Star Tribune
In first test, would-be Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara introduces himself to community
The moment had come to pitch himself, so Brian O’Hara grabbed the mic and laid out his credentials: Twenty-one years in law enforcement, appointed public safety director and, eventually, deputy mayor of Newark, N.J. A true believer in police reform, who has the skill set to navigate the complexities of a federal consent decree.
But residents and faith leaders gathered at Sabathani Community Center in south Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon demanded to know how an outsider vying to become the city’s next chief of police could mend long-festering community relations, exacerbated by the murder of George Floyd.
That act of violence was not an anomaly, City Council President Andrea Jenkins told O’Hara. “It emanated from a culture of policing that completely disrespects, disregards and treats the community as combatants — like we’re at war,” she said, adding that the city deserves officers who are accountable, professional and respectful.
O’Hara, seeking to convince residents that he is up to the task, vowed to act swiftly when misconduct crosses his desk and institute a zero-tolerance policy for racism on the force.
“Police officers need to understand that despite having the power to take someone’s freedom away, they never have the right to take someone’s dignity away,” said O’Hara, who said he was disturbed by ex-officer Derek Chauvin’s defiance toward the crowd’s concerns as he pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck. O’Hara admitted he could not bring himself to watch the entire video of Floyd’s death, just blocks away at 38th and Chicago. “It was disgusting.”
The Rev. Ian Bethel of New Beginnings Baptist Ministries jumped to his feet.
“Before you become police chief, you need to watch it,” he said.
The event was part of a busy weekend for O’Hara, a New Jersey native who is quickly trying to learn the intricacies of a city at the center of a global movement to reshape policing in response to Floyd’s murder. Two years after the viral video of Floyd’s killing drew attention to Minneapolis and its longstanding racial inequities, the city still faces demands to both improve accountability for police and temper violent crime.
O’Hara, 43, grew up in Kearny, N.J., a suburb of Newark, where he would eventually begin a long career in law enforcement. His father died when he was a child, and his mother worked multiple jobs to provide for him and his sister. He became a police officer in part because he sought the stability and the pension that came with a government job.
“I became a cop, and you would have thought I hit the lottery, the way my mother and her friends reacted,” O’Hara said in an interview Friday.
He joined the Newark police force in 2001, not long before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks ushered in a wave of public support for police officers and other first responders. He still remembers vividly how people stopped by the police station to drop off gifts.
“It’s almost like my career is bookmarked by two totally different pendulum shifts in policing,” he said.
As the years passed, O’Hara took on supervisory roles and eventually became one of the police department’s primary contacts with the U.S. Department of Justice, which entered a consent decree with the city that required it to institute a series of reforms aimed at improving accountability for police. O’Hara describes that as “the most meaningful work I’ve done in my life” and some of the most difficult.
Many people within the Newark Police Department showed “absolutely no desire” to make changes at the beginning of the process, he said, and many of the community members came to meetings with frustrations that been mounting for years.
“But what I learned from that is when you keep coming back, keep being present, people get to learn who you are, and they see that you’re sincere,” he said.
That experience, O’Hara said, was a major reason why he decided to continue in law enforcement.
In a news conference unveiling his nomination for the job in Minneapolis, O’Hara promised to build a police department “so good, so respected, that people of all races and backgrounds will want to be a part of this positive change.”
Asked how he’ll do that, O’Hara said the first step will be to listen both to rank-and-file officers and to the residents, business owners and others with whom they work. His schedule in recent days has included meetings with the council members who will ultimately confirm or reject his nomination. He attended roll call at each of the city’s five precincts, where he sought to establish himself as a leader who will judge officers solely based on their performance and reward those efforts accordingly.
“There’s nothing I’ll ask them to do that I have not done, or would not be prepared to do, myself,” he told a handful of North Side residents Saturday at the Capri Theater on W. Broadway Avenue. O’Hara noted that police must develop meaningful relationships outside of regular emergency calls to change longstanding perceptions about the profession.
At various community events, O’Hara repeatedly described Minneapolis police as some of the most “traumatized in the country,” but said he feels confident that those who chose to stay are dedicated to curbing violent crime and serving citizens with respect.
While on a citywide ride-along with the gun unit Friday night, O’Hara got a glimpse of how officers track down illicit firearms. Sgt. Andrew Schroeder was talking with a group of young men as he cruised Lake Street when he suddenly spotted a handgun. Schroeder jumped out of the squad car and chased the man on foot; O’Hara quickly joined the pursuit, which he said ended in a lawful arrest, the recovery of an illegal weapon and crack cocaine.
“From what I’ve seen so far, they’re doing the job the right way.”
