The Experience of Ron EdwardsA Renaissance Black Man in a White Man's WorldA Beacon for Freedom in the City
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June, 26, 2014 #26: Velma Korbel must go! Resignation must be submitted immediately
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
PULL QUOTE: The [civil rights] department has been a disaster through two directors and two mayors.
It is not often that a Minneapolis City Agency Department Director receives separate, negative stories in the Star Tribune on the same day, reporting incompetence and belligerent leadership. Velma Korbel accomplished this June 16, 2014. Star Tribune headlines:
“Divisive Minneapolis civil rights official in hot seat again”
• “Korbel speech ‘magnified’ concerns about management style”
• “Report: Minority participation in Minneapolis contracts falling”
Our earlier Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder columns on the department include:
As can be seen in the Star Tribune pieces and in our own investigative reporting, Director Korbel does not meet the dministration/management responsibilities entrusted to her office, nor does she follow the agency’s responsibility to fight discrimination and civil rights violations. Velma Korbel has been provided every opportunity to turn her department around, including the new mayor’s ill-advised recommendation for a second term, which received three Council “no” votes.
Star Tribune describes Velma Korbel’s tenure as civil rights director as toxic, ineffective and mean spirited. Paying off tax lawsuits with taxpayer money seems to be her leadership legacy. Why won’t she follow the key legacy requirements of her office: equity, diversity, and the stewardship of protecting civil rights?
The new mayor supports Korbel despite observations of the committee Korbel’s department reports to, as well as those of a council member who at one time worked for Korbel. Korbel’s unwillingness to avoid political disaster takes the city’s eyes off the civil rights goals: end discrimination and exclusion.
Korbel’s unwillingness to play nice reflects a disregard to provide a “no harm” shield for her department. Some say the lack of significant accomplishments during her tenure as department director raises the thinking in some quarters that the department’s only purpose is to avoid civil rights issues.
The disparity report of October 2010 laid out the department’s problems, with solutions for correcting problems and meeting its statutory mission and obligations. Korbel’s belligerent lack of compliance is reflected in the number of lawsuits, originating internally by employees and externally from outside citizen plaintiffs suing the department, as she directs the violation of the very civil rights entrusted to the department.
Why are Director Korbel's belligerence and failures continually tolerated (not uncommon under previous directors as well)? The testimony of former employees outlines her unwillingness to uphold the purposes of this department to serve the city’s civil rights responsibilities: civil rights compliance. Instead: chaos, city civil rights non-compliance, and lawsuits. The department has been a disaster through the past and current directors and past and current mayors. When will the city finally get into full civil rights compliance?
It is good to see the Star Tribune finally addressing this in its two-part series. No one person or department has the answer or all of the truth, but we won’t find the answers or the truth until we all work together.
The city needs to govern fairly, to serve as a citadel of fairness and protection for its citizens, its employees, and its visitors. We as citizens deserve better than what the council and this department currently offers.
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
To date: 47 Solution Papers.
Posted Thursday, June 29, 2014, 1:45 p.m.
June, 19, 2014 #25:The Keefe Report has been released into the open. Yet “they” continue to try to bury what can no longer be buried
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
June 19, 2014
On May 21, 2014, the District Court for Hennepin County and the State of Minnesota ordered released for review by the general public a 4,000-page report reviewing the six-year-old lawsuit filed by then Lt. Michael Keefe against the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) on behalf of himself and, by extension, the former Black Police Officers Association. The report’s suppressed content is sending shockwaves through our community and City Hall, as the light of day brings curing to a cancer in our body politic.
The 4,000 pages verify what I have long written about Lt. Keefe and the MPD’s Violent Offenders Task Force.
See my earlier columns on Keefe:
Related events from 2004-2009 helped destroy the Black Police Officers Association. During that period, five members of the Association (“The Mill City 5,” Officers Harris, Arrodondo, Adams, Edwards — no relation to this columnist — and Hamilton), settled for $750,000, leaving $1.3 million on the table. See my Blog essay of December 14, 2007, Five Black Officers Sue the City for Discrimination, fighting the forces of the Twin Towers of Minneapolis' Nullification and Reversal.”
The lone hero within City Government was Councilman Ralph Remmington, steadfast in support of the Black Police Officers Association and Lt. Keefe. Under tremendous criticism and pressure from City Council colleagues, he fought the racism and corruption targeted by these lawsuits. Unwilling to accept or give credence to the cover-up by City Hall, he did not run for reelection, leaving to take a position with the Obama Administration.
That now-released 4,000 pages of investigation information includes the results of depositions, wire taps, and other evidence regarding the City’s and MPD’s treachery and betrayal. The City Attorney redacted as many names as possible from this 4,000 page report, until that too was also uncovered and stopped.
The editors of the Minneapolis Star Tribune made a political decision to not report nor print any aspect of this 4,000 page investigative report (reminding me of the Star Tribune telling my publisher in 2003 that they would not review nor report about my book).
The 4,000 page report outlines the blueprint of how those at the highest level of government were obsessed with destroying the presence of African Americans in the MPD.
Unless steps are taken, the next two classes of police officer cadets/recruits will, for the first time in 30 years, have no African American cadets.
In the meantime, high ranking White police officers involved are quietly leaving for other jurisdictions, such as the University of MN, or are being promoted to make them appear honorable and trusted members of the MPD. Most stark: the culpability of our African American community “leadership” that lent support to actions resulting in the demise of the Black Police Officers Association, and the reduction of the presence of African American police officers in the MPD.
