6) Hear his readings from his book;
(7) Solution papers for community planning and development; (8)"Tracking the Gaps" Blog or web log.
Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted September 7, 2011, 3:52 a.m.
August 31, 2011 Column #35: Fifteen shot. Seven stabbed. Three dead. White media ignores six days of violence and death on Minneapolis streets
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
For six days last week, Minneapolis teetered on the edge of what could be called anarchy. Within a six-day period, 15 people were shot, seven were stabbed, three died, and two, as of the writing of this column, are still fighting for their lives. All were African American. Nineteen males, three females, the oldest 21 years of age, with one pregnant.
As of the writing of this column, here is the breakdown:
Every city knows violence. Media usually keep all informed and aware of the level of violence. Except in Minneapolis, where White media often embargo news of the Black community unless Whites are involved too.
Without knowledge, citizens are at greater risk and peril. News embargoes undermine the credibility of city leaders. I understand the need not to repel tourists and shoppers, but repelling voters will prove to be worse.
Fifteen shootings and seven stabbings in six days is obviously disturbing. Particularly disturbing is the 19-year-old female shot at the corner of Broadway and Lyndale in North Minneapolis as she stood in a prayer circle offering prayers for the safety of the city.
Yes, that’s correct: This 19-year-old was gunned down as she and 25 others, Black and White, prayed for the safety of the communities of our city.
I repeat what is most frightening about this: The embargo on the publication of the news of these events by the White-controlled Twin Cities media, as if they hope that people being shot and stabbed and killed will go unnoticed.
Once again we get a better understanding of how City officials suppress the magnitude of violence so they can proclaim that violent crime is down. They hope we have our heads in the sand, that it will blow over, and that people won’t know how much of the problem is because the MPD is spending more time on internal activity and less on protection and crime prevention.
Maybe because of the fact that all 22 victims (and the unborn baby makes for a total of 23 human beings) are Black, White media is telling us that Black people are not important. That is a sad and dangerous commentary.
Six days of violence in our American city. This is not Kabul, Baghdad, Tripoli, Rio de Janeiro, Stockholm or London. This is our city, our people, our neighbors, and our loved ones.
Think about it my friends: six days of terror for the Black community. Fifteen shot. Seven stabbed. Three dead. An unborn baby fighting for survival. Two African American women in critical condition. All must be part of the shared concern with respect to what is happening in the African American community of Minneapolis.
This is the 48th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s March on Washington “I Have a Dream” speech about poverty, social justice, equality, jobs, education, liberty and hope. The symbol of this is a 30-foot statue of Dr. King, dedicated Sunday, August 28, in the new MLK four-acre National Memorial in Washington, D.C.
This is also the 56th anniversary of the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till.
Which visions will guide Minneapolis? Peace or violence? Poverty or prosperity? Education and jobs or despair?
The MPD is part of that answer. The energy spent by the MPD to harass and try to ruin Black officers needs to be redirected to protecting the community. Too many Whites want us gone, as we see in the continual and inexorable gentrification removing Blacks from Minneapolis.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards' platforms for communicating with the community:
(1) Hosts "Black Focus," Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) Hosts “Black Focus,” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays, 3:00 pm;
(3) Co-hosts “ON POINT!" Blog Talk Radio’s Saturdays at 4 pm;
(4) Weekly column, "Through My Eyes";
(5) Order his two books,The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, and A Seat For Everyone: The Freedom Guide that Explores A Vision for America;
(6) Hear his readings from his book;
(7) Solution papers for community planning and development; (8)"Tracking the Gaps" Blog or web log.
Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted August 31, 2011, 2:08 a.m.
August 24, 2011 Column #34: Without MPD narcotics unit, drugs flow freely in Black community
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
In very early June of 2011, a community resident by the name of Johnny Turnipseed raised a very serious and profound question at a press conference being held by the tornado recovery team. His question had to do with the aftermath of the tornado and damage to homes: How were the authorities going to deal with the problems of drugs and prostitution?
Longtime observers of the drug problem in Minneapolis know and understand that there has never been a truly aggressive effort to deal with illegal drugs, nor to confront those who give protection to those promoting drug activity within the Black community.
One example among many is the 923 Club on Washington Avenue in North Minneapolis. For years it was the hub for illegal drug trafficking in the Black community. The club had police protection, which everyone knew and understood. In fact, a number of years later one of the law enforcement officers that gave aid and comfort to drug trafficking became the head of the Minneapolis Police Department’s narcotics unit.
That raises another issue: Of the top 100 police departments in the United States, as of the publishing of this column, only the Minneapolis Police Department no longer has a narcotics unit.
For reasons no one seems to want to explain, Minneapolis disbanded its narcotics unit, even though the flow of illegal drugs into the neighborhoods of Minneapolis is as acute and intense now as at any time in modern history. And so when citizen Johnny Turnipseed raised the question of drugs and prostitution and was then verbally attacked for doing so, I knew why.
