I asked ChatGPT about it and yes, four people were shot at MLK park on May 1st. Apparently there were no fatalities. The sources referenced were Fox9, KSTP.com, bringmethenews.com, and a YouTube posting, but no Strib. Interestingly, I haven't seen this referenced by Southwest Voices either. Granted, nobody was killed, but this seems like a rather major event that the Strib and SW Voices should have mentioned in some way.
CM Wonsley and her ilk will remove spokes from the wheel as much as possible.
Another of her ridiculous posts:
ROBIN WONSLEY:
"Last week, I joined one of the City’s contracted violence interrupter teams, Metro Youth Diversion, on their daily route. It was great to see how Metro Youth Diversion workers engage with local businesses and neighbors to foster community safety from the ground up.
Every single person in Minneapolis deserves to be safe, and I will continue to push for a complete transformation of public safety that can actually deliver meaningful results for all our communities."
Translated - she will work tirelessly to get rid of cops and all things she does not like while replacing with her nonsense DSA idea of utopia.
The problem....Mpls has had exactly the wrong City Council, and for almost a decade now. Worse than ever now, with 6-7 of them actually being about this, below. **
The majority's focus will continue to NOT be on crime. If the focus was on crime, and not on bathhouses etc, etc, they would HAVE to talk about investigations, drone usage, and all manner of law enforcement activities, and they do NOT want to talk about any of that. They would never want to suggest that a police dept is even remotely necessary. This is SAME reason that most of the CMs that represent the 26 neighborhoods within the 3rd Precinct are quite content that THAT police station is STILL missing, and over six years later.
The City of Mpls is buckling under the weight of this City Council.
They all know, but none of them has the nerve to poke their little turtle head out of the safety of their shell. Crime is to local politics as the national debt is to national politics…nothing will be done until it’s too late.
If you no longer recognize the city you live in as the one you remember, you have 2 choices (assuming you want to stay): get involved in changing it or leave. The fact that the DSA has infiltrated the city council and continues to elect Ilhan Omar tells me that there are not enough republican voters. Why would that be the case?
Why would we focus on shootings when we have important priorities like reopening public sex venues that were closed down in the '80s before many of the proponents of reopening them were even born?
Thankfully for New York, even under a Mandami, they are expanding their police force, and angering the DSA in the process. 👏
"The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America criticized the mayor over his support for increasing the Police Department’s head count."
Ok , some thoughts. Minneapolis is safe. With the exception of the active shooter and possibly the ( robber/burglar ) armed with a knife these are all property crimes. Annoying but not life threatening. You mention that your house was broken into and the suspect fled through the front window. What the front window open? Unlocked? And did they use the threat of the knife to rob you or were you burgled. Not shaming , just simply trying to clarify. As to the active shooter, that was specifically a attempted pickup of a man on a weapons charge. What I want to know is why the warrant pick up was executed so poorly that escalated a suspect known for violence and guns and putting the public into danger to the point that reverse 911 had to be utilized . The elephant in the room that no one wants to ever address is the guns. Policing of gun owners in the metro is still racially profiled. Although anyone who qualifies for open carry is legal non whites carrying in public is treated criminally. The biggest example is the murder of Philando Castile. The problem with MPD and policing in general is that it is reactive and not proactive. It's disingenuous to blame city council or that portion of it that you don't prefer. The "strong" mayor who had the city charter changed in a power grab refuses to take responsibility for the dysfunctional MPD even renominating a Chief he knew to be under serious investigation and who incurred a swath of complaints that were brushed off. Lay the blame where it lies. Frey and MPD leadership.Along with a ineffective measure of discipline and accountability. Operation Safe Summer is ineffective and has been because it is by designed to intimidate and saturate, a weak strategy. Violence prevention is more effective when addressed at core drivers of crime such as poverty, addiction, access to weapons, access to services. Not a bunch of grifting coordinated colored tee shirt wearing groups that get paid in proportionate to results. If the police are refusing to respond to dealers then lay blame with them not city council. I agree with you however that police are not the magic solution to public safety and agree that the core issues that lead to crime need to be addressed. So perhaps the bloated swollen budget of MPD could be better utilized to build real systems of public safety. I'll close with this. MPD was found by two separate agencies to be racist, brutal, and rights violating. Yet they still refuse to hold officers accountable including the head of the police , the chief. And Frey has not been held accountable for the failings. Dawanna Witt was shunned because of her collaboration with ICE and popular opinion confers. Same with MPD who allowed Johnathon Ross to leave the scene of the Renee Good killing and the lack of gathering evidence. MPD has a horrible closure rate , lack good investigators, and refuse to work with the Henn Co DA. It's not a DSA issue. It's an accountability issue. We just moved past the halfway point of the year but MPD has grossly exceeded budget despite an alleged investigation into overtime fraud that no one was held accountable for. Sorry you are pointing fingers at the wrong suspects.