The 4,000 pages of evidence reveal how extremely effective racism and discrimination and cover-up was to ensure the demise of African Americans in law enforcement in Minneapolis. This should be troubling to all, Black and White. The disappearance over the next 10 years of African Americans in the MPD will contribute to guaranteeing a reduction in the quality of life for Black and White Americans alike and their public safety, which is what we are dependent upon for fairness and balance.
The 4,000 pages: one of the most significant recordings of the demise of a people because of the color of their skin and of how the major paper joined others in a commitment of silence to smother facts that supported truth. We maintain our eternal vigilance in the lonely pursuit of justice, fairness and equal opportunity. With this 4,000-page report, it won’t be so lonely.Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
To date: 47 Solution Papers.
Posted Thursday, June 19, 2014, 1:45 p.m.
June, 12, 2014 #24: The tragedy of guns in the streets. Another senseless death.
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
Maya Angelou passed May 28. She had her finger “on the pulse of morning.” She had her “caged bird” sing a prayer of freedom to rise above the “bitter, twisted lies” people of color must contend with, for, as she wrote, “Still I rise.”
The caged bird sings in classic Black gospel fashion, lifting up a prayer through its tears, yearning to be free. May our leaders raise their song for freedom too, rather than acquiesce to the gun songs that cage our young people or the bureaucratic dependency programs that cage their parents.
A 17-year-old was shot and killed June 1st on the 1600 block of Newton Avenue N. His death fosters another round of talking about solutions but not attempting to open cage doors. Unless you have lost a child to violence, its hard to know and understand the feeling. Some of us have been blessed: we have not lost a child. Others of us have not been so fortunate.
We continue to hear about “the plans” to patrol the streets with citizen patrols, to get guns out of the hands of our young people, to further education, to find youth meaningful employment. Plans, in a word, to enable them to look forward to a successful life and its amenities. Plans, yes, but not implementation.
I am an African American columnist writing for an African American paper. I’ve seen far too much pain as we continue to fail young people, making promises we don’t keep, discussing strategies we don’t implement, and promising comfort we don’t deliver. We cage our young. We shortchange them. We don’t just “bruise their wings,” we clip them.
Plans for faith patrols, soul patrols, community patrols, or marching for 40 days and 40 nights to highlight the need of a safety net for our most vulnerable are cages if we don’t also include education/training leading to good jobs and good housing. Instead, the city has succeeded in building perfect cages that prevent success.
Too many still think uncaging is not difficult, that all we have to do is say we did it and it will be so. It will be for those paid to develop “perfect” plans that they don’t implement. Some may suggest that is simplistic and shallow. But isn’t that how government, churches and nonprofits work today: hold strategy meetings to develop perfect plans and then not execute implementing strategies or plans in our schools and neighborhoods?
The Star Tribune reports that on the 16th of June, faith patrols will take to our city streets. We pray they are well organized, and effective. But what if bad boys are armed? Will we, in the summer of 2014, continue to face the challenge of tragedy, violence, and failure by causing more young people to believe nothing positive will be done?
I come from the old school that had the power and charisma of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Whitney Young, Mary McLeod Bethune, Maya Angelou, Michelle Obama, and Oprah Winfrey, who understand the importance of struggle and delivering community victory.
Our African American community cannot be expected to stand idly by while our young are ravaged by the results of guns, drugs and violence.
We can be better than Chicago or any city in America if we exercise the will to embrace implementing plans for seeking to achieve good, workable results in education and jobs by embracing positive commitments to tear down bars of community cages erected for Black Americans.
That’s what the previous Black Americans were all about, keeping our eyes on the prize. That continues to be our task.
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
To date: 47 Solution Papers.
Posted Thursday, June 12, 2014, 11:59 p.m.
June, 5, 2014 #23: Keefe file now open to the public. Sgt. Michael Keefe waits his day in court
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
Pull quote: Now testimony in open court will attest to the roles played and civil rights violations committed, in return for profits and gratuity for their betrayal.
“A profile in courage and integrity: Lt. Michael Keefe,” is the headline of my August 29, 2007 column. Lt. Keefe “would tolerate neither racial animus and discrimination nor departmental abuses under his command.” The closing two sentences of that column were, “Will the mayor and MPD chief act with the same courage and integrity? How they act will reveal the real heart of this administration and its police department.”
MPD retaliation included demotions and transfers, despite significant performance and command ratings. Although I had never talked with Lt. Keefe, I wrote several columns about this and filed a civil rights complaint against the Minneapolis Police Department and then-Mayor RT Rybak and then-Police Chief Tim Dolan. That 2007 filing number is A6457-EM-1F-RP.
As an outgrowth of my and Federal Department of Justice (DOJ) investigating, the DOJ created the five year PCRC (Police Community Relations Council), which I co-chaired. This lawsuit of Keefe, who is White, became one of the most significant litigations involving how MPD corrupted its ethics and service, and how it and the city fostered the racism leading to the destruction of the Black Police Officers Association.
Gandhi said, “The ‘good’ will win in the end.” We see that here, as at long last, the District Court for Hennepin County and the State of Minnesota, has ordered all investigation information — depositions, wire taps and other materials, however gathered — be released for review by the general public. These documents show the bravery and courage of Keefe, the real heart of the MPD, and reflect how accurate I’ve been in my reporting on the Keefe case and what I filed in my civil rights complaint in 2007.
Another corruption sign: the shredding, by the Office of the City Attorney, of various city responses and my responses, which was crazy, as I still had my copies. The fox continues to be in charge of the hen house.
On January 9, 2008, the city of Minneapolis sent their six-page response to my August 30, 2007 complaint filing, which clearly laid out the level of power that drove the complicity that destroyed the Black Police Officers Association (another sign: the $750,000 settlement with five of those African American officers). Confidentiality agreements closed any further discussions until the federal court stripped the city of its confidentiality agreements pertaining to the evidence regarding Lt. Keefe.