I knew that those who said, “Consider the source” were being too accepting of the tragic reality that drug trafficking in our community is protected by community leaders, Black and White, in and outside the police department. Our young people are used and abused by those who manage drug trafficking in Black America, as our young people are used to facilitate drug trafficking.
There is always a lot of discussion about conveying to young people the importance of values and appreciating the importance of doing the right thing. One of the institutions for doing so is Peace Builders, an organization that is expert at implementing school-wide violence prevention programs in America.
For years I have covered in this column the ways the City of Minneapolis controls the future of the safety of the African American community. So, once again I refer you to the document entitled, “The State of City Leadership for Children and Families,” commissioned on behalf of the National League of Cities and their National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families, especially pages 58-62 of this document, which reports on the plan for the Black community of Minneapolis and its youth.
It remains unacceptable that on the occasion of this document’s report on the devastation and violence associated with drugs, the city was disbanding its narcotics unit and placing enforcement into its Violent Offenders Task Force unit (VOTF) that has since been disbanded in disgrace as an outgrowth of its own internal misconduct and corruption. This has left the world of violence and drug trafficking to itself.
And so the question posed here is this: Who really fights the war against drugs in Minneapolis? The more critical accompanying question is this: Is access to drugs being reduced, or are we experiencing what Maxine Waters exposed in California — an increasing dependence on drug racketeering as part of a continuing virus in the destruction of the American Black community?
I encourage those who maintain they want to be enlightened on saving our youth to examine the National League of Cites report of 2009.
And yet, the silence within leadership communities when one talks about drugs continues. Many know that drug trafficking in Black America is extremely beneficial and profitable for a small segment of “leaders” always at the ready to position themselves to make sure that drugs flow freely to their target victims in the African American community.
It does not bode well that Johnny Turnipseed was beaten back and dismissed at the press conference on the grounds that drugs and prostitution were not the subject of the event, when drugs, prostitution and crime have been going on hand in hand with everything, including tornado recovery. Why does the City persist in its denial?
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards: platforms for communicating with the community:
(1) Hosts "Black Focus," Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) Hosts “Black Focus,” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays, 3:00 pm;
(3) Co-hosts “ON POINT!" Blog Talk Radio’s Saturdays at 4 pm;
(4) Weekly column, "Through My Eyes";
(5) Order his two books,The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, and A Seat For Everyone: The Freedom Guide that Explores A Vision for America;
(6) Hear his readings from his book;
(7) Solution papers for community planning and development; (8)"Tracking the Gaps" Blog or web log.
Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted August 24, 2011, 11:30 p.m.
August 17, 2011 Column #33: Violence flares again in our beloved Shangri La
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
“Agitation is the marshaling of the conscience of a nation to mold its law,” said Sir Robert Peel, who helped create the modern concept of the police force and twice served as England’s Prime Minister between 1834 and 1846. Minneapolis needs planning that reflects its good conscience and diminishes agitation.
Agitation is on the streets of Minneapolis, agitation due to the City’s responses to tornado recovery, economic downturn, furloughed workers, and violence in the streets, all part of 2011’s troubling summer.
I reported on the sham that is the tornado recovery planning, the turmoil in the MPD planning and collapse of the Violent Offenders Task Force (VOTF), and City workers either furloughed or reduced to a four-day work week, much due to a lack of political and community leadership.
But it was eight shootings within three days that causes sober reflection on the impending danger of increased violence. Downtown Minneapolis, flagship of Minneapolis’ self image, is tainted by this violence.
Pitched battles fought weekly between police and young people are mindful of riots now going on in London. The cover-up/non-reporting of Minneapolis violence and instability is mind-boggling and dangerous to the health and future of what is promoted as a safe city. Comparatively speaking, “safe” is the furthest thing from the truth.
The eight shootings in three days included a 17-year-old Black youth gunned down while bicycle riding in North Minneapolis, and a young man shot just on the outskirts of the Little Earth Housing Project in South Minneapolis, this time by police.
In one night, there were five shootings in North and South Minneapolis. And along Penn Avenue in North Minneapolis, unknown terrorists fired upon police. Most disturbing is that there are no suspects. The internal unraveling of the VOTF is taking a wider toll on the city.
But the most egregious and outrageous act of violence was the 26-year-old African American shot from ambush in the middle of the street at 13th and Oliver at 11 pm. Shot in the neck, he is now paralyzed from the neck down.
What is so disturbing about this tragedy is that it has received no news coverage other than this column. No press conference. No update. No visit by the mayor or other political leader, and certainly no utterance of concern and condolence from leadership within the African American community.
A young man gunned down in the streets, paralyzed from the neck down, with no one expressing concern as our good Samaritans “pass on the other side.” His loved ones and friends desperately seek answers. So far, no answers are to be had.