“ Ok , some thoughts. Minneapolis is safe. With the exception of the active shooter and possibly the ( robber/burglar ) armed with a knife these are all property crimes. Annoying but not life threatening.”
I’m going to take a flyer here and go ahead and assume you’re an affluent white liberal and that you don’t live in an area with a high incidence of property crime. Imagine your life differently…imagine that you *don’t* have a lot of spare cash and some lawless thug busts out your car window or just steals your car that you actually need for work/school etc.
Property crime and drug encampments are very real problems for many people in our city who live in high crime neighborhoods and who are struggling to just get by, let alone get ahead. And it’s really not fair that a bunch of privileged posers try to dominate local politics and attempt to hand waive away property crime and livability issues and tell these people that their very real problems are illusory.
I definitely don't have a lot of spare cash. Thus I don't have a car for them to bust out the window. I depend on public transportation which unfortunately is underfunded and continually cutting service. Yes property crime and quality of life issues are real problems. No one should have their property damaged or stolen. As to drug encampments I volunteered with them trying to connect them with services and address problems. The services are extremely limited. Not all encampment residents are drug addicts and not all drug addicts are encampment residents. But it seems that the solution would be housing, addiction resources, mental health etc? Trashing the few items they have and pushing them to someone else's neighborhood hasn't been very effective. And to be honest MPLS isn't the only place where unhoused populations are a problem. It's nation wide. I thought I made it clear that property crime is still a problem just not to the degree that violent crime is. If Frey isn't a privileged poser, or Rainville, or Palmisano I don't know who is. Last time I checked they all registered as Democrats. Which may not correlate with liberalism anymore. I literally said not shaming about the property crimes. I never said they didn't exist or were just made up. You can't compare homicide, terroristic threats, weapons offenses with shoplifting, parking, or theft. My question is why are some neighborhoods high crime and some aren't ? Do they get the same services?
MPD (or any other law enforcement agency) merely investigates and makes arrests/gathers evidence and witness testimony. How many times has Hennepin County Attorney Moriarty declined to prosecute an alleged offender, thereby encouraging the continuation of the offensive behavior??? These agencies are supposed to be working together regardless of the politics.
Agree with that. Area of disagreement potentially are that if the investigation is not thorough and does not support the charges then there's a problem. That is what we saw with Amy Klobuchar and Mike Freeman and the result of the willingness to prosecute shoddy cases was innocent people being incarcerated for long periods of time. One of most shocking testimonies I've witnessed in court was an MPD Detective who testified that they had warned supervisors that witnesses weren't reliable and the case was untenable. He was told to stay quiet and an innocent teenager was sent to jail for decades for a crime that they didn't commit. So yes, the most important thing of all is that there is accountability and competency in all the varied systems of public safety and the judicial system. Sadly the taxpayers paid another huge settlement and the officials that acted were not held accountable.
Regardless of which, or ANY city that the DSA aligned on our city council landed in, they would be very much anti police, in all manner of rhetoric and action, as they worked to destabilize those working in law enforcement. So, it is NOT really about Minneapolis, Hennepin County, and the MPD and the Sheriff's Dept...IF we are being honest.