George E. Henderson, the legal council for the U.S. DOJ, in his letter of May 29, 2008, cited the City’s and MPD’s continued violations of Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42USC, 2000g. The two years of depositions for Keefe’s lawsuit showed significant complicity in violating Keefe’s rights as well as the rights of the five African American officers awarded $750K in damages.
The DOJ was concerned about the misconduct of the City of Minneapolis. Unfortunately, as Keefe awaits his day in court, the Obama administration continues to give aid and comfort to the local Democratic political machine.
Our so-called African American community leaders did all that they could do to undermine and destroy the Black Police Officers Association. Now testimony in open court will attest to the roles played and civil rights violations committed, in return for profits and gratuity for their betrayal.
These documents, now open to the general public for examination, offer a better understanding of the dark future and probable consequences facing African American communities that don’t make positive changes.
God bless those who continue the battle against those who betrayed and destroyed the Black Police Officers Association and wrecked the lives of so many in law enforcement.
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press. To date: 47 Solution Papers.
================
LIST of Columns, 2003-2014, on the racism and discrimination in the Minneapolis Police Department
See especially:
---April, 24, 2014: The continuing battle of Sgt. Michael Keefe, and the disappearance of Black police officers from the MPD
---August 29, 2007: A profile in courage and integrity—the saga of Lt. Michael Keefe
---What it’s like to be Black in the MPD? August 7, 2013
Posted Thursday, June, 2014, 6:44 a.m.
May, 29, 2014 #22: Returning to an old order after 30 years. A retreat for Black leaders to plan actions to enable Whites to feel safe.
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
Pull quote: We urge invitations go to young voices so the absent good shepherds can listen firsthand to the cries that come from the fear that grips the African American community.
What horn will play at midnight? The Calvary bugler sounding retreat from battle? Gabriel’s trumpet leading the Halleluiah chorus? The morning horn that calls reveille wake-up to retreat members to gather to begin discussions for addressing violence in the community?
History reveals good and bad leaders, good and bad shepherds, and the shifts that occur from making 19th and first half 20th century heroic sacrifices to keep the eyes on the prize (as during slave and Jim Crow days), to 2nd half 20th century and 21st century taking eyes off the prize and becoming paid bureaucrats of “solution organizations” that “look the other way” to maintain salaries, health care and pensions for them and status quo struggles for the “lessors”.
Today’s “leadership” (Black or White, government or corporate, foundation or church, traditional Black or White helper associations and leagues), have retreated into a “wish” world for themselves at the expense of the “is” world for everyone else. Meetings and mission statements not addressing Nellie Stone Johnson’s “Big 3” (no education, no jobs, no housing), won’t enable people to become qualified, independent, and active partners with employers, investors, planners, and money dispensers of government and nonprofit programs.
Where are the good shepherds of integrity? Why so many bad shepherds, allowing flocks to be shorn or devoured? Where are the Davids to beat back the Goliaths of “Big” that prefer the status quo, the utopians creating programs for our own good that merely serve their good?
The meeting I attended in North Minneapolis at Shiloh Church, May 17, 2014, addressed the upsurge and spike in violence and guns, and the bad people using them to terrorize the community, illustrating our crossroads’ choice: continue going in status quo circles or develop straight paths to positive goals. Young people at the May 17 meeting spoke with great eloquence and vision, offering recommendations dealing with the violence they face and fear.
The problem? Lack of ears. A panel of elders to hear them and offer guidance was mostly absent. It was a moving, emotional moment. Yet few leaders attended. Just V.J. Smith of MAD DADS, Ferone Brown, Rev. Yates, and community activists Jerome Copeland and Alfred Flowers. The absent leaders missed the compelling and serious questions raised.
Why are directions being given to “elite leaders,” Black and White, from powerful White political, corporate, and nonprofit figures more “for show and status quo containment,” but not real action solutions? For the first time in 30 years Blacks are to convene a retreat. By our publication time, a Planning Committee will have met to determine who would be the retreat’s King Fish.
Forty thousand dollars cash has allegedly been promised to pay for this “adult” retreat. Powerful elected officials are concerned that the Black leadership they helped elect and fund are not in the control Whites want, so they can feel they can sleep and rest in safety and comfort. How can they, if they don’t also have the young people who stood and gave testimony at Shiloh’s Missionary Church on May 17?
We urge invitations go to young voices so the absent good shepherds can listen firsthand to the cries that come from the fear that grips the African American community, especially in neighborhoods with gangs. Will the retreat be a running away from the past and future, or a thoughtful pause to discern how to learn from the past and present, in order to create paths to the future all can travel in safety?
How will “faith patrols” on our city streets bring order to control the chaos terrorizing and wounding African Americans and other communities of color? Are you as troubled as I am that young people that came to a holy tabernacle of the community on the 17th day of May, in the year of our Lord 2014, to give testimony, were not heard by those who meet in secret retreat to develop plans that will make the master feel his plantation will be safe once again but not for those in the field left with status quo lack of safety?
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com.
To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
To date: 47 Solution Papers.
Posted Thursday, May 29, 2014, 12:35 a.m.
May, 22, 2014 #21: Equity in light rail postponed again
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
The Star Tribune ran stories last week about light rail in the metro area. The real interpretation: purposeful denial, again, of light rail equity for North Minneapolis.
The Star Tribune ran stories last week about light rail in the metro area. A key story: Minneapolis North Siders demand transit improvements, May 12, 2014. Sub heading: Cold shelters and rising fares drew fire at a community meeting with Met Council members.]The real interpretation: purposeful denial, again, of light rail equity for North Minneapolis.
