Star Tribune
4 Muslim legislators condemn Star Tribune editorial cartoon; publisher apologizes
Responding to criticism from four DFL Muslim legislators about a recent Star Tribune editorial cartoon they described as racist and Islamophobic, the newspaper’s publisher apologized Wednesday.
“I’m sorry that the Star Tribune published it,” CEO and publisher Steve Grove said in a statement. “We will work harder to do better as an organization to ensure we’re holding ourselves and our community accountable in constructive ways that speak to our values of respect and integrity.”
The four legislators, along with many allies, including Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, held a State Capitol news conference to condemn recent vandalism at mosques. After the news conference, the legislators issued the written statement that focused criticism on the Star Tribune.
“Globally, many Muslims report not being respected by those in the West, and this cartoon adds to that sentiment right here in Minnesota,” the statement said. A news release attributed the comments to Reps. Hodan Hassan, Samakab Hussein and Mohamud Noor and Sen. Omar Fateh. Hussein represents St. Paul. The other three represent Minneapolis.
Grove, who is in his second week as publisher, said that he’s spent a lot of time in recent days speaking with readers and community leaders, including Muslims.
“It’s clear to me that the intent of the cartoon did not match its impact,” Grove said. “While the cartoonist was trying to support the decision of the Minneapolis City Council, the piece drew many — particularly those in the Muslim community — to feel disrespected by its depictions.”
The cartoon at issue was published Sunday in the Star Tribune’s opinion section, which is run separately from the news department. It was the first editorial cartoon published from recently hired cartoonist Mike Thompson. It featured an image of a man grousing to a woman that the recently amended noise ordinance allowing the Muslim call to prayer at any time would make Minneapolis “too noisy.” In the second image, the same couple stood inside a home while four masked assailants fired guns.
As the editorial cartoonist, Thompson works independently of reporters and editors in the newsroom. While his intent with the cartoon is open to interpretation, the legislators said they were disappointed, called the image “blatantly racist” and noted that the two mosque fires came after the cartoon was published.
The lawmakers’ statement said the cartoon insinuated that Islam and the call to prayer are weapons that incite violence and cause “death among innocent victims, similar to what guns do.”
Ellison, who is Muslim, spoke briefly at the news conference, condemning the mosque attacks, but he did not mention the cartoon.
After the news conference, Carter said in a written statement, “An attack on a mosque is an attack on every place of worship and fundamentally undermines our right to freely practice our beliefs. As leaders and neighbors, we must ensure that our rhetoric never inspires the kinds of sentiments that could end up pouring out in hateful ways.”
Staff writer Katie Galioto contributed to this report.
Star Tribune
Celebrity chef Justin Sutherland gets two years of probation for threatening girlfriend
According to the criminal complaint:
Police were twice called on June 28 to an apartment in the 800 block of Front Avenue. During the first call, a woman told officers that everything was fine despite previously reporting that Sutherland had choked her and tried kicking her out of the apartment.
During the second call about 90 minutes later, the woman told police that Sutherland had briefly squeezed her neck with both hands, said “I want you dead,” pointed a gun at her and hit her in the chest with it, and at one point said he would shoot her if she came back after running off. Officers then arrested Sutherland.
Staff writers Paul Walsh and Alex Chhith contributed to this story.
Operators of the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) have agreed to consolidate housing units, create a new programming schedule and retrain correctional officers in an effort to satisfy state regulators, who rebuked the downtown facility last month for violating resident rights.
Changes come in the wake of a scathing inspection report that accused the center of placing minors in seclusion without good reason to compensate for ongoing staff shortages. An annual audit by the Department of Corrections found that teens were frequently locked in their rooms for long stretches, due to a lack of personnel rather than bad behavior.
In response, county officials vowed to bolster staffing and retrain all officers tasked with performing wellness checks. Last week, the facility closed its “orientation mod,” typically reserved for new admissions, and combined male age groups to reduce the number of living units and provide heightened supervision.
The moves, including a new schedule, are expected to help prevent the undue cancellation of recreation, parent visits and other privileges to children in their custody.
“[Previous] staffing levels did not allow for all units to run programming simultaneously while having sufficient staff available to respond to incidents and emergencies in the building,” JDC Superintendent Dana Swayze wrote in a seven-page letter to state inspectors. “Programming is only cancelled on an as-needed basis based on the JDC’s ability to safely accommodate [it].”
In a Dec. 4 email to the County Board, Mary Ellen Heng, acting director of Hennepin’s Department of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation, assured elected officials that they had begun taking corrective actions but asserted that some of the report’s findings lacked context.
Heng pointed to a violation where teens were allegedly confined without cause, even when multiple correctional officers were sitting in a nearby office. She explained that, during the dates of the inspection earlier this fall, several officers observed in the office were still in training — and therefore not permitted to interact with the youths alone.
She also contended that while programming has been modified by staffing limitations, “this additional room time is not reflective of punishment, disciplinary techniques, or restrictive procedures.”
Tired of surging gun violence across St. Paul, community leaders and police are asking residents to help create a safer city.
The call for community support came Thursday night when officials from the St. Paul NAACP, St. Paul Police Department, Black Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the African American Leadership Council gathered at Arlington Hills Lutheran Church to talk about ways to decrease gun violence in the city.
St. Paul has recorded 30 homicides so far this year according to a Star Tribune database, two fewer than last year. But four of this year’s homicides happened in the same week, frustrating law enforcement and alarming residents.
St. Paul NAACP President Richard Pittman Sr. said that solutions to gun violence are “right here, in the room.” But without the community’s help, Pittman said their efforts could fall short.
“Over the last several weeks and months, we have experienced an uptick in violent crimes in our communities. [That’s] turned on a light bulb that it’s time [to] not have the police feeling like all the pressure is on them,” Pittman said. “Nobody wants to the responsibility of having to shoot someone down in the street. Nobody wants the responsibility of hurting somebody’s family. We all want the best outcome.”
Attendee Carrie Johnson worried generational trauma is derailing youth’s behavior, adding that she’s seen boys in middle school punch girls in the face. Migdalia Baez said mothers living along Rice Street feel they have nowhere to turn for help in redirecting their children. Some worry