urbanMSP

Just curious what people's thought are about Nicollet now that it seems the greening has taken root. Of course not much activity currently but overall appearance?

Holiday Lighting - any news if the DID/city are going to up lighting this year? There were numerous complaints the last few years about no lighting on the trees. I had contacted DID myself and they said the didn't have the ability to put up lighting - no outlets in the bedding areas. Now that they replaced the uplighting, they also installed outlets. Really hope people push them to put up some holiday lighting and decorations this year.

Holiday Lighting - any news if the DID/city are going to up lighting this year? There were numerous complaints the last few years about no lighting on the trees. I had contacted DID myself and they said the didn't have the ability to put up lighting - no outlets in the bedding areas. Now that they replaced the uplighting, they also installed outlets. Really hope people push them to put up some holiday lighting and decorations this year.

So I heard back from the Mpls. DID and was informed there will be lighting in the trees from Grant to 12th, and then from 5th to Washington. They will again be putting on a light and sound show in the mid-blocks where the art lanterns and light walk are. At least it's something. Hoping Greening Mpls. will put up some lighting in Peavey.

The idea we can abolish or reduce the size of the police department is insane. So is the idea that policing doesn't need reform. There are too many bad people, and too many bad cops. Something like a licensure board requirement for police, increased education requirements and an increased salary seem like good starting ideas.

The idea we can abolish or reduce the size of the police department is insane. So is the idea that policing doesn't need reform. There are too many bad people, and too many bad cops. Something like a licensure board requirement for police, increased education requirements and an increased salary seem like good starting ideas.

The idea we can abolish or reduce the size of the police department is insane. So is the idea that policing doesn't need reform. There are too many bad people, and too many bad cops. Something like a licensure board requirement for police, increased education requirements and an increased salary seem like good starting ideas.

The idea we can abolish or reduce the size of the police department is insane. So is the idea that policing doesn't need reform. There are too many bad people, and too many bad cops. Something like a licensure board requirement for police, increased education requirements and an increased salary seem like good starting ideas.

I think the problem for Minneapolis is that they have basically already done a lot of the things that you are supposed to do. Police officers are licensed. Use of force procedures have been heavily modified. Body cameras have been implemented. Officers have gotten lots of specialized training. Minneapolis was actually one of only six cities in the country that was part of a pilot program, called the "National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice" in which every police officer received several days worth of new training on implicit bias, procedural justice, and other issues. You could've argued that the city was really a national leader in police reform.

If you've got a fresh idea about how to reform the existing police force, you should let your councilmember know. My bet is that it's already been tried. I think many people don't know how far Minneapolis has already gone to reform the MPD, and how little it seems to have mattered. The fact that two of the four cops who killed George Floyd were new to the force, having gone through some of the best training in the country, and still were frozen and unable to intervene really speaks (to me at least) to the depth of culture issues in the department and the impossibility of simply achieving change through tweaks to training and internal policies. (Also the fact that four officers responded to a simple issue of a counterfeit bill being discovered suggests that the Department is not using its manpower efficiently and could make economies, rather than asking for more money and more officers).

Nicollet Mall is actually a pretty good example of some of the nuances of this public safety debate. The issues on Nicollet rarely rise to the level of serious violence that requires an armed police response. What's been going on is most clearly a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the lack of people downtown. But you could easily see a reformed Minneapolis public safety approach which uses a specialized group of outreach workers to help reach the people demonstrating anti-social behavior downtown, while a smaller number of armed police officers is freed to actually root out the people who are committing serious crimes.

Anyway, nobody is going to abolish the MPD, but I do think there are a bunch of CM's, possibly a majority, possibly not, who would like to reduce the size of the MPD but probably not reduce the size of law enforcement overall. Just break out the different types of emergency responses and create more specialized groups to handle them, while refocusing the MPD to responding to and investigating more serious crimes.