Thus, the Star Tribune reported that African Americans believe North Minneapolis is “not getting its fair share of transit amenities, despite having a heavily transit-dependent population,” and that there is a “drastic difference between service and amenities in other parts of the city like Uptown and the south side.” In other words, jobs for White city plantation bureaucrats and White construction workers, and more transit for White areas. We need action, not more talk.
Back in 2008 and 2009, Black legislators and leaders were talking about a big public-works project involving light rail in North Minneapolis. But when it became clear the Vikings would get their billion-dollar stadium, the focus of Black leaders’ eyes shifted to stadium money potential, as they abandoned the much needed light rail, despite discussions and long-term promises made regarding light rail.
In the May 12, 2014, Star Tribune article above, Gary Cunningham, a member of the Met Council, Vice President of the Northwest Area Foundation, and husband of Mayor Betsy Hodges, gave views and observations about transportation equity that are troubling. He and other so-called leaders are now pushing for light rail at the southern end of Hennepin County. Mr. Cunningham’s statements favoring light rail outside North Minneapolis puzzle us.
The recent Star Tribune article increased the confusion over such things as equity plan, goals, and expectations in the hiring of African Americans in the far southern regions of Hennepin County. Where is the goal and commitment for well paying public works projects in North Minneapolis?
The question that must be answered, already out there for public review, is what will be different from what was undertaken a few years ago in terms of transportation plans and goals in North Minneapolis? Rumors swirl within the African American community regarding numerous projects that could have brought employment and prosperity to North Minneapolis but instead, employment and prosperity are being denied to Blacks on these projects:
• Viking stadium
• Light rail in the south
• Projects being proposed for Golden Valley Road and Penn
• Projects being proposed for West Broadway and Penn
There continues to be much discussion about equity, equity plans, and opportunity for African Americans, but more years of discussion over action forces the question: how will this be different than the many discussions and meetings, even those with 200 in attendance that talked hope and change but didn’t provide the hoped for change in North Minneapolis?
Commitment from officials must be made, in writing. What sanctions will the legislature, the Met Council, the City of Minneapolis, and Hennepin County execute when, again, there is non-compliance with the promises made in the equity plan? Will there be a full accounting? Will there be disbarment? Will there be fines? Will action be taken to foster full compliance with the promises made?
We will continue to hope for more action and less meetings. We would love to celebrate success stories as opposed to ongoing failures by those entrusted with the power to bring about positive change.
We are reminded of the commitments and promises that were made, the plans put forth, and the many meetings held, after which little happened save more meetings causing more broken dreams and despair. See my previous columns in this paper, including:
Dec. 5, 2012, Still waiting for the Equity Plan for the new Vikings’ and Minnesota’s People’s Stadium
Nov. 24, 2010, Disparity Study reveals City failed to monitor hiring, contracting jobs and income. Result for Blacks: shameful loss of jobs and income
Oct. 21, 2009, From Hollman to Heritage Park: How well we remember. The Northside project is a model for displacing Blacks from American cities.
June 17, 2009, New colonial masters fill our leadership vacuum. The Northwest Area Foundation and The Committee of 40 plan Black community changes.
July 13, 2005, Where is The Plan for Black’s share of jobs, development?
April 20, 2005, Black share of $5 billion construction: Zero. What can be done to reverse “Blacks need not apply” for the coming great construction boom?
Our Black community deserves, nay, has earned the right to avoid having another round of purposefully failing the community through purposeful and forced non-compliance.
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press. To date: 47 Solution Papers.
Posted Thursday, May 22, 2014, 9:40 a.m.
Safe streets promoted for White baseball
Selective reporting keeps the true level of violence concealed
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
May 15, 2014
George Orwell’s masterpiece, 1984, helps us understand Minneapolis granting temporary “Big Brother” status to Major League Baseball for summer 2014’s All Star Game week: “temporary…and related special event permits will not be approved or issued by the City of Minneapolis without the additional approval of Major League Baseball.” (Star Tribune, For All-Star Game, what rights did we give up? May 3, 2014)
Minneapolis granted temporary Big Brother status earlier for the Vikings stadium, although the Vikings didn’t ask for it as did MLB. We want safe streets for all neighborhoods, not just for downtown stadium and lake neighborhoods.
We recognize we live in “1984” in government surveillance, manipulating and falsifying information for “the greater good,” and in newspapers re-writing history to match current party line: “selective reporting:”
• 18 straight days of shootings, few reported
• 18 homicides in Little Somalia over last three years, few reported.
• Star Tribune reported May 6 two White girls stabbed May 5, and reported shooting in New Brighton
• 30 days earlier, three young African American females were shot and wounded in North Minneapolis, yet unreported
Those in charge of operating this system should be ashamed.
When authorities announced on May 6 the arrest of three young African Americans (Star Tribune, 3 charged in gang-related shootings in downtown Minneapolis, May 5, 2014), for the April 12, 2014 shooting and paralyzing of a young African American near the All Star site, the Star Tribune finally reported the shooting. Again: selective reporting.
Last week we reported the “Peace [Gang] Summit” goal to curb violence this summer was not about neighborhood safety but about safety for tens of thousands of baseball fans and MLB and media staffs in July for Major League Baseball’s All Star Week (Gang summit in Minneapolis. Preparing for summer 2014. Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, May 1, 2014).
The reporting May 5, following the Gang Summit (Star Tribune, April 19, 2014, North Side safety summit examines ways to fight crime in troubled Minneapolis neighborhoods, with sub head: “With warmer days coming, and typically more crime, public officials and faith leaders gathered to strategize”), reflects our city’s fears and heartaches, raising lots of unanswered questions, especially about granting Major League Baseball (MLB) temporary “Big Brother” status.