And this doesn’t include the suspicious number of victims of violence and mayhem pulled from the Mississippi River. It makes me think of the1980s “disappeared” era in Buenos Aires, Argentina, or Sao Paolo, Brazil, or in Damascas, Syria today, or somewhere else in the wild Third World that is more forgotten than remembered.
But this violence of which I write is happening here, my friends, on the streets of our own beloved city, Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a lot of victims and no suspects. Are the European street battles of agitation in London, Paris, Athens, etc. coming to America?
Where is the reporting of the Fourth Estate? Where are the plans for dealing with it? Isn’t the suppression of news supposed to be only in the authoritarian regimes of South America, the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Asia? Why is it taking place here on the banks of the Mississippi, in our beloved Shangri La?
Do not dismiss the agitation of the economic downturn, the lack of jobs, the unequal access and opportunity, and the dark forecasts of our economic future. The violence can only increase, and it is clear the African American community has become a target for the fallout from bad public policy.
It is very simple, my friends: If there is no report, there is no investigation, no follow-up, no prosecution, and, in the words spoken too often in history, “We screamed for consideration, but there was no one left to hear our cries.”
This is Minneapolis in the year 2011. As you think about the one thing that you have, life, be wise and think about the planning pieces we have written about (and placed on our website), which are also being ignored by the various leaderships and white journalists.
Stay tuned. May God bless you.
Ron Edwards: platforms for communicating with the community:
(1) Hosts "Black Focus," Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) Hosts “Black Focus,” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays, 3:00 pm;
(3) Co-hosts “ON POINT!" Blog Talk Radio’s Saturdays at 4 pm;
(4) Weekly column, "Through My Eyes";
(5) Order his two books,The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, and A Seat For Everyone: The Freedom Guide that Explores A Vision for America;
(6) Hear his readings from his book;
(7) Solution papers for community planning and development; (8)"Tracking the Gaps" Blog or web log.
Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted Wednesday, August 17, 2011, 1:22 a.m.
August 10, 2011 Column #32: Chickens Come Home to Roost for the Violent Offenders Task Force (VOTF)
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
The recent Star Tribune July 31, 2011 story, “Cost of Minneapolis police payouts could hit record this year,” reminds me of the Star Tribune’s four-part April 19-22, 2009 series “The Informant” regarding the misdeeds of the once seemingly impregnable Violent Offenders Task Force (VOTF), which I first exposed in my August 29, 2007 column.
The front page “Informant” story, fourth installment, “Police vs. Police,” displayed a picture of the gang leader with national standing in the Gangster Disciples, Taylor Trump, otherwise known as the legendary Valachi.
None of us should be happy at the demise of VOTF. The city needs it. It worked with the FBI and St. Paul police to streamline work against gangs. Its collapse is due to corrupt members and poor leadership by Chief Tim Dolan.
The “Police vs. Police” theme is seen again in the recent lawsuit against the City by former VOTF unit members Lt. Andrew Smith and Sgt. Pat King.
One of the so-called lead investigators who took credit for developing evidence against Lt. Lee Edwards and Officer Mike Roberts was Sergeant Grant Snyder. He had been identified as the officer controlling a number of informants under the control of the VOTF unit, including the one they felt was the most important, Sheila Haynes. Sgt. Snyder and others maintained that Haynes would identify Black police officers as major drug dealers.
Sgt. Snyder was also identified as one of the officers who brought down then-Lt. Michael Keith, former commander of the VOTF unit. Keith was forced out for raising serious questions about Sgt. Snyder, Sgt. Pat King, and Lt. Andy Smith, among others.
Lt. Michael Keith, later demoted to sergeant, was thrown under the bus by current MPD Chief Tim Dolan.
As reported in my column of April 29, 2009 (“Who Governs in City Hall? The Continued Exposure of a Failed System”), the VOTF chickens were again coming back home to roost. The Star Tribune reported that one of the specific directives given to Lt. Smith and Sgt. King, in a February 14, 2011 letter, was that Sgt. King specifically was prohibited, pursuant to Article 16 of the Labor Agreement, not to be present on any MPD or FBI property without prior authorization by Assist. Chief Janee Harteau.
As I reported, that directive was not adhered to. The offices and the files of the VOTF unit were accessed, with documentation and other incriminating evidence purposefully removed in direct violation of the directive by the assistant chief. They were assisted by Sgt. Snyder.
Ultimately, the internal investigation identified principals involved in the violation of the assistant chief’s directive. VOTF began to implode, beginning with federal authorities withdrawing equipment and other assistance, leading to Sgt. Grant Snyder eventually being informed that he was no longer needed in the VOTF unit and was to work in another unit.