But as Saturday’s forums illustrated, it remains to be seen whether, should he land the job, O’Hara’s leadership would lead to the institutional change and accountability sought by Minneapolis residents.
“I’ve heard this many times before …” the Rev. DeWayne Davis of Plymouth Congregational Church said of promises to hold officers accountable following blatant acts of misconduct. “The accountability that came with someone like Derek Chauvin only came because someone had the presence of mind to record it.”
Star Tribune
Minnesota educator works to preserve Somali lullabies, rhymes
“It’s been a huge shift,” he said.
Deqa Muhidin, a former schoolteacher, children’s book author and Somali language heritage program coordinator at the Minneapolis Public Schools Multilingual Department, said the Sing-Again project would be a great addition to what was already in place.
The district’s Somali Heritage Language Program was launched in 2021 and has grown to 270 students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
The program is more than a language-learning program, she said, also teaching Somali culture.
The Somali language has its own cultural insights, which are only spoken by elders, and once they are no longer here, those insights will be lost, Muhidin said. For example, elders might use the phrase, “Look at something in your foot,” meaning run. Or a merchant may tell a customer, “I’m going to close my eyes,” meaning this is my final offer, she said.
Star Tribune
After problems with health care access, Albert Lea residents are getting a better ride
An area shuttle service hopes to help ease Freeborn County’s health care woes by offering free rides to local hospitals.
SMART Transit, which operates in Austin, Albert Lea and Owatonna, is expanding its medical ride service for Freeborn County residents next year thanks to a $10,000 grant. The shuttle company will offer free rides to Mayo Clinic hospitals in Albert Lea and Austin for residents age 55 and up, addressing a problem for residents who’ve seen medical services in the region shrink over the years.
“We’re quite ecstatic,” said Chris Thompson, operations manager at SMART Transit. “I can’t even explain how wonderful news it is.”
Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea announced service cuts in 2017, urging people to travel to Austin, about 20 minutes east, for most inpatient hospital visits. Area residents organized to get Iowa-based MercyOne to open a primary care clinic in 2022, but pandemic-related complications and financial troubles led to the clinic closing at the beginning of 2024.
A group of Albert Lea residents approached SMART Transit officials earlier this year, asking for more medical shuttle service and expanded rides to hospitals. SMART has had a free ride program for seniors in Mower County for years thanks to Mayo Clinic grants, but there wasn’t funding to duplicate the program.
Mayo officials worked with SMART staff to secure grant money through the Naeve Health Care Foundation, a local group named after the former hospital that served Albert Lea residents since 1911. The foundation grants money for local health care issues including Mayo program funding; it has donated more than $4 million for community health care.
Freeborn County isn’t alone in struggling to access health care. For decades, hospitals in greater Minnesota have largely joined up with bigger systems or closed as the state’s population shifted to metropolitan areas. Some smaller hospitals have tried banding together to save money, while others find niches in the area to offer better services.
Yet a growing population of seniors means an ever-increasing need to get them to doctor’s appointments, and rural communities are struggling to meet transportation demands. Minnesota’s senior population (age 65 and older) grew from about 680,000 residents in 2010 to almost 950,000 in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Not all of them have their own transportation.
Star Tribune
R. Smith Schuneman, University of Minnesota photojournalism professor, dies at 88
As a photojournalism professor, R. Smith Schuneman mixed high expectations with a warm manner to launch the careers of a wide spectrum of photographers.
His students at the University of Minnesota, many of whom regarded Schuneman as a pivotal influence in their lives, went on to shoot for National Geographic, Look, Life and numerous other magazines and newspapers, as well as for corporate clients, photography studios and a wide array of film and video productions.
Then Schuneman, who went by his nickname “Smitty” and never by his given name of Raymond, embarked on a second career with the creation of Media Loft , an events and communications agency. He eventually sold the company to his employees before retiring with his wife, Pat, to a lakeside home in Okoboji, Iowa.
“Smitty could be utterly ruthless, uncompromising or unyielding in his goal of making photojournalists out of us,” wrote Richard Olsenius, a former student of Schuneman’s, in a memorial book prepared by friends. “But it was underlied with a deep-rooted concern for what is right and moral. He demanded honesty from our work.”
He died Nov. 24 at age 88 of heart problems.
Schuneman was born in 1936 in Spirit Lake, Iowa. His parents Raymond “Art” and Olive “Bunch” Schuneman ran the local newspaper in Milford, Iowa, and it was there that Schuneman began publishing photos while still in school.
He also ran a side business covering weddings, events and “whatever pictures were needed around the small town,” his wife said.
She remembers seeing Schuneman for the first time when her band director arranged for her to take drum lessons from him. She was 15 and he was 16. She later worked for him at his photo service, processing the film.
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