When federal officials met within the safe confines of the Federal Building in downtown Minneapolis, they were given names of gang members reaping terror moments across the Twin Cities. No one seemed troubled that one specific gang and its members were “forgotten” in the reporting.
And yet despite all the information given federal and local authorizes identifying gang members and their crimes committed, little is done in our communities. Leadership, Black or White, rarely speaks up or speaks out. The county attorney holds few press conferences. The mayor is often silent. Churches and nonprofits look the other way.
“Peace Summit” people pretend they wanted to discuss ending guns in the African American community, but their priority is a “peaceful” All Star Game week. Those urging discussing, identifying, and taking affirmative action to stop gun proliferation in our community were told, “Another time.”
A very dangerous pattern is emerging from African American communities as information comes forward, but only in exchange for protection of their loved ones and their gangs, as even gangs want to be Big Brother. That undermines attempts to address the problems of violence for our community under siege, be it violence with a gun, knife, or any other weapon that brings death and mayhem to human beings in our communities.
A segment of White nurses, doctors, and hospital administrators see violence, shootings and terror with their own eyes and sense the feeling of violation we as Black people actually experience, but our violation doesn’t rate the major response White baseball does.
If more White citizens knew about the numerous assaults and acts of violence the Star Tribune does not report, more would be concerned about our safety as well as theirs.
So what will it be? Enable out-of-towners to feel comfortable for one week, or work to enable all citizens of all neighborhoods to feel comfortable year round?
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
Posted Thursday, May 15, 2014, 8:54 a.m.
May, 08, 2014 #19: Donald, Donald, Donald. A test for the NBA and Adam Silver
Donald, Donald, Donald
A test for the NBA and Adam Silver
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online May 8, 2014
The specter of racism has long haunted professional sports. Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA (National Basketball Association) team, The L.A. Clippers, is proving how wrong those are who deny racism exists any more.
Having held his race attitudes during his 30 years of ownership, well known to owners, media, players, fans, and sponsors, is Sterling a Rosa Parks “tipping point” for the collective “Social Conscience” of America, ashamed at the “yassah boss” polite role of “to get money you go along with money,” even plantation money, at the community’s expense?
The worst kept secret is again exposed of how white owner racism has long caused their chafing at the majority of players being Black, letting Sterling do their ranting. That’s the true infamy.
The “oh my gawd, if we could have only known” wailing taking place is the OMG of false pretenses. They knew. The difference? A woman scorned holding her smoking gun evidence fully recorded (albeit reported illegally). Sterling’s trifecta of scorn, disrespect and racism and the NBA’s tolerance of it is no longer hidden.
This incident exposes, tarnishes, and shreds retired NBA Commissioner David Stern’s image and reputation, as he allowed Sterling’s conduct, philosophy and racism in the NBA. Is his protégé, new NBA commissioner Adam Silver, moving swiftly to save Stern’s reputation and his own job, and to sweep it all under the rug as soon as possible?
With Silver’s election, white owners again turned their back on the valid idea whose time has come: a Black Commissioner, as they instead denied yet another generation a position well earned for which they are well qualified.
Donald Sterling’s name and the L.A. NAACP will forever be joined in memory in infamy. The L.A. NAACP has long defended Donald Sterling, being his apologist (money trumping principles). Only the smoking gun caused the NAACP to stop the charade with Sterling and cancel his about to be awarded second NAACP life time achievement award, exposing how money to “community leaders” denies real community people, enabling sports plantations.
When legendary Elgin Baylor sued Donald Sterling in 2009, for ageism and racism, it was the NAACP of Los Angeles that came to Sterling’s defense, calling Sterling one of the “greatest men” of our time, despite Baylor’s statement that Sterling had a “vision of a Southern plantation-type structure” for the team.
When we hear talk of “meat rolls”, we have a clear indication of what happens when folks compromise principles and accept Judas dollars.
The blind now see. Advertisers are halting sponsorships for Sterling’s team (e.g., Kia, Red Bull, State Farm, Virgin America, CarMax). Players bravely stepped off the plantation by demonstrating at center court and not wearing ID warmups prior to the game. Economic sanctions trump riots or one-off protests, so follow these don’ts: don’t buy Clipper tickets, don’t attend Clipper games, don’t watch Clippers on TV, don’t buy products and services from their sponsors. Even the other 29 owners (all white except for Michael Jordan), have spoken against Sterling. They support his ouster, a change from their three decade silence about his racism.
Former NBA player Kevin Johnson, now Mayor of Sacramento working with the NBA Players’ Association, made five recommendations: That the Commissioner (1) act swiftly and decisively, (2) outline the range of possible sanctions; (3) not allow Sterling to attend any more NBA playoff games this year; and, my two favorites for the future, (4) include the players' association as “full partners” in the investigation, and (5) explain why the NBA did not sanction Sterling after prior evidence of racism going back over 30 years.
Stay tuned.
Ed note: On April 29, 2014, Silver banned Sterling for life and asked the other owners to vote for him to sell.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
Posted Thursday, May 8, 2014, 7:20 a.m.
Ed note: On April 29, 2014, Silver banned Sterling for life and asked the other owners to vote to force him to sell.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
Posted Thursday, May 8, 2014, 7:20 a.m.
May, 1, 2014 #18: Gang summit in Minneapolis. Preparing for summer 2014
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
May 1, 2014
Pull quote: Another lack of commitment example: when longtime Civil Rights Activist Spike Moss asked to be allowed to participate, they debated whether to let him.