And so, four years after investigative reporting by this column, and after being joined by the Star Tribune two years ago, we are seeing the final demise of the VOTF unit. Many in the cast of characters who expressed satisfaction, personal in nature, in the undermining of Black police officers in the Minneapolis Police Department, leading to demotion, prison terms, and an erosion of morale among Black officers in this department, are now understanding how what goes around comes around.
Of course, Black officers were not the only targets of this racially motivated departmental-selected genocide, or “culling.” Lt. Michael Keith, now a sergeant, and his attorney will be taking depositions within the next week, according reliable sources. This in itself will raise additional serious and yet needed questions and inquiry.
So the July 31 story brings full circle the April 22, 2009 Star Tribune front page story “Police vs. Police.” The current story is thus still far from the truth, as even more lawsuits will come to the fore.
We are only seeing the tip of the volcano. When all is said and done there will be an eruption that will bring to people a better understanding of what it’s like in major big-city police departments to work with the kind of animus brought by the racists in the MPD.
Former Mississippi governor Gil Bilbo (racist, KKK member and segregationist extraordinaire) would applaud the Minneapolis Police Department‘s doctrine of setting White officers against Black officers, thus intensifying its internal war against Blacks and fostering racism, nullification and reversal.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards: platforms for communicating with the community:
(1) Hosts "Black Focus," Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) Hosts “Black Focus,” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays, 3:00 pm;
(3) Co-hosts “ON POINT!" Blog Talk Radio’s Saturdays at 4 pm;
(4) Weekly column, "Through My Eyes";
(5) Order his two books,The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, and A Seat For Everyone: The Freedom Guide that Explores A Vision for America;
(6) Hear his readings from his book;
(7) Solution papers for community planning and development; (8)"Tracking the Gaps" Blog or web log.
Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted Wednesday, August 10, 2011, 12:47 p.m.
August 03, 2011 Column #31: The far right (or left?) strikes back with violence. Agonizing tragedy in Norway
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
When the first reports came out of Oslo, Norway about the July 22, 2011 bomb that exploded in the center of Oslo, killing eight outside the offices of Norway’s prime minister (the target, it was learned later), the first reaction in this country by the news media, both left and right, was that it was by a dirty little brown Muslim striking at the heart of a Western paradise.
But when new reports emerged an hour and a half later of the carnage of 68 shot and killed (out of over 500 campers) in a rampage on Utøya island, 25 miles northwest of Oslo and a quarter-mile off shore, identifying the perpetrator of death as having Nordic features, you could hear all the experts saying “oops.”
The bomber/shooter turned out to be blond-headed right-wing Scandinavian extremist Anders Behring Breivik. Most of us despise such murderous acts by self proclaimed “saviors,” as they can breed counter-violent saviors.
Whether Tucson or Oklahoma or NYC or Spokane; whether Oslo or London or Madrid or Amsterdam; whether North Africa, Palestine, Mexico, or the Middle East; whether left wing or right wing; two things stand out. First, hatred is hatred and evil is evil. Secondly, whether in the U.S., Europe or the Middle East, the common thread is this: These killers fight for their causes by killing their own neighbors. Whether in these farway places or in our own North Minneapolis, we need to concentrate on putting neighbors first, not political agendas.
In the final analysis, despite being a coward, the Norwegian killer was still a shrewd tactician. He calculated with murderous precision that the over 500 people on the island would be trapped with no way off other than jumping into the freezing waters surrounding the island. He knew in advance he would be able to use the system of Norwegian justice to espouse his right-wing hatred and demagoguery and only get 25 years in prison. He even wrote a 1,500-page manifesto outlining his master plan for a war of the ages. Thus, “jihad” can cut both ways.
Too many people like this type of self-proclaimed “savior.” They like his thinking, his bias and his master plan. Those espousing violence, just as those who planted the bomb for the annual MLK march in Spokane earlier this year, consider themselves the vanguard of new crusaders for their version of a brave new and purer world. That should make us all the more wary and vigilant, as we contemplate our own domestic terror, such as the attack on police officers Monday, July 25, 2011, in North Minneapolis. I was there and saw the attack.
Thankfully, it appears there were no serious injuries, no loss of life. It further highlights the need for a call to reconciliation between North Minneapolis and the MPD. How the repercussions and the backlash will be handled remains to be seen. But Minneapolis certainly cannot have a repeat of the incidents of 20 years ago surrounding the death of Officer Jerome Hoff. No city can afford the types of polarization that are taking place.
I was surprised July 25 to find that after law enforcement officers had been fired on by unknown assailants, no city officials came to the scene. No mayor. No city council members. No state representatives. No police chief. No community leaders. When the fearful can’t be brave, it is impossible to have strategic discussion to stop this city from becoming more polarized, especially along racial lines. Minneapolis needs to establish and maintain the best possible relationships even under the worst of circumstances.