Ok let's be honest. The point is whether Mpls is safer or less safe than other cities of comparable size and what the factors that lead to public safety? You can't analyze that without considering both the policy and procedure of the law enforcement agency , which differs by the agency and how it is followed. In the case of MPD it has been found that there is a decades long pattern and practice of racial profiling, brutality, extrajudicial killing and human rights violation. Even though the DOJ dropped the consent decree it's not the first time through for MPD with the DOJ. Back in the early 2000's they were ordered to note the race of the driver in every single traffic law enforcement stop to determine whether they were racially profiling. So what was their response? They changed the coding from TLE ( traffic law enforcement ) to suspicious person, suspicious vehicle, or even miscellaneous so that they could avoid the mandatory noting of race. We have gone through several iterations of civilian oversight each of which have required law enforcement to sit on the board and each time the process has broken down and led to no reform. No accountability. So a rogue force that has been found throughout the last quarter decade to discriminate and violate standards with no accountability is not in a position to keep all citizens safe. It does a pretty good job of keeping police safe by no accountabilty, it keeps the wealthy and powerful reasonably safe, it keeps certain parts of Minneapolis safe and then well the rest lies in huge documentation by both DOJ and MDHR. But, the crux is rather than throw a huge pile of never ending funds at MPD and then complain that property taxes are too high perhaps we could determine more effective ways to spend the money? Are their studies that indicate likelihood or high potential towards criminality ? Poverty? Racial disparity ? Inequality? Disproportionate violence and incarceration ? Are there options that lie outside of policing that could decrease likelihood of criminalization? Access to housing, food, healthcare? Even within policing MPD dragged their feet to investigating non fatal shooting incidents until they saw how effective it was in other cities such as St. Paul. So two questions. One is do police effectively "keep us safe?" If you believe that they do what do you think they can do better to keep us safer? If they don't what options are available to us to keep us safe. What if we were to frame the question not by pro or anti police or pro or anti political party but by effectiveness and return on investment? Does MPD provide a good return on money spent for them? Open to your answers.
The DSA ( and apparently their adherents ) work towards.. "defund, dismantle, and abolish," in all cities.
That is where the honesty should begin, by drawing attention to THAT part of their clearly stated platform...as it relates to ALL cities, counties, and states.
Well let's talk about that. Have MPD been de-funded? Or have the blown right past their budget and going to single-handedly raise our taxes ...again. How much money was spent on PTSD settlements? How much on wrongful death settlements ? De-funded ? They have added onto all their toys including drones and now want drones as first responders so they can decide if they need to respond to calls. Flock cameras to surveil everyone whether criminal or not. Assume everyone is. Have they been dismantled or did a bunch that were under investigation take 6 figure payouts and quit so all those investigations went away. Abolished ? Not even remotely close. If you have facts indicating otherwise I would love to see them. Has MPD budget gone up or down since they murdered George Floyd? Have they cost the city more or less? Did the Chief resign over interfering with a sexual misconduct investigation involving young recruits ? Did Katie Blackwell get run out after a week ? And then demoted by the interim chief ? I can back all of it up.
Nobody who “qualifies for open carry” would think that open carry is practically/tactically the way to go. Concealed carry with a valid PTC is the way to go in a place like the Metro twin cities.
If you are hunting in the middle of nowhere that is another story. Or maybe if you are somewhere like Montana or Wyoming.
The middle of Minneapolis? No thanks.
Open Carry in most urban environments is a path to give up your tactical advantage, and to invite unwanted attention.
Valid. I won't even claim to have expertise in open carry or guns in general. I've managed to live my entire life without the need for a gun. My thoughts were if the law allows for open carry is it enforced equally. I defer to your expertise as to the wisdom of open/conceal carry or even the need to be armed.
Recruitment is not just a math problem calculated in line-item budgets; it is an exercise in workplace culture.
Who in their right mind would apply to wear a Minneapolis Police badge today?
It is a grueling, high-stress job under the best of circumstances. But when the dominant political leadership of the city treats the entire force not as a necessary public utility, but as an inherently predatory occupying force, recruitment becomes impossible.
When Council Members like Chavez and Stevenson treat every professional deployment as a constitutional crisis and use their platforms to signal perpetual hostility toward rank-and-file officers, they create a toxic workforce environment.
Experienced officers leave for departments where they are respected, and qualified new recruits choose to take their talents to communities that don’t vilify them before they even punch the clock. The anti-police wing of the council has systematically poisoned the well, and now they are grandstanding about the drought.
There was a mass shooting at Martin Luther King jr. Park at the beginning of May, and the Strib didn’t even bother covering it. Ho hum.
The DSA is how Republicans are born.
I haven’t heard about the shooting at MLK. Please provide some details.
I asked ChatGPT about it and yes, four people were shot at MLK park on May 1st. Apparently there were no fatalities. The sources referenced were Fox9, KSTP.com, bringmethenews.com, and a YouTube posting, but no Strib. Interestingly, I haven't seen this referenced by Southwest Voices either. Granted, nobody was killed, but this seems like a rather major event that the Strib and SW Voices should have mentioned in some way.
Along those lines...
The Democrats’ ‘Upstairs-Downstairs’ Coalition Is at a Breaking Point
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/16/opinion/democratic-party-coalition-minority-voters.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qlA.KRS6.uMrcdtp3xAvU&smid=url-share
CM Wonsley and her ilk will remove spokes from the wheel as much as possible.