The “invitation only” “North Side Safety Summit” (“Gang Summit”) was held April 18, 2014, in North Minneapolis at the School District’s West Broadway headquarters. The Star Tribune reported “why” April 19, 2014: “The city’s North Side has seen one-third of the city’s violent crime and half of the city’s shootings over the past 14 years… Violent crime rose 24 percent…due to more assaults and robberies…centered around the Folwell, Jordan and Hawthorne neighborhoods.” See Start Tribune, Aprlo 19 ,2014, North Side safety summit examines ways to fight crime in troubled Minneapolis neighborhoods (sub head: With warmer days coming, and typically more crime, public officials and faith leaders gathered to strategize).
The purpose of the summit was to find solutions for summer 2014’s anticipated gang violence. Star Tribune: “Some 70 public officials…gathered…to talk about pervasive crime numbers and how to lower them.” The “containment” until winter hibernation returns is not a solution. The real solution, as I wrote in my April 3, 2014 column, is to end the city political culture that results in providing little for the least among us in education, job opportunities, housing, health care, and further decline in families and community. It should have been called the Summit of Denial.
This is another example of what Minneapolis officialdom (Mayor Betsy Hodges, City Council, City agencies, foundations, Black churches, White churches, corporations) share, as I wrote in last week’s column: “the opposite of commitment to equity and fairness in the governance of the city.” Although geared for North Minneapolis, few African Americans were invited. Only 12 attended, including only two Black law enforcement officers, Keith John Harrington of the Metro Transit Police, and Eddie Frizell, MPD Deputy Chief.
Another lack of commitment example: when longtime Civil Rights Activist Spike Moss asked to be allowed to participate, they debated whether to let him. A City Council member was heard saying Mr. Moss was not welcome as they wanted a quiet meeting. That mean-spirited attitude reflects an older time of White America: wanting “our kind of Black folks,” not those who will raise tough questions. Happily, Mr. Moss had strong support, including that of the Hennepin County Sheriff, Rick Stanek. Mr. Moss was allowed to stay.
Nonetheless, gang warfare arose from its winter slumber. That evening of the Summit, two African American young men were shot in North Minneapolis; one was left paralyzed. Two young men were shot and wounded outside Target Field, one left paralyzed. Another was shot and wounded when major fighting broke out along 5th and Hennepin, in downtown Minneapolis. Within a 12-day period, two were shot and paralyzed.
Neither “containment” nor “camps” are the right solutions, nor is dusting off and redeploying community patrols in so-called hot spots, which raises three questions: Will they have trained backup? Will they receive necessary intelligence data? Will they be given police powers? Experience tells us: “of course not.” So what purpose will be served?
The Chamber of Commerce will be nervous, but not about North Minneapolis. Rather, about whether White citizens will come to spend millions of dollars in the Twin Cities for summer events, including baseball’s all-star game.
Seventy public officials at the summit (judges, law enforcement officers, prosecutors, etc): all nervous and anxious. Do they have a plan? If so, why wasn’t it revealed?
Why weren’t a larger number of African Americans trusted to be a party to the discussion? The plan seems to be to continue to contain Black youth in poor education, poor housing, poor family structure, poor job and employment prospects. That is the greater violence.
Black law enforcement was disrespected and dismissed when only two Black officers were there, and yet not involved in the discussion. That we are not expected to ask “why” speaks volumes exposing the North Side Summit of Denial.
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
Posted Thursday, May 1, 2014, 3:20 a.m.
April, 24, 2014 #17: The continuing battle of Sgt. Michael Keefe, and the disappearance of Black police officers from the MPD
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
Pull quote: [Somali-Americans] will find out, as did African American police officers, that there cannot always be a love affair or even a relationship of trust with some of those in City Hall.
See my August 29, 2007 column regarding the courageous battle waged by Lt. Michael Keefe of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), “A profile in courage and integrity — the saga of Lt. Michael Keefe” (link below). Keefe was demoted to sergeant as part of a mean-spirited vendetta against this White officer and against some African American Police officers
My August 29, 2007 Column, A profile in courage and integrity—the saga of Lt. Michael Keefe, provides insights into the latest battles currently being fought within the city and wth its police departtment.
And even though Mayor Betsy Hodges and city council members have said they are committed to equity and fairness in the governance of the city of Minneapolis, a couple of major battles centering around equity in the MPD questions their commitment
The first deals with the attempt by the City of Minneapolis, in State District Court, to avoid releasing information from the now six-and-a-half year lawsuit battle brought by then Lt. and now Sgt. Keefe. This lawsuit addresses the undermining by city officials of both Lt./Sgt. Keefe and the Black Police Officers Association. The Star Tribune has declined to report on Keefe’s lawsuit because of allegations and charges against some of their reporters
The second recent battle centers on the promise made by the Hodges administration to the Somali-American Community that there would be a significant increase of Somali-American citizens recruited as members of the MPD. For example, the very talented Somali-American candidate who was supposed to be hired by the St. Paul police department but was not, being denied entry into the cadet class. Thus, in January and February of this year, the Hodges administration indicated that this Somali-American would become a member of the next recruitment class of the MPD. But: denied again. Why?
Recall the fact that the last recruitment class was all White. There is concern about the shrinking number of officers of color in the MPD. Thus the surprise within the Somali-American community, and I assume by the Somali-American City Council member, when their man did not make the top 60 of a recruitment class that was cut off at 40
In fact, Police Federation President John Delmonico indicated to the Hodges administration that the Federation would not oppose Chief Harteau’s reaching out to pull this Somali-American candidate into the top 40. The chief declined, giving no reason, stating only that it was not a matter for discussion. Again: why?
