City to sort through RNC complaints
<
The arrest of journalist Amy Goodman and two of her producers drew
national attention to questionable treatment of the press during RNC
protests. Click on the image above to see the video.
Mayor Rybak and Chief Tim Dolan announced Thursday that the Minneapolis
Police Department will conduct a review into Republic National
Convention events, and report to the City Council's Public Safety and
Regulatory Services Committee by the end of October. The report will
focus on the major incidents that occurred in Minneapolis including the
Rage against the Machine Concert as well as overall downtown security
and court costs. The City Attorney's office will review the process used
for citations and arrests in Minneapolis and may make recommendations
for policy changes.
A second report, reviewing media and citizen complaints regarding mass
arrests will be conducted by February of 2009 by the Minneapolis Police
Department and the Civil Rights Department.
Last week, Council Members Gary Schiff and Cam Gordon, Second Ward,
called for an investigation
<http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/7749/minneapolis-council-members-ca
ll-for-investigation-of-rnc-police> into the events surrounding
treatment of the media and other security issues during the RNC. Schiff,
who sits on the Council's public safety committee, said he supports the
city review, but said he hoped a review of federal activity by the
Department of Homeland Security would also be included.
Schiff echoed concerns by Amnesty International and the Minnesota Civil
Liberties Union
<http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/protest/36636prs20080904.html> that
several journalists covering the RNC were arbitrarily arrested while
filming and reporting on the demonstrations. They include Democracy Now
host Amy Goodman, and two of the program's producers. A photographer for
the Associated Press and other journalists were also arrested while
covering the demonstrations. According to a recent statement by Amnesty
International
<http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGUSA20080905001&lang=e>
"some of the police actions appear to have breached United Nations
standards on the use of force by law enforcement officials".
Council Members Schiff and Gordon were the dissenting votes
<http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/archives/proceedings/2007/20070
117-proceedings-adj.pdf> on a November 2007 Council action to enter
into a contract with the Republican National Committee. The contract
established an incident command structure during the RNC that put some
Minneapolis Police officers under the chain of command of Department of
Homeland Security. Both Council Members took issue with loss of local
control over MPD staff, and stated that "while violence and property
damage by protesters or others should not be tolerated we also know that
safety should not be used as an excuse to limit a free press or stifle
free speech."
Police response times trending down
Police response times for the city's most violent crimes were a minute
and a half faster from the year before. Police are aiming to reduce
response times even more with
The Minneapolis Police Department has released new numbers showing
faster response times for emergency calls. In the Spring of 2007, the
average response time to an emergency call was 10 minutes and 11
seconds. In 2008 the response time during the same period dropped to 8
minutes and 33 seconds.
The faster response times is credited to fixes to the city's new
computer aided dispatch system. "Since the new system was implemented at
the beginning of 2008 there has been a decrease in both the time it
takes for a call to be dispatched to an officer and the time it takes
the squad to reach the scene," John Dejung, director of emergency
communications said.
Council Member Schiff also attributed better response times to increased
staffing as well as other technology investments. "The city has
increased staffing in the police department and invested in new cameras,
global information system units in every squad car and gun shot
detection equipment. "Response times are headed in the right direction,
but we aren't where we want to be yet. We will continue to make smart
investments in technology for greater citizen safety."
Response times for serious crimes so far in 2008 are faster than anytime
since 2004. For more crime statistics and reports, click here
<http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/police/crime-statistics/> .
Breakfast with Gary: Ending animal shelter killing
<http://www.animalarkshelter.org/>
The largest no-kill shelter in the Twin Cities, Animal Ark serves more
than a thousand pets each year. Click on the photo to see pets up for
adoption.
Over five million unwanted cats and dogs are killed in shelters across
the United States every year, including thousands in Minnesota. Join
Council Member Gary Schiff on Friday, September 26th to talk about
making Minneapolis more animal friendly by following the lead of San
Francisco
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/10/02/petscol.DTL
> and other cities, by instituting high volume, low cost spay and
neuter programs and other no kill policies.
Guest speakers include Minneapolis Animal Control Director Dan Niziolek,
Underdog Rescue <http://www.underdogrescuemn.com/> Director Shannon
McKenzie and Mike Frey from Animal Ark
<http://www.animalarkshelter.org/> . To learn more about no kill
policies, click here.
<http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/nokillequation.html>
Breakfast with Gary takes place from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. the final Friday
of every month at Mercado Central, 1515 East Lake St. $5 buys breakfast.
Save a tree, get utility bills through e-mail
Minneapolis residents and businesses can help reduce costs and help the
environment by signing up for utility mails via email. Visit the utility
billing website <http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/forms/utility-billing>
or fill out the form on back of a utility bill and mail it in. Once set
up, residents choosing this option will no longer receive a bill in the
mail but instead will get an e-mail each month with instructions on how
to view and pay utility bills online.
The City also continues to encourage utility customers to pay their
utility bills electronically. Electronic payment has been available to
Minneapolis utility customers for more than ten years, yet only 16
percent of utility customers pay electronically. For more information or
to sign up, click here <http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/utility-billing>
.
According to city finance director Pat Born, mailing 100,000 utility
bills every month costs more than half a million dollars in postage. If
all Minneapolis utility customers signed up for electronic billing, each
year the city would save the paper made from 44 tons of wood (or the
equivalent of 302 trees), 600 BTUs of energy (enough to power seven
homes) and keep 91,040 lbs of greenhouse gases (the equivalent of
exhaust from about eight cars) out of the atmosphere. For more
information about your utility bill call 311 or the utility billing
office at 612-673-1114.
Suzanne Murphy joins Ninth Ward office
Experienced community and union organizer Suzanne Murphy is the newest
member of the Ninth Ward staff. She comes to City Hall from Progressive
Majority, where she helped to train and elect progressive local
candidates in swing districts.
"Suzanne brings years of experience in non-profits, community organizing
and the arts," Council Member Schiff said. "I'm thrilled she is joining
Heidi Quezada as a member of the Ninth Ward office," Council Member
Schiff said.
Murphy was an organizer for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride in 2003,
part of a national mobilization for the rights of immigrants. She is a
graduate of the Organizing Apprenticeship Project and has worked as
development director of a number of non-profits including Progressive
Minnesota.
"There are so many great things going on in the Ninth Ward, with growing
immigrant businesses and transportation alternatives. It's exciting to
be around that energy and such a strong sense of community among the
residents," Murphy said.
At Progressive Minnesota, Murphy also participated in union organizing,
helping negotiate a union contract and serving as steward of her
Steelworkers local. Suzanne earned her B.A. in studio art from Lawrence
University in 1999 and worked as Assistant Director of Soo Visual Arts
Center in Uptown before being lured back into politics. She is a proud
member of the Grants Committee of the Social Change Fund at Headwaters
Foundation.
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> / Learn About the Ninth Ward
<http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/ward9>