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THE VOICE OF BLACK MINNESOTA SINCE 1934
September 1–7, 2022
Vol. 89
No. 5
www.spokesman-recorder.com
Phone: 612-827-4021
Southside crime complaints greet MSR continues its new public safety commissioner winning streak
By Charles Hallman Contributing Writer
D
r. Cedric Alexander has been Minneapolis’ first-ever public safety commissioner for about a month. Since he was sworn in August 8, Alexander, in addition to his main job overseeing five departments including police,
fire, 9-1-1, emergency management and neighborhood safety (formerly violence prevention), also has been attending community meetings to get better acquainted with his new city. Over 100 people heard Alexander on August 25 at Phelps Park. They wanted him to know their concerns and frustrations over crime, especially in the 38th and Chicago area.
“The goal is to have a safe community,” said Alexander as he introduced himself in the packed Phelps gym. “My role is to make sure that you get 360 degrees of public safety in the city.” But most of the two-hour meeting had residents expressing frustration about crime in the immediate vicinity—Phelps Park is located just a block away
“I promise you, we’re gonna fight till the end to protect you.”
Dr. Cedric Alexander
Photo by Charles Hallman
from the intersection of 38th and Chicago, where George Floyd was killed in May 2020. Since then it has been called George Floyd Square, but mainly the intersection has been blocked, forcing city buses to detour around it. Two homicides also took place in the vicinity earlier in August. Many residents complained that the police aren’t as visible to deter criminal activity in the neighborhood as in the past. “I hear the same thing from residents [at] every community meeting I go to in every part of the city in every neighborhood,” said MPD Interim Chief Amelia Huffman. She and Third Precinct Inspector Jose Gomez both were invited to speak at the meeting. Crime is up all over Minneapolis: According to Best Places .net, the city is almost twice the national average in violent crime and three times the average in property crime. Minneapolis’ 2022 violent crime rate ■ See ALEXANDER on page 5
Publisher and veteran sportswriter both recognized for excellence
Tracey Williams-Dillard By Alvin Brown Contributing Writer
cruise that celebrated 88 years of serving the community, Publisher/CEO Tracey Williams-Dillard and longtime Just when you think things couldn’t get any better for writer Charles Hallman both the Minnesota Spokesman- will soon receive awards Recorder (MSR), things have. that recognize their longtime Still riding the crest of a boat ■ See AWARDS on page 5
Henn. County Attorney candidate envisions big changes By Abdi Mohamed Contributing Writer
Here, Moriarty speaks to the MSR helping our youth. The prosecutor is the most powabout her experience as chief public defender, how she’s amassed a coali- erful entity in the system, and that’s Reforms on policing, substance tion of supporters, and how, if elected, really where you can make the most change. Right now we’re at a point abuse, and juvenile detention are top where we need public safety, and a of the list for Hennepin County Attorway to get public safety is through ney candidate Mary Moriarty. This reform. fall, the former chief public defender of Hennepin County is running for MSR: While working as the chief Minnesota’s largest public law office, public defender, you called out having advanced past the primary in the practices of police officers August. in Minneapolis for their sting Moriarty was among six other candioperations. How did that experience dates but won 36% of the vote despite shape your role? having such a crowded field. Martha MM: Our lawyers were picking up Holton Dimick earned 18% of the vote, cases where people were approached leading both her and Moriarty to vie for by undercover police officers to sell the office on November 8. their small amount of marijuana. We Born in New Ulm, Minnesota, discovered that 46 out of the 47 Moriarty moved to the Twin Cities people who were charged were Black. to attend Macalester College and The intersection there is that we were later the University of Minnesota Mary Moriarty Submitted photo working with the County Attorney’s Law School. After receiving her law degree, she began her career as a she plans to use research and data as Office or trying to work with them to tell them that this was a problem, and public defender in Hennepin County, the Hennepin County Attorney. they were not interested in doing anysix years of which she served as the county’s first female chief public MSR: What made you decide to run thing about it. When I first became chief public defender, leading a staff of 140 attor- for the Hennepin County Attorney’s defender, I had reached out to the city office? neys and 70 support staff. MM: I want more for this com- council members and the mayor and Moriarty, 58, retired in 2021 after a 31-year career in public service where munity. I want public safety for said, “Hey, I’m the new chief public she oversaw tens of thousands of everyone. I think we need account- defender. I’d love to meet with you.” cases and built a reputation of fight- ability for community members and I think most of them said that they ing against systemic inequities within police. There are many areas where didn’t know that there was a chief we can put more resources into public defender because the City and Hennepin County.