Another of her ridiculous posts:
ROBIN WONSLEY:
"Last week, I joined one of the City’s contracted violence interrupter teams, Metro Youth Diversion, on their daily route. It was great to see how Metro Youth Diversion workers engage with local businesses and neighbors to foster community safety from the ground up.
Every single person in Minneapolis deserves to be safe, and I will continue to push for a complete transformation of public safety that can actually deliver meaningful results for all our communities."
Translated - she will work tirelessly to get rid of cops and all things she does not like while replacing with her nonsense DSA idea of utopia.
The problem....Mpls has had exactly the wrong City Council, and for almost a decade now. Worse than ever now, with 6-7 of them actually being about this, below. **
The majority's focus will continue to NOT be on crime. If the focus was on crime, and not on bathhouses etc, etc, they would HAVE to talk about investigations, drone usage, and all manner of law enforcement activities, and they do NOT want to talk about any of that. They would never want to suggest that a police dept is even remotely necessary. This is SAME reason that most of the CMs that represent the 26 neighborhoods within the 3rd Precinct are quite content that THAT police station is STILL missing, and over six years later.
The City of Mpls is buckling under the weight of this City Council.
**
https://www.dsausa.org/working-groups/abolition-working-group/
We are committed to the horizon of abolition and the path leading us there. Our demands:
Defund the police by rejecting any expansion to police budgets or scope of enforcement while cutting budgets annually towards zero
End the criminalization of working-class survival
Freedom for all incarcerated people
Demilitarize the police and end colonial policing of our cities and neighborhood
I have nothing smart to say. Depressing on so many levels. 😥
I would love for this article to be sent to all city council members.
They all know, but none of them has the nerve to poke their little turtle head out of the safety of their shell. Crime is to local politics as the national debt is to national politics…nothing will be done until it’s too late.
It has been.
If you no longer recognize the city you live in as the one you remember, you have 2 choices (assuming you want to stay): get involved in changing it or leave. The fact that the DSA has infiltrated the city council and continues to elect Ilhan Omar tells me that there are not enough republican voters. Why would that be the case?
Why would we focus on shootings when we have important priorities like reopening public sex venues that were closed down in the '80s before many of the proponents of reopening them were even born?
Thankfully for New York, even under a Mandami, they are expanding their police force, and angering the DSA in the process. 👏
"The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America criticized the mayor over his support for increasing the Police Department’s head count."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/12/nyregion/dsa-mamdani-pushback.html?unlocked_article_code=1.p1A.g2V8.Qjy9BIUdR7a_&smid=url-share
Ok , some thoughts. Minneapolis is safe. With the exception of the active shooter and possibly the ( robber/burglar ) armed with a knife these are all property crimes. Annoying but not life threatening. You mention that your house was broken into and the suspect fled through the front window. What the front window open? Unlocked? And did they use the threat of the knife to rob you or were you burgled. Not shaming , just simply trying to clarify. As to the active shooter, that was specifically a attempted pickup of a man on a weapons charge. What I want to know is why the warrant pick up was executed so poorly that escalated a suspect known for violence and guns and putting the public into danger to the point that reverse 911 had to be utilized . The elephant in the room that no one wants to ever address is the guns. Policing of gun owners in the metro is still racially profiled. Although anyone who qualifies for open carry is legal non whites carrying in public is treated criminally. The biggest example is the murder of Philando Castile. The problem with MPD and policing in general is that it is reactive and not proactive. It's disingenuous to blame city council or that portion of it that you don't prefer. The "strong" mayor who had the city charter changed in a power grab refuses to take responsibility for the dysfunctional MPD even renominating a Chief he knew to be under serious investigation and who incurred a swath of complaints that were brushed off. Lay the blame where it lies. Frey and MPD leadership.Along with a ineffective measure of discipline and accountability. Operation Safe Summer is ineffective and has been because it is by designed to intimidate and saturate, a weak strategy. Violence prevention is more effective when addressed at core drivers of crime such as poverty, addiction, access to weapons, access to services. Not a bunch of grifting coordinated colored tee shirt wearing groups that get paid in proportionate to results. If the police are refusing to respond to dealers then lay blame with them not city council. I agree with you however that police are not the magic solution to public safety and agree that the core issues that lead to crime need to be addressed. So perhaps the bloated swollen budget of MPD could be better utilized to build real systems of public safety. I'll close with this. MPD was found by two separate agencies to be racist, brutal, and rights violating. Yet they still refuse to hold officers accountable including the head of the police , the chief. And Frey has not been held accountable for the failings. Dawanna Witt was shunned because of her collaboration with ICE and popular opinion confers. Same with MPD who allowed Johnathon Ross to leave the scene of the Renee Good killing and the lack of gathering evidence. MPD has a horrible closure rate , lack good investigators, and refuse to work with the Henn Co DA. It's not a DSA issue. It's an accountability issue. We just moved past the halfway point of the year but MPD has grossly exceeded budget despite an alleged investigation into overtime fraud that no one was held accountable for. Sorry you are pointing fingers at the wrong suspects.