When one reviews some of the police personnel who were involved in the 2004-2007 dismantling of the Black Police Officers Association, we find the city redacting names in the requested report. Why this rejection by the Hodges Administration and Chief Harteau of the offer of the Minneapolis Police Federation’s call to support the Black Police Officers Association
Where are the Lutherans who worked so hard to bring Somalis to Minneapolis, only now to abandon them?
The Somali-American community has been betrayed. How they decide to deal with it is up to them. They will find out, as did African American police officers, that there cannot always be a love affair or even a relationship of trust with some of those in City Hall. And so the number of MPD Somali-American officers, which is five, will not increase anytime soon, while the number of African Americans in the police department continues to shrink
Why is the African American Leadership Council pressuring other Black organization leaders to stand down and not raise this issue in any way, shape or form? And so, as then Lt., now Sgt. Michael Keefe predicted, the continued demise of African Americans and others of color continues apace.
Stay tuned
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
Posted Thursday, April 24, 2014, 3:16 a.m.
April, 17, 2014 #16: Congratulations Kevin Ollie! Congratulations University of Connecticut!
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
Pull quote: We discuss race because race is always the “unseen” elephant in the room, always “at work” in the room.
Kevin Ollie’s UConn (University of Connecticut) basketball team was crowned national champion Monday, April 7. They beat the University of Kentucky, 60-54. And how also very special: UConn women won the women’s national championship too.
This is only the second time in history that both the men's and women's Division I basketball titles were won during the same year by the same school. The last time: 2004. Same school: UConn.
This tournament presents us with a teaching moment, with history as our guide. Why have only four Black Head Coaches in history won the national championship, when there are 351 Division 1 college programs? Why is it so rare for an African American to win the national title as a coach in any college sport?
Most basketball coaches are former players, so why, when 52.2 percent of players are Black, are only 18.6 percent of coaches Black? Black assistant coaches: 31 percent, but the are often called “recruiting assistants” to recruit Black players, but not to be groomed to run programs as Head Coaches. Those who determine programs, and who gets on the Head Coach track: the Athletic Directors: 89 percent White.
Ollie joins the legends, such as John Thompson (1985), Tubby Smith (1998) and Nolan Richardson (1994). Yet Smith was pushed out of both Kentucky and Minnesota. Richardson was “fired for being Black and outspoken” (see my column of March 27, 2014). May Ollie be treated better.
Kevin Ollie, former Timberwolves team captain (2008-2009), crafted, molded and shaped his young men into national champions under tough conditions: the NCAA had banned them from tournament play for previous player low grades, causing several coaches and five key players to leave for other schools or the NBA. So Black Americans and Huskies fans are understandably delighted and proud.
We discuss race because race is always the “unseen” elephant in the room, always “at work” in the room. Did you notice that during the 48 hours before the championship game, neither Black nor White commentators pointed out that Kevin Ollie could very well join the legends in a rare feat, a Black man coaching a team at a White university and win the national championship?
We remember the greats: the legendary Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlin, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul Jabaar, the great Oscar Robinson, and, certainly Michael Jordan. All coaches are given opportunity to enjoy the vast resources and alumni contributions that pour in to help win a coveted national championship, be it in football, basketball, baseball, or any of the dozens of other sports, but mostly for White coaches.
So while we celebrate with joyful and jubilation, and dream of happy fans winning in the future in Minnesota, we pause to congratulate Kevin Ollie, a Black man that led a team many thought would not make it to the championship, let alone win it.
Coach Ollie was trusted with the resources and assets of a great university. Many more White coaches have earned that opportunity. Too many coaches in Black America have to continue to wait for their opportunity that doesn't come. Don’t forget: our Black young men have been involved in winning national championships each and every year, ever since the great days of Bill Russell of the 1950s, at the University of San Francisco.
And so now we have a former player and captain of the Minnesota’s Timberwolves who overcame adversity to win the national championship with dignity and respect for the game. Coach Kevin Ollie honors the memory of those we previously named. He proved we can do it.
We congratulate Kevin Ollie, and the young men and women of the University of Connecticut.
Congratulations also to the administrators at the University of Connecticut. They believed that if students could shoot the ball and score the points and direct the game on the floor, they would be able to develop winning strategies for whatever they do after they graduate, including becoming Black Head Coaches.
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
Posted Thursday, April 17, 2014, 416 p.m.
April, 10, 2014 #15: Toxic and corrupt environment in civil rights department
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
April 10, 2014
Pull quote: To suggest council have the city attorney’s office investigate is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. attorney’s
Retaliation continues in the department I now call the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights Misconduct. Former employees of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department affirmed this in testifying to its “toxic” environment, at the March 19 hearing on the reappointment of Velma Korbel to head the department. Among those testifying were Ms. Semone Desal and Ms. Kristin White.
Ms. White testified that when she reported to human resources of the environment of corruption and cronyism inside the department, she was fired the next day. It is telling that the council votes was split, 9-3 to reappoint.
Journalistic corruption accompanies city corruption. Although we have reported the misconduct of this department for a decade, Star Tribune rarely does so unless forced, as they are now by public testimony in a public hearing before Council. And although the paper’s March 19 blog reported on the retaliation firing of Kristin White, it left it out of its main articles of March 19 and 31, which had wider circulation, and left it out of its March 31 blog story as well.
Only the mayor’s office, the Council, and the Star Tribune know the answer to why this startling testimony is being suppressed.
Given the past bullying we have reported in the department, we are forced to wonder how much bullying was done to get new Council members to vote for the Korbel reappointment. Of the carry-over members, Cam Gordon, Green Party/Democrat, Second Ward, is less than fully truthful when he pretends to have no knowledge of the allegations made by Ms. White.
In order to help Council clean its bloody hands, documentation pertaining to Ms. Whites’ statements to Human Resources and their communiqué back to Velma Korbel, have been shredded (we reported such shredding and vanishing files for a decade, so it is not new; just rarely reported in the Star Tribune). The city would have us believe that there will be some sort of outside consultant investigating allegations and making recommendations. We’re not convinced.
How can we trust this council and new mayor when Ms. White, a licensed attorney, acting under color of law, informs the Minneapolis City Council at a public hearing that criminal corruption, collusion, and conspiracy was being conducted in the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department, and they do nothing? What other acts in other departments are they not admitting?
To suggest council have the city office investigate is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Given our latest report of shredding, last week, we doubt an investigation of White’s allegations will take place unless forced, whether in a lawsuit or DOJ investigation. Too many documents have been falsified, shredded or disappeared, and too much money has passed through too many hands to enable it to happen voluntarily.
Shame on Star Tribune for again withholding reporting of charges made against this department. March 19, 2014, will forever live in infamy as the death knell of any future trust of the department under Velma Korbel and this council, not to mention the weakening of the credibility among new council members of the new mayor and old council members.
It is further troubling that a sitting Hennepin County judge, despite Ms. White’s testimony, still chose to testify on behalf of the Korbel reappointment.
It is for these reasons that this should be turned over to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., as the city refuses to act against such corruption, circumvention, and betrayal of our city’s civil rights ordinance, a betrayal that is like shredding civil rights along with other evidence shredding and disappearing.
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
Posted Thursday, April 10, 2014, 4:07 a.m.
April 3, 2014 #14: A Silent Campaign For The Mineapolis Board Of Education Election
"Through My Eyes, the Minneapolis Story Continues"
A weekly column by Ron Edwards
featured in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
and Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder News Online
April 3, 2014
Pull quote: Despite Mayor Rybak’s new position and meetings about new directions in education, we hear little about the three Rs: reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic…
Let life be breathed into the education debate. At stake are not only the lives of our children but also the prosperity and happiness killed by the poverty in our urban neighborhoods.
I recommend that the following organizations hold at least three major Minneapolis School Board candidate forums, in May, July, and late September, 2014: The NAACP, the Minneapolis Urban League and the Leadership Alliance. They should commit themselves to an active and shared leadership role and no longer stand in the shadow of silence.
With all of the pretense that goes on in the City of Minneapolis regarding education, you would think that three months into 2014, an election year, we would already be listening to and weighing passionate thoughts and policy recommendations to deal with the continued mis-education of children of color in Minneapolis public schools.
Nellie Stone Johnson’s mantra remains relevant regardless of race or color: “No education, no job, no housing.” (and thus, in a word, no family, no childhood stability).
In 1965, before Watts, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat and a sociologist (and later a U.S. Senator from New York), predicted today’s state of our Black urban neighborhoods if we didn’t pay attention to education (to prepare for jobs), economic development (jobs, for prosperity and happiness), housing (where families live), marriage and family (community and consistent child rearing), and health (reduce smoking, drinking, drugs), and how not doing so would lead to poverty for many. The big difference: it’s now with Whites too. It’s no long just “a Black thing.”
Just eight months ago, we were hearing about pitched battles between education reformers and their opponents. The reformers seem to have been a group of African American leaders led by Gary Cunningham and the Leadership Alliance, with significant support from outgoing Mayor R.T. Rybak. Yet they blame lack of money or misbehaving students rather than a “cultural” or “community attitude,” and thus dismissed the work ethic of education and training needed to avoid a downward spiral, not to mention that they deny the role of government policies contributing to these negative results.
Needed: forceful, resilient, and constructive debate on real-world solutions, not just words that sound good. Our children are in danger of educational extinction in the current education “culture/climate.”
Where is the real outcry? Reformers only seem to want to contain the wreckage rather than actually fix the fact that Black students drop out, are untrained for work/jobs, have babies out of wedlock, and perpetuate the poverty cycle? You would think this would be high on the agendas of government, public schools, foundations, and churches instead of just more meetings on the wreckage and their reports about how good they are to be thinking about it.
When Mayor Rybak was hired to take on the challenge of educating children of color, reformers sounded like a good ol’ Baptist choir as they sang Halleluiah!, as if talk and bank checks would guarantee a new education initiative. The Minneapolis Board of Education needs to determine real reform, not recycled meetings and recycled reports.
Despite Mayor Rybak’s new position and meetings about new directions in education, we hear little about the three Rs: reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic, which is why some maintain Minneapolis public education has died. There have been occasions when it has been difficult to determine whether the Superintendent of Education still believed in public education.
What happened to the anticipated, intense education debate?
Unmarried women with children in poverty are no longer just a “Black problem,” it is spreading to all the races. In 1965, 23.6 percent of Black children and 3.07 percent of White children had unwed mothers. Today, almost half of all first births (Back, White, Brown, Yellow) are from unmarried women: 30 percent White, 54 percent Hispanic and 72 percent Black.
Stay tuned.
For Ron’s hosted radio and TV show’s broadcast times, solution papers, books and archives, go to www.TheMinneapolisStory.com. To order his books go to Beacon on the Hill Press.
Posted Thursday, April 3, 2014, 7:46 a.m.
Ed. note: see also The Minneapolis Story Chapter 7: ABOUT EDUCATION: "The Corrupt and Racist Education System: Poor Schools for Poor Kids To Keep Them Poor: Clubbing the Cubs Into Inferiority and Helplessness: Stop the Clubbing and Teach Skills, Optimism, and Hope."
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 entries 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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