In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln, noting that both sides in the Civil War sought God’s “aid against the other,” said, “The prayers of both could not be answered.” Idolators of violence incur murderous results. Eventually a kind of Newton’s law of politics occurs: For every political action a political reaction.
We need Martin Luther King’s nonviolent approach: slower but much less deadlier, leaving hope and breathing room for subsequent generations. We need the cool of moderation (opposing sides acting within the legal democratic space, not outside it), as violent acts and movements eventually cause others to rise and oppose back with violence.
Pause to offer prayers for Norway and for those mourning the deaths of their beloved children and the loss of their nation’s innocence. Affirm peace. Oppose violence. Join together to beat the monster of violence that stalks the planet.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards: platforms for communicating with the community:
(1) Hosts "Black Focus," Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) Hosts “Black Focus,” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays, 3:00 pm;
(3) Co-hosts “ON POINT!" Blog Talk Radio’s Saturdays at 4 pm;
(4) Weekly column, "Through My Eyes";
(5) Order his two books,The Minneapolis Story, Through My Eyes, and A Seat For Everyone: The Freedom Guide that Explores A Vision for America;
(6) Hear his readings from his book;
(7) Solution papers for community planning and development; (8)"Tracking the Gaps" Blog or web log.
Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted Wednesday, August 3, 2011, 11:59 p.m
July 27, 2011 Column #30: Marvin “Corky” Taylor: latest casualty in the purge of the Mpls Civil Rights Department
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
The dismissal by firing of Marvin “Corky” Taylor earlier this month continues the purge and cover-up of corruption in the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department (MCRD). In fact, rumor has it that when the department’s Roxanne Crossland, head of the SUBP (Small Underutilized Businesses Program) is terminated, it will complete the purge of employees who would not participate in the corruption.
Marvin Taylor became a liability for refusing to participate in the massaging of employment and contract numbers related to an organization called Urban Homeworks. Mr. Taylor was expected to provide the necessary misinformation on a $1,411,500 contract. The funds were to be drawn from CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funds, a program of federal dollars.
Mr. Taylor was called upon to provide similar misinformation for the construction of the Twins Target Field. Because he began to protest the illegal acts by filing reports about it, he was demoted from deputy director of the department to the position of contract compliance specialist. In October 2010, Mr. Taylor was hit with the first step in the City bureaucracy’s arsenal of retaliation and retribution: a letter of warning threatening to take away his job, his livelihood.
The beginning of the end came when the head of a Texas company that conducted the five-year compliance study, Dr. Wainwright, praised Marvin Taylor as a valuable resource in his final report before the city council on October 14, 2010.
Within two weeks, on October 25, 2010, the warning letter was sent to Marvin Taylor from Assistant Director Johnny Burns, charging violations of Civil Service Commission rules, insubordination, and substandard performance. Nine specific points were made to Mr. Taylor threatening his job security. Most interesting in this warning letter were points four, five, and seven.
We live in a small, small world of small-minded departments of small-minded people with small integrity after all. It is a new king of irony that this warning letter came from a former subordinate who had in turn been reprimanded by Mr. Taylor for insubordination and poor performance just six months earlier.
One of the issues that Dr. Wainwright and his diversity study team raised over the five years they conducted the compliance study were facts of omission, “creative” number tampering, and forging of documents. Dr. Wainwright reported this in person to the city council in December 2010. (Members of the team included Charlene Hoyt and Associates of Chicago, who first discovered the tampering through her analysis of the submitted data.)
Prior to his termination, Mr. Taylor was offered an opportunity to get back on the team and become a team player by going along with false reporting. To his credit he refused and, instead, filed a series of administration complaints against Mr. Burns, which were dismissed without review by the Minneapolis Civil Service Commission due to pressure from the office of the mayor.
This shows how the corruption goes all the way to the top and then works its way back down through the various bureaus, including the city attorney’s office that was aware of all of this but stood by silently in support of the continued corruption, signing off on Mr. Taylor’s dismissal on July 14, 2011.
To some observers, the problem for the City was Mr. Taylor’s refusal to misrepresent the $1.4 million contract for these properties in North Minneapolis: 2026 Fremont Ave. North, 1514 and 1601 Irving Ave. North, 1811 and 2129 Emerson Ave. North, and 2701 Lyndale Ave. North.
Mr. Taylor is gone. When Ms. Crossland is terminated, the purge will be complete.
Corruption is the ongoing and acceptable doctrine of doing business in Minneapolis government in general and in the Civil Rights Department in particular. Despite whistleblower laws to protect employees, those who choose to challenge corruption in Minneapolis city government as insiders find their careers ended.
In some cases, people have enough evidence in hand to make the City pay for its endorsement of corrupt government, as we saw in the successful lawsuit against the City by Ronald G. Brandon (see my column of June 22, 2010). Old-time political bosses of the 19th century, like Boss Crump of Memphis or the Tammany Hall machine of New York City, would be proud of Minneapolis city government and its corrupt and obedient departments.