“ Ok , some thoughts. Minneapolis is safe. With the exception of the active shooter and possibly the ( robber/burglar ) armed with a knife these are all property crimes. Annoying but not life threatening.”
I’m going to take a flyer here and go ahead and assume you’re an affluent white liberal and that you don’t live in an area with a high incidence of property crime. Imagine your life differently…imagine that you *don’t* have a lot of spare cash and some lawless thug busts out your car window or just steals your car that you actually need for work/school etc.
Property crime and drug encampments are very real problems for many people in our city who live in high crime neighborhoods and who are struggling to just get by, let alone get ahead. And it’s really not fair that a bunch of privileged posers try to dominate local politics and attempt to hand waive away property crime and livability issues and tell these people that their very real problems are illusory.
I definitely don't have a lot of spare cash. Thus I don't have a car for them to bust out the window. I depend on public transportation which unfortunately is underfunded and continually cutting service. Yes property crime and quality of life issues are real problems. No one should have their property damaged or stolen. As to drug encampments I volunteered with them trying to connect them with services and address problems. The services are extremely limited. Not all encampment residents are drug addicts and not all drug addicts are encampment residents. But it seems that the solution would be housing, addiction resources, mental health etc? Trashing the few items they have and pushing them to someone else's neighborhood hasn't been very effective. And to be honest MPLS isn't the only place where unhoused populations are a problem. It's nation wide. I thought I made it clear that property crime is still a problem just not to the degree that violent crime is. If Frey isn't a privileged poser, or Rainville, or Palmisano I don't know who is. Last time I checked they all registered as Democrats. Which may not correlate with liberalism anymore. I literally said not shaming about the property crimes. I never said they didn't exist or were just made up. You can't compare homicide, terroristic threats, weapons offenses with shoplifting, parking, or theft. My question is why are some neighborhoods high crime and some aren't ? Do they get the same services?
MPD (or any other law enforcement agency) merely investigates and makes arrests/gathers evidence and witness testimony. How many times has Hennepin County Attorney Moriarty declined to prosecute an alleged offender, thereby encouraging the continuation of the offensive behavior??? These agencies are supposed to be working together regardless of the politics.
Agree with that. Area of disagreement potentially are that if the investigation is not thorough and does not support the charges then there's a problem. That is what we saw with Amy Klobuchar and Mike Freeman and the result of the willingness to prosecute shoddy cases was innocent people being incarcerated for long periods of time. One of most shocking testimonies I've witnessed in court was an MPD Detective who testified that they had warned supervisors that witnesses weren't reliable and the case was untenable. He was told to stay quiet and an innocent teenager was sent to jail for decades for a crime that they didn't commit. So yes, the most important thing of all is that there is accountability and competency in all the varied systems of public safety and the judicial system. Sadly the taxpayers paid another huge settlement and the officials that acted were not held accountable.
Important to be honest...
Regardless of which, or ANY city that the DSA aligned on our city council landed in, they would be very much anti police, in all manner of rhetoric and action, as they worked to destabilize those working in law enforcement. So, it is NOT really about Minneapolis, Hennepin County, and the MPD and the Sheriff's Dept...IF we are being honest.
Ok let's be honest. The point is whether Mpls is safer or less safe than other cities of comparable size and what the factors that lead to public safety? You can't analyze that without considering both the policy and procedure of the law enforcement agency , which differs by the agency and how it is followed. In the case of MPD it has been found that there is a decades long pattern and practice of racial profiling, brutality, extrajudicial killing and human rights violation. Even though the DOJ dropped the consent decree it's not the first time through for MPD with the DOJ. Back in the early 2000's they were ordered to note the race of the driver in every single traffic law enforcement stop to determine whether they were racially profiling. So what was their response? They changed the coding from TLE ( traffic law enforcement ) to suspicious person, suspicious vehicle, or even miscellaneous so that they could avoid the mandatory noting of race. We have gone through several iterations of civilian oversight each of which have required law enforcement to sit on the board and each time the process has broken down and led to no reform. No accountability. So a rogue force that has been found throughout the last quarter decade to discriminate and violate standards with no accountability is not in a position to keep all citizens safe. It does a pretty good job of keeping police safe by no accountabilty, it keeps the wealthy and powerful reasonably safe, it keeps certain parts of Minneapolis safe and then well the rest lies in huge documentation by both DOJ and MDHR. But, the crux is rather than throw a huge pile of never ending funds at MPD and then complain that property taxes are too high perhaps we could determine more effective ways to spend the money? Are their studies that indicate likelihood or high potential towards criminality ? Poverty? Racial disparity ? Inequality? Disproportionate violence and incarceration ? Are there options that lie outside of policing that could decrease likelihood of criminalization? Access to housing, food, healthcare? Even within policing MPD dragged their feet to investigating non fatal shooting incidents until they saw how effective it was in other cities such as St. Paul. So two questions. One is do police effectively "keep us safe?" If you believe that they do what do you think they can do better to keep us safer? If they don't what options are available to us to keep us safe. What if we were to frame the question not by pro or anti police or pro or anti political party but by effectiveness and return on investment? Does MPD provide a good return on money spent for them? Open to your answers.
The DSA ( and apparently their adherents ) work towards.. "defund, dismantle, and abolish," in all cities.
That is where the honesty should begin, by drawing attention to THAT part of their clearly stated platform...as it relates to ALL cities, counties, and states.
Well let's talk about that. Have MPD been de-funded? Or have the blown right past their budget and going to single-handedly raise our taxes ...again. How much money was spent on PTSD settlements? How much on wrongful death settlements ? De-funded ? They have added onto all their toys including drones and now want drones as first responders so they can decide if they need to respond to calls. Flock cameras to surveil everyone whether criminal or not. Assume everyone is. Have they been dismantled or did a bunch that were under investigation take 6 figure payouts and quit so all those investigations went away. Abolished ? Not even remotely close. If you have facts indicating otherwise I would love to see them. Has MPD budget gone up or down since they murdered George Floyd? Have they cost the city more or less? Did the Chief resign over interfering with a sexual misconduct investigation involving young recruits ? Did Katie Blackwell get run out after a week ? And then demoted by the interim chief ? I can back all of it up.
Nobody who “qualifies for open carry” would think that open carry is practically/tactically the way to go. Concealed carry with a valid PTC is the way to go in a place like the Metro twin cities.
If you are hunting in the middle of nowhere that is another story. Or maybe if you are somewhere like Montana or Wyoming.
The middle of Minneapolis? No thanks.
Open Carry in most urban environments is a path to give up your tactical advantage, and to invite unwanted attention.
Valid. I won't even claim to have expertise in open carry or guns in general. I've managed to live my entire life without the need for a gun. My thoughts were if the law allows for open carry is it enforced equally. I defer to your expertise as to the wisdom of open/conceal carry or even the need to be armed.
https://minneapolistimes.com/the-empty-seats-at-the-defense-table-why-city-council-belongs-in-the-mpd-staffing-lawsuit/
Excerpt...
Toxic Rhetoric, Toxic Workplace
Recruitment is not just a math problem calculated in line-item budgets; it is an exercise in workplace culture.
Who in their right mind would apply to wear a Minneapolis Police badge today?
It is a grueling, high-stress job under the best of circumstances. But when the dominant political leadership of the city treats the entire force not as a necessary public utility, but as an inherently predatory occupying force, recruitment becomes impossible.
When Council Members like Chavez and Stevenson treat every professional deployment as a constitutional crisis and use their platforms to signal perpetual hostility toward rank-and-file officers, they create a toxic workforce environment.
Experienced officers leave for departments where they are respected, and qualified new recruits choose to take their talents to communities that don’t vilify them before they even punch the clock. The anti-police wing of the council has systematically poisoned the well, and now they are grandstanding about the drought.
I so appreciate the work that Better Mpls and Mpls Times both do, in drawing attention to the things that most matter now for this city.
Minneapolis’s Economy is Struggling. Local Government is Focused Elsewhere. | Minneapolis Times
https://minneapolistimes.com/minneapoliss-economy-is-struggling-local-government-is-focused-elsewhere/