completely an opinion piece Alexander write for CNN, on June 1, 2020. According
to Fox 9 News, “If there’s one takeaway from a conversation with new Community
Safety Commissioner Dr. Cedric Alexander, it's that he doesn’t have any
interest in anti-police sentiment from the community, from city employees, from
some city council members, or media.’ This is not going to be some sort of
punching bag, this is going to be an opportunity for public safety to move
forward to give the people of this city what they need, professional,
courteous, constitutionally driven public safety,’ said Alexander.”
https://www.fox9.com/news/new-minneapolis-community-safety-commissioner-police-department-wont-be-a-punching-bag
This is an excerpt from the CNN opinion piece: “This is what Alexander had to
say to CNN in an opinion piece dated June of 2020: I am a black American man
who has been privileged to serve in law enforcement for 40 years. Today, if a
young person of color asks me what they should do if a police officer stops
them, I answer: Put your hands on the steering wheel where they can be seen,
cooperate and comply. And should they answer me back, as they likely would
today – Even if I did all that, we are still getting murdered – I would have
nothing to tell him or her. With my decades of experience, I would have nothing
to say.
"Black Americans – mostly young men, but women as well – are being killed by
American law officers not for anything they did but for who they are. The
killings are not accidents, statistical freaks, or mistakes in judgment. They
are products of American history. Until there is a plan for reform to address
these failures of policing…I will continue to have nothing to say to the young
people of color who ask me what to do, how to prevent their own deaths at the
hands of police…”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/opinions/whats-the-plan-now-america-alexander/index.html
My concern was that if after 40 years in police work, this is his attitude
toward police officers, will the best and brightest people want to apply to
work for him, or stay employed, without huge signing and retaining bonuses?
Hopefully, he really has changed his mind. Otherwise, I give the city very
little chance to get the violent crime under control, anytime soon.
In related news: According to WCCO TV, Fri, September 9, 2022, “Thursday
marked exactly one month of Community Safety Commissioner Cedric Alexander's
tenure. It was also perhaps the most violent day since he's been here.”
https://news.yahoo.com/wcco-goes-1-1-mpls-030821090.html
Four more were shot today, September 10, 2022, outside of a North Minneapolis
bar. Two of the women who were shot are pregnant. Two are wounded seriously.
One woman has a life-threatening injury.
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/4-shot-including-2-pregnant-victims-outside-north-minneapolis-bar/
CJ Sparrow
612-386-6538
occupirate.blogspot.com