See other columns relevant to these individuals of Dec. 15, 2010; November 17 and 24, 2010; January 19, 2011; March 16 and 23, 2011; and June 22, 2011.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards (1) hosts "Black Focus" on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) hosts “Black Focus” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays at 3:00 pm;and (3) co-hosts Blog Talk Radio’s “ON POINT!" Saturdays at 4 pm, providing coverage about Black Minnesota. (4) Order his books at http://www.BeaconOnTheHill.com. (5) Hear his readings, (6) read his "Through My Eyes, The Minneapolis Story Continues" weekly column; (7) read his solution papers for community planning and development, and (8) follow his "Tracking the Gaps" web log at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted Wednesday, July 27, 2011, 9:02 a.m.
July 20, 2011 Column #29: The Cicchetti Plan returns
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Ever since the University of Minnesota Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center’s (UROC) Futures Conference, “Coming Together to Create a Shared Future for North Minneapolis,” held in February 2009, there have been many discussions within the Minneapolis mental health community about how and when to put into play the University of Minnesota/UROC Dante Cicchetti Plan. UROC is comprised of 30 organizations and 10 programs. See my columns of January 18, 2006 (Researching you: analyzing the Black community) and November 21, 2007 (Foundation in place to begin 'research' genocide—again).
The “when” is now. The tornado that struck Minneapolis on May 22 catalyzed the implementation of the Final Solution for the Grand Plan being developed.
The “how” is through the newly created North Side Tornado Response Team, now called the North Side Community Response Team (NCRT), indicating the longterm intent to, in a word, pacify.
Dr. Cicchetti is a brilliant, award-winning psychologist conducting programs and research in psychology, psychiatry, psychopharmacology, pediatrics, inter-parental conflict and associations with child adjustment, abused and neglected infants in the U of M Medical School psychiatry department. But the university is applying his intelligence to the wrong vision.
The best vision came from Nellie Stone Johnson, a DFL progressive: empowering people with real education, jobs and housing.
The worst vision is UROC’s vision that I call the Cicchetti Plan: the White vision of disempowering by using the social control-industrial complex mechanism of Black medicalization with a variety of legal (prescription) and illegal drugs, as if people were potted plants to be pruned and shaped and kept in their place according to the will of the gardeners. No mention of the true solutions, education and jobs.
Psychiatry and other mental health fields characterized the angry and belligerent Black males of the Civil Rights Movement as irrational and schizophrenic (as society was good). Incarceration as a method was added in the ’80s.
Gentrification (replacing inner-city Blacks with Whites), on the UROC agenda, is another way to rip apart the African American community spiritually, physically and mentally. By June 22, a part of that engine had been chosen — the North Side Community Response Team (NCRT) subcommittee on mental and chemical health. The document was well done and crafted in such a way as to lead the community into the grasp of the Cicchetti Plan.
Very quietly at UROC, training and coordination meetings were taking place to formulate the delivery teams. Review documents of the subcommittee on mental and chemical health; the introduction of “chemical” refers to antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs used on African Americans, such as haldol (haloperidol), thorazine (chlorpromazine) and stelazine (trifluoperazine)
There are a lot of money and grants involved in carrying out plans to deal with such problems, as already addressed in the mayor’s special commission report of 2008 and the article in the annual report of 2009, “The State of City Leadership for Children and Families,” issued by the National League of Cities Institute for Youth Education and Families. Note the specific information contained at pages 57, 58 and parts of 59 of the NLC report in regards to Minneapolis, which sounds a lot like Cicchetti’s research mission.
In fact, it is said in some quarters that some of the $1.1 million provided to the North Side Community Response Team in two parts, June 1, 2011 ($206,000) and July 9, 2011 ($500,000), contain support dollars from the pharmaceutical industry in support of the Cicchetti Project. We would like to think that that is not an accurate description and that, in light of the subcommittee on mental and chemical health, there is some other explanation for how much funding is being made available to deal with the African American mental health problem.
I would prefer the therapeutic method of tornado damage relief. I assume these questions can be answered by the committee in private consultation with the Minneapolis Foundation. We need to keep in mind that the $206,000 awarded on June 1, 2011 was never reported to the committee and, in fact, no one has identified who the fiscal agent was for that $206,000.
The Council of Churches is the fiscal agent for the second award of money, $500,000, awarded to the committee for services to be rendered. As the headline of a column in this paper by NAACP President Booker T. Hodges stated December 1, 2010: “Some leaders put personal agendas ahead of community interests. Its time for them to go.”
