Star Tribune
Two members of Minneapolis civilian oversight commission abruptly resign
Two members of Minneapolis’ civilian oversight commission have abruptly resigned, a week after city leaders vowed to get the police review board back on track amid continued fallout from the termination of the city’s civil rights director and the resignation of her top lieutenant.
Fartun Weli and A.J. Awed separately submitted their resignations in emails to the commission chair and the City Council members who appointed them last spring, according to documents obtained by the Star Tribune. Both are prominent Somali Americans who lead local community organizations.
Awed resigned last Thursday night and Weli the following Sunday. They each cited the “politically motivated” removal of civil rights director Alberder Gillespie and failures of mayoral leadership as among the reasons for their exit, saying that the lack of support affected their ability to serve in the current framework.
Their departures leave the 15-member Community Commission on Police Oversight (CCPO) without a representative from the Somali community and may further stall its work to clear a mounting backlog of police misconduct complaints.
The oversight commission is the latest attempt by the city to establish a credible civilian review process. Fifteen months after the City Council created it, the commission has taken action on few complaints against police and made no policy recommendations on police reform.
Gillespie was fired last month after superiors concluded that she posed “an immediate threat” to the city’s ability to reform policing in accordance with a court-approved settlement agreement. Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the city’s operations officer, accused Gillespie of failing to make data available to the City Attorney’s Office or to work with an assistant attorney assigned to her office, according to personnel records released to the media.
Gillespie has declined to respond to the specific allegations.
For 2½ years, she oversaw the Office of Police Conduct Review (OPCR), a city division dedicated to investigating civilian complaints against the Minneapolis Police Department. Hours after Gillespie’s termination, OPCR Director John Jefferson resigned his post. Both Gillespie and Jefferson are Black.
In her resignation email Sunday, Weli cited concerns around the “risk of diminishing the contributions of BIPOC staff and leaders within the city administration,” and the “inadequate mayoral leadership and support compromising the effectiveness of our framework.”
She amplified her concerns in an interview with the Star Tribune on Monday.
“We had two Black leaders that we trusted,” said Weli, the CEO of Isuroon, an organization that helps East African women and families. “We knew things would not be smooth at the beginning. But we trusted their leadership because of their skills in knowing the community and the system. Now that they are gone, there is no reason for me to be there.”
She vowed to continue dedicating her life to social and racial justice causes and building bridges.
In an interview, Awed said that the commission has become “dysfunctional to a certain extent.”
“I think the previous director wasn’t given the latitude or support by the mayor to have a productive commission,” Awed said, citing “a toxic culture” within the city government.
Awed, who serves as co-executive director of programs and policy at the Cedar Riverside Community Council, informed colleagues in his email that he had moved out of the city limits, which would make him ineligible to serve on the commission without a waiver from the City Council, under city ordinances.
Weli and Awed’s criticism of recent personnel changes come on the heels of several prominent Black leaders who have questioned Gillespie’s ouster and defended her integrity before the City Council.
Anderson Kelliher has defended her decision by noting that there was insufficient progress on a backlog of 297 open complaints against police and that Gillespie refused to assist pro bono attorneys helping to clear that backlog.
Late last month, Anderson Kelliher became acting director of the Civil Rights Department and said a search is underway for Gillespie’s replacement. She named Carolina Amini as interim director to replace Jefferson. Amini is a former investigator in the city’s Civil Rights Department.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
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