the County had operated in siloes. I met with the mayor and I showed him some police reports about what was happening, and he and the Minneapolis Police Department put a stop to those stings. MSR: What’s the importance of a county attorney and how would you utilize your role to make changes? MM: The Hennepin County Attorney decides who to charge, who not to charge, what to charge them with, whether to send them to diversion. So they ultimately control a person’s trajectory into the system or not. By virtue of being charged, even if your
We need to be able to effectively prosecute violent crime, and that takes good police work. case gets dismissed, you’ve still been charged and it’s in the computer. It may be reported in the paper. You could be put in jail. So there are consequences for simply being charged. MSR: You often speak about data
and how it’s helped you visualize the issue with our criminal justice system. How would you use data if elected to the County Attorney’s Office? MM: I’m a big data and research person. I think that that’s how we make sure that the policies and practices are actually working, and if they’re not working, we need to make a change. An example of that was when we at the public defender’s office, when I was chief, kept track of traffic stops. The Minneapolis Police Department does have a data dashboard, and anybody can look at the data dashboard and you can see that there are tremendous racial disparities in traffic stops. In other words, when a driver is stopped for a minor driving violation or equipment violation, the number of Black drivers that are stopped is far out of proportion to the percentage of Black residents in Minneapolis. But what we couldn’t answer by looking at the data dashboard—people were saying it was getting contraband, drugs and guns off the street, but we couldn’t tell that just from those numbers. So we made a request to the Minneapolis Police Department and did receive a 19,000-lined excel spreadsheet, and we crunched the numbers, ■ See MORIARTY on page 5
‘Innate negotiator’ devotes his talent to bettering public health Source has a dedicated focus on providBy Julie Gordon ing education and improving equity in Contributing Writer access to organ donation and transplantation, and our partnership with ClarWithin Minnesota’s healthcare ence has resulted in lives saved.” circles, Clarence Jones may be the most We recently had a chance to catch connected person in our state—espe- up with Jones to discuss his role at Huecially when it comes to tackling emerg- MAN and where he currently is spending health crises. ing his time and energy. An advocate for healthier communities for nearly 25 years, Jones helped MSR: Tell us a bit more about your co-found Hue-MAN, a Twin Cities experience growing up in Chicago. organization working to solve challengCJ: When I was younger, I had an innate ability to be a negotiator within ing health issues among our young and middle-aged men, primarily men of color. my community. It was important to be Employing a combination of research, involved, whether it was within the community partnerships, and good old- church or other areas where like-mindfashioned networking, Jones humbly ed people came together to better the uses his talent to get results. “For more community. than 20 years, Clarence Jones has been I carried that sense of connection a trusted partner, advisor and friend,” to Minnesota, where I attended college. shared Susan Mau Larson, chief strategy But it wasn’t until I met Dr. Wendy Hellofficer at LifeSource. She added, “Life- erstedt and Julia Johnson at the Univer-
and strengthen the community for it to get to the next level. We have an organic approach, where we probe to get the answers we need to get results across the board.
sity of Minnesota that I realized public health was truly my calling. MSR: Describe what your organization does and who you primarily serve. CJ: When people hear the term HueMAN, I want them to understand we are a collection of organizations that are truly committed to making our community healthier. While our focus is to address the health disparities among young men, we also work to support the needs of our broader community. To date, we have commissioned nearly 30 research papers that have provided critical information back to the community. We have a long track record of making things happen in a very, very positive way. MSR: As a leader of community outreach for Hue-MAN, where do you spend most of your time?
Clarence Jones
Submitted photo
CJ: In addition to collaborating with our many partners, my job is to work with the resources and the people. I must figure out how we can support
MSR: What health concerns and initiatives are you concentrating on currently? CJ: Right now, we are working on projects related to opioids and substance abuse, specifically during pregnancy. I just finished a podcast with Pearl Evans and Dana Farley from the Minnesota Department of Health, which covers the history of prescribing opioids and the impacts to the African American community. We are also working on gun violence, where we’ll direct the programming primarily to parents of middle school children, supporting those who have personal ■ See JONES on page 5