Small group meetings have so far found little consensus

Minneapolis is one of six pilot cities selected to look into improving police-community relations. The city was selected last year for the three-year project by the National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice (NI).
The NI website says each city is considered based on such factors as geographic diversity, jurisdiction size, ethnic and religious composition, and population density, along with âeach siteâs willingness and capacity to engage in the three-pronged approach of the National Initiative.â This includes looking at the cityâs âspecial subpopulations,â including youth, LGBTQ, domestic violence and sexual assault victims, Latinos, and one or more neighborhoods dealing with youth violence and gangs.
The projectâs manager, Dr. Tracie Keesee, and her team made two site visits to Minneapolis last year. âWe spent the last year in small community meetings,â she recalled after meeting January 19 with a small, invited group of community members, Metro State University faculty, and others at the schoolâs Brooklyn Park campus during a two-day visit.
Each city is different, said Keesee, describing Minneapolis as âa different environmentâ since her last visit in November, largely due to the Jamal Clark shooting. As a result, her main goal last week was to hear firsthand accounts from people âwho have established relationships in the Minneapolis communityâ in preparing for a three-day visit next month.
The nearly 20-person group included Minneapolis Police Deputy Chief Medaria Arradondo. Keesee pointed out that everyone including police must be involved in the work of improving police-community relations.
âWe cannot do anything without talking about the police department,â she said. The current âunhealthiness culture of Minneapolisâ is affecting both the community and police. âNeither [side] is in a good space right now.â
âPeople canât trust one another,â added David Starks, a longtime Northside resident who has been actively involved in planning many Metro State events on racial justice and mass incarceration issues, including the schoolâs mass incarceration understanding and responding forum held on its main campus in St. Paul each spring.
Starks was a participant in last weekâs meeting at Metro State, as was Above the E.D.G.E. founding CEO Quadree âCoach Qâ Drakeford, who noted that he especially liked hearing Keesee talk about reconciliation. âWe canât reconcile the disparities until we canâŠhear from the people about what these disparities are,â he told the MSR after the meeting.
Drakeford supports Keeseeâs goal for meeting community residents and others in small groups next month. âIf she does what she says she will doâŠ[to] get some good feedback from folk that are hurting, then I believe you can take some of thatâ and use it in policy planning.
Metro State Assistant Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Professor Raj Sethuraju told the MSR that he hopes the discussion includes police living in the communities where they serve. âWe have to bridge the gap between community [and police] and then have that conversation.â added the professor. âThat is a long debate we have to have.â
âThe key thing that I am hearing [is] that there is no consensus on how everybody is feeling,â reported Metro State Associate Criminal Justice Professor James Densley. He said he enjoyed hearing âthe wealth of knowledgeâ from the persons who attended the meeting. He previously met with Keesee during a visit last summer.
âWe are still trying to get our head around what it means to try to move forward,â Densley said. âA lot of people talked about reconciliation and facing history in order to be able to have justice in the community. To get there, we also have to recognize the power dynamics that apply both in law enforcement and within the community itself.â
âIt is not a consensus in law enforcement to say this is the law enforcement perspective on this issue,â explained Densley. âThere also is not a consensus in the community where we can say this is the community perspective on this issue.â
âCommunity is defined differently by different folk,â said Keesee, whose group is scheduled to return to Minneapolis February 4, 5 and 6. She prefers small-group meetings as opposed to large-scale ones.
After last weekâs meeting, Keesee told the MSR, âWhat I think was successful [about her visit] was what I learned from the community. Not just the history of Minneapolis and the relationships, [(but] their thoughts on how we can move forward and what real steps have to happen. Itâs not just large steps in the city, but [in] the individual communities [as well].â
âThere is optimism, pain,â continued Keesee. However, âa lot of people [are] wanting to be a part of the solution and have a lot to give.â
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
Charles Hallman is a contributing reporter and award-winning sports columnist at the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.