All should be aware of the professional mental health community activities through which Dr. Dante Cichetti, at long last, will be able to spin his clinic magic. God help Black people.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards (1) hosts "Black Focus" on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) hosts “Black Focus” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays at 3:00 pm;and (3) co-hosts Blog Talk Radio’s “ON POINT!" Saturdays at 4 pm, providing coverage about Black Minnesota. (4) Order his books at http://www.BeaconOnTheHill.com. (5) Hear his readings, (6) read his "Through My Eyes, The Minneapolis Story Continues" weekly column; (7) read his solution papers for community planning and development, and (8) follow his "Tracking the Gaps" web log at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 1:08 a.m.
July 13, 2011 Column #28: Shutdowns and lockouts: disturbing signs in government and sports
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
People didn’t think it would happen again after happening just six years ago: elected Minnesota officials shutting the government down, making the Land of 10,000 Lakes the Land of 23,000 Layoffs.
This sets up long-term devastating consequences for those laid off and for our fractured Minnesota economy, as the ripple effect begins to engulf our state. A middle ground must be found that doesn’t harm the lower and middle classes, but also doesn’t kill the geese that lay the golden eggs. The task: to get two sides to come together as one state.
We’ll leave it to historians to explain why the Republicans (acting as if it’s the 1950s) and the DFLers (acting as if it’s the 1960s) are ignoring solutions for 21st century citizens caught in their crossfire.
In the eight years under Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota slid into debt. It is now $5.1 billion. But “we” didn’t incur it: The “collective” of the bigs did it (big government, big legislatures, big foundations).
Under Republican Governor Pawlenty, the DFL controlled the legislature. Under now DFL Governor Dayton, the Republicans control the legislature. So there is plenty of blame to share. Needed now is a solution to share.
In the past week, former governor Arne Carlson (Republican) and former vice president Walter Mondale (Democrat) talked about a committee of reconciliation bringing the two sides back to the table together. They will find helpful my reconciliation suggestions in each of my year-end columns since 2003.
Those same columns also address the elephant in the reconciliation room whose name people try to avoid stating: race.
The walkout/lockouts in the National Football League (NFL, annual revenues of $9.3 billion) and the National Basketball Association (NBA, annual revenues of $3.9 billion) are also shutdowns, even though the salaries are greater than those of John and Jane Q. Public. With the NFL and NBA, it is between big ownership that makes money through their entire ownership years vs. individual players who have a short shelf life of earnings as players.
Nonetheless, as with the state government shutdown, the same equally disturbing elephant is in their rooms: race.
The discussions call for fairness and justice for all involved, not just my side vs. your side. But the elephant constrains. Race. And racism. The NBA owners were greatly offended by the negotiation last summer of the Miami Heat’s Black Big 3, as they displayed their resentment toward LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosch for apparently not knowing their place. We have seen that in the NFL as well.
Our legislature is often like the sports leagues: it generates lots of money while pretending not to have enough. (The NBA alleges that 80 percent of their teams lost money this past season; anyone see their books?)
As for the NFL, no other professional sport on the planet is as profitable and popular. The elephant points out that the NFL ownership groups are all-White while 62 percent of the players are Black.
The NBA is 80 percent Black while most of the great White hopes are from outside the United States. And although Michael Jordan allegedly has a majority ownership in the Charlotte franchise of the NBA, that has not yet been confirmed for the record.
Denying the elephant exists means the reconcilers will be like the six blind men describing an elephant based on the parts they touch.
The longer the shutdown, the greater economic pain for Minnesotans. As neither liberal government nor conservative government is working, a middle-ground solution to the cut/raise taxes and spending issues has to be the end point for two sides that must become as one.
The whispering is that in these difficult times in America, athletes and citizens must understand their place, that prosperity and wealth cannot be for everyone. In other words, the whispering is that Black players and citizens in our minority communities are resisting accepting a plantation mentality.
Black men helped make the NFL the popular and profitable enterprise it is today. But many White owners and far too many fans feel that Black athletes, by virtue of their success, have overstepped their place on the athletic plantation.
Those in charge of the shutdowns are telling people to tighten their belts and put the life of leisure and luxury on hold. I have long held that that is contrary to the great American Dream. But when the issue is race, it’s business as usual.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards (1) hosts "Black Focus" on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) hosts “Black Focus” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays at 3:00 pm;and (3) co-hosts Blog Talk Radio’s “ON POINT!" Saturdays at 4 pm, providing coverage about Black Minnesota. (4) Order his books at http://www.BeaconOnTheHill.com. (5) Hear his readings, (6) read his "Through My Eyes, The Minneapolis Story Continues" weekly column; (7) read his solution papers for community planning and development, and (8) follow his "Tracking the Gaps" web log at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted July 20, 2011, 2:09 a.m.
July 06, 2011 Column #27: The departure of Captain Donald Banham, MPD
A legend in the police department retires with no respect from the City he served
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
"We…reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women…"
— United Nations Charter
PULL QUOTE: The City has sent “a message” to Black officers of their opposition to the work of Captain Banham, who throughout his career promoted diversity and integration, fought for equality of access and opportunity as well as dignity and respect for all officers, regardless of color.
