Dec 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 12

AROUND THE COUNTRY
MINNEAPOLIS, MN.
Give the Morons what they want. They hate the police and don’t want a
new police station, then give them what they want. NO POLICE!
Minneapolis (Alpha News) – As
documented in the just-released
movie “The Fall of Minneapolis,”
during the riots following the death
of George Floyd, protesters attacked
and burned down the Third Precinct
police station in Minneapolis.
In the three years since, there has
been continued debate about if, and
where, to rebuild the station, with
some community members saying
they want no police station at all,
and others saying they could be
appeased with a mixed-use building
that includes other public safety
and social services as well.
Last month, three City Council
members attended a public safety
meeting held by the Longfellow
Community Council to answer
questions and provide information
about the city’s plan to rebuild the
Third Precinct on Minnehaha Avenue.
They met in a neighborhood
community center and engaged
with a vocal and energetic crowd of
about 50 people. From the questions
and comments, you could
tell that calling this an anti-police
crowd would be an understatement.
It would be more accurate to say
that every person in this room had
an intense, visceral hatred of police,
and most of them probably do not
want police to exist at all.
Reflecting that sentiment, a major
part of this discussion centered
around whether this new building
is going to be a “Community Safe-
ty Center” or a “Police Station,” or
both. The city’s announcement of
the plan says the building will include
both, and will include “comprehensive
safety services.” The
meeting’s announcement advertised
that it would help the public answer,
“What is the difference between
a Safety Center and a Police
Station?”
In one of the first comments
during the Q&A session, a woman
told the council members, “As
someone whose property was
destroyed the same night as the
Third Precinct, I am very frustrated
that this is happening before healing
has been offered to people that
were harmed by everything MPD
has done.” One might have thought
from her opening line that this is
someone very concerned with safety
and being protected from rioters
by police, but that was not the case.
Soon after, another attendee
asked, “What data or clear outcomes
can you point to that lead
you to be certain that MPD won’t
continue to be violent and brutalize
and inflict racist practices on our
residents?” To which another audience
member replied, “I think you
all are gambling with our lives, and
that’s not fair!” This was just one of
many interjections and comments
that made it clear that the attendees
generally do not want police
around at all, or a police station in
their neighborhood.
One man who said he is a retired
minister with experience in four
medium-sized cities told the audience,
“I can say from experience
that the police have a vision of their
service as based on their guns. It’s
a violent force, and if you respect
them, then you get service. But they
also see community service as a
non-equal. They are not equal to
their power because community
services are a soft power, and soft
power is pushed around by guns …
It’s like the crocodile carrying the
bunny across the river. The bunny
ain’t gonna make it.”
Comments like these drew many
affirmations, and also snaps from
the audience. The more anti-police
the comment was, the more hateful
toward police the statement
was, the more cheers, affirmations,
and snaps they got. It sometimes
seemed like each person was trying
to one-up the last in their anti-police
rhetoric and was being rewarded
for it.
There also seemed to be some
level of cognitive dissonance about
the distinction between a “safety
center” and a police station. On one
hand, the entire reason that Minneapolis
has to balance placing some
type of social services that fall
under the umbrella of “safety” in a
police precinct is that many community
members and several City
Council members have been very
vocal that they object to a tradi-
56 The Blues 40th Anniversary Issue