There is so much going on politically and socially across the US (and in most of what we call The West) that it's hard to keep an eye on the bigger picture. Lots of folks here have contacted me to get a sense of what is happening here at the flash point of all of the drama. As a result, I decided to start a thread detailing some of the ongoing effects of the riots and unrest, using local sources whenever possible.
Here is a FB posting from Yesterday, 7/26/20 by Jane Prince, City Council Member for Ward 7 of the City Of St Paul.
While I take exception to some of her statements (I have no idea if ICE or DHS is overzealous in enforcement here or anywhere else, and don't think police department diversity is a desirable end without capability to do the work competantly)
I do find her take on the budgetary games to be rooted in reality.
Council member Prince:
"I've decided to start a weekly blog on the state of Saint Paul from my perspective. This week's post is on the mayor's proposed cuts to the Saint Paul Police Department:
Last Wednesday evening, the Saint Paul Police Department’s Bike-Cop-for-Kids-Mobile blocked the intersection at East 4th and Bates in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood, where for the next two hours, cops, kids, and neighbors donned facemasks, enjoyed ice cream and cold drinks, got fitted for bike helmets, played basketball, and got to know and enjoy each other as friends.
When Todd Axtell became chief, he created the Community Engagement Unit (CEU), in his words, “ to make deposits in the bank of trust.” At the time it was a bold move, a paradigm shift. And as we now know, it was a prescient investment that has paid dividends time and again.
Last week, Mayor Melvin Carter ordered the Chief to propose a cut of $9.2 million from the 2021 police department's budget.
Staggering.
That's nearly 10 percent of the police budget, 89 percent of which pays for personnel. This leaves Chief Axtell with few options. With almost every crime index up significantly over last year (including the number of reported gunshots, the number of people shot and the number of people shot and killed), Chief Axtell can't make cuts to police patrols, which are already at bare-bones levels. Instead, I can only guess that he’ll be forced to cut the innovative, 21st Century policing initiatives that have been the hallmark of his administration – the very strategies that communities are demanding in every American city.
This will be a huge loss to Saint Paul.
Axtell’s Community Engagement Unit is about more than handshakes, hugs and handing out hotdogs (although that's part of it, too). Its focus is on forging relationships with Saint Paul’s diverse multicultural communities, the very people who, sadly, are disproportionately victimized. It uses “community liaisons," who are civilian employees reaching out to each of Saint Paul’s diverse communities, connecting kids and families with resources, promoting neighborhood safety, and doing the real, hard relationship building many people talk about but few are willing to do.
Think it's fluff? Then think about the immigrant communities facing overzealous federal enforcement by ICE and Homeland Security. For our neighbors whose reality involves the very real and unjust possibility of deportation, the relationships with the SPPD employees have been a lifeline they can trust.
And it doesn't stop there.
One of the most notable CEU achievements has been the creation of the Law
Enforcement Career Path Academy, which recruits diverse young adults to work in the
Community Engagement Unit as Americorps Volunteers while they earn their law
enforcement associates degree at Century College. It's a rigorous three-year program, and by the end of it these young people have the skills, knowledge and connections to our community to join the Police Academy. The first nine LECPA graduates were sworn in as police officers in January – as part of the SPPD’s most diverse academy class ever -- 77 percent of tha class were women and people of color.
"Diversify the department and hire people who live in Saint Paul!"
This is what the community said, and Chief Axtell responded. Yet here we are, putting all of our progress at risk.
If Chief Axtell has to cut police officers, union contracts required that the last hired are the first to be laid off – so that this most diverse class ever will be cut from the SPPD. The LECPA officers learned to be police first as neighborhood volunteers – and got to know each of our diverse neighborhoods youngsters, young adults and elders, their needs and their vulnerabilities.
According to the Chief, every new recruit should spend his/her first year in the community engagement unit to create a whole new culture of policing. But that is a far off dream if we have to cut 10 percent of the police budget.
What about the SPPD Coast Unit, the Community Outreach and Stabilization Team?
It's something we're all so very proud of. In fact, I've seen elected officials on national cable television, bragging about our program. And why wouldn't they? It includes the police department's mental health co-responder program, which embeds social workers with officers trained in crisis and trauma intervention. It includes the officers who stand shoulder to shoulder with social service providers trying to help our vast and growing homeless community, people with untreated mental illness, chemical dependency problems, veterans on the street suffering from PTSD. Sitting in SPPD East Team’s roll call yesterday morning, I heard an officer request COAST help to assist him on a call with a vulnerable elderly homeowner overwhelmed by the chaos in his life.
This is the type of police work cities across the entire country are begging their departments to do ... and we're going to cut it.
And then there's the crime.
What happens when the SPPD is forced to cut 10 percent of its budget in the middle of the city’s most serious violent crime wave in its history? The Chief will have no choice but to cut the very programs that make Saint Paul so very much different than the Minneapolis Police Department.
After Wednesday night’s Bike Cop event, a neighbor wrote how important it is for her neighborhood’s children to see police officers when they are not responding to crime.
“My point is, kids grow up so very fast and seek people they can trust and depend on for answers to what life throws them,” she wrote, “We need more of you. The past hot dog give-away was always a nice idea but playing basketball and actively interacting with each other is when we take the measure of another.”
East Team Commander Kurt Hallstrom responded to her email, saying “We love you and all of Saint Paul.”
That’s a lot to lose at budget time when Saint Paul needs these police-community relationships to thrive and grow more than ever. Are we really willing to destroy all the things we brag about when we talk about our SPPD?
I'm not. And if you're with me, now is the time to make your voices heard."
As a further addition, my brother & sister-in-law are recently-retired executives who have long lived in a tony expensive neighborhood on Lake Harriet in south Minneapolis. The Saturday before last, their neighbors suffered a home invasion robbery by a professional crew of 2, possibly 3. Entry was by an open basement window at approximately 2:10 am, and the residents were awakened by robbers in the bedroom with drawn guns. Stolen items were cash, iPhones, and laptops; apparently the robbers ejected sim cards and memory and left them with the victims. Questioning the adjacent closed bedroom door, the robbers left sleeping grandma alone, as she had nothing in there they were interested in taking. I have no idea how long it took the Minneapolis PD to arrive to take statements or check for evidence. My bro-in-law did not have that info.
Ironically, these folks had a *huge* custom-printed BLM banner hung over the front door of their $1m+ house... and yes, the robbers were black males.
-to be continued-