Captain Donald Banham, a native son born and raised in Minneapolis, whose father was a sergeant in the University of Minnesota Police Department for over 30 years, retired last month after a distinguished 28-year career in the Minneapolis Police Department. He is one of the greatest officers in the history of the department and, quite deservedly, a legend in his own time.
But rather than follow the custom of going to the retirement party and presenting him with his badge in a display case, the mayor, police chief, and Police Officers Association President elected not to attend, not to encase his badge, not to recognize his departure with well-earned respect, dignity, and acclaim. This brings another stain of shame on the City, the very opposite of all the fine things said about Captain Banham by the MPD six months earlier at a December 3, 2010 promotion ceremony.
Even Minneapolis’ so-called Black political leadership were not there, revealing how in league they are with the City’s disrespect and distain, revealing how out of touch they are with their own community.
Captain Donald Banham joined the Minneapolis Police Department in 1983, served in the Second, Fourth and Fifth Precincts in such units as Assault, Canine, Community Response, Decoy, Gang, Juvenile, Narcotics, Public Housing, Special Swat Operations, and Street Crimes.
Captain Banham served as a commander of various of these units as well as a permanent watch commander. In 2004, Captain Banham was appointed inspector and returned to command the department’s Fourth Precinct. In 2008, he commanded a division in the RNC Mobile Field Force and later took command of the Strategic Information and Crime Management Division. He was also a member of the Minnesota Vikings security detail for over 20 years.
With the departure of Captain Banham, an era ends and a position of captain opens up.
I discussed the promotions list in my column of December 19, 2007, when three Whites not on the list were promoted to lieutenant instead of Blacks. Here we go again: At the top of the June 2011 captain’s list were Arodondo, Edwards, and Harris, three of the “Mill City Five” group. As soon as Captain Banham retired, the police chief and Civil Service Department announced the list was being killed (their terminology).
So three African American lieutenants, who had sued over the existence of strong institutional racism but settled and let the department off the hook, received retaliation instead. They became victims of the lies and misrepresentations made to them under color of law in their settlement of May 2009.
The City has gone to great lengths to suppress this latest act of discrimination to let their men know they still lead by racial animus and distain, as they publicly disrespected the legacy of Captain Banham by then quickly initiating payback to three African American lieutenants (as they did to two African American sergeants on December 7, 2007, who also pointed out the existence of institutional racist animus).
They have sent “a message” to Black officers of their opposition to the work of Captain Banham, who throughout his career and when he was president of the Black Police Officers Association promoted diversity and integration, fought for equality of access and opportunity as well as dignity and respect for all officers, regardless of color. The mayor and chief continue their campaign to nullify and reverse progress made against racism.
I’m reminded of my columns of October 22, 2008 (“In the matter of Sgt. Giovanni Veliz”) and December 5, 2007 (about the historic lawsuit by five Black officers against City and chief, who were labeled by the majority media as “the Mill City Five”). They reached a settlement in May 2009. I held then and hold now that that was a mistake. The taking of retirement by Captain Bahnam is a consequence of their allowing the discrimination not to be brought out at trial (see my July 14, 2008 list of nearly 70 columns reporting on police department discrimination).
Captain Banham, go with the strength you displayed in your 28-year career. May God’s hand continue to be on your shoulder, as you display your strength of a Black warrior. Walk with your head held high and integrity and spirit still intact.
Stay tuned.
Ron Edwards (1) hosts "Black Focus" on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm; (2) hosts “Black Focus” on Blog Talk radio, Sundays at 3:00 pm;and (3) co-hosts Blog Talk Radio’s “ON POINT!" Saturdays at 4 pm, providing coverage about Black Minnesota. (4) Order his books at http://www.BeaconOnTheHill.com. (5) Hear his readings, (6) read his "Through My Eyes, The Minneapolis Story Continues" weekly column; (7) read his solution papers for community planning and development, and (8) follow his "Tracking the Gaps" web log at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. Ron Edwards is the former head of key civil rights organizations, including the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League. He continues his "watchdog" role for Minneapolis, and his work to contribute to the planning discussions in order to help mold a consensus for the future of Black and White Americans together in Minneapolis.
Posted Wednesday, July 6, 2011, 5:52 a.m.
Ron hosts “Black Focus” on Channel 17, MTN-TV, Sundays, 5-6 pm. Formerly head of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission and the Urban League, he continues his “watchdog” role for Minneapolis. Order his book, hear his voice, read his solution papers, and read his between columns “web log” at www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
Permission is granted to reproduce The Minneapolis Story columns, blog entires and solution papers. Please cite the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder and www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for the columns. Please cite www.TheMinneapolisStory.com for blog entries and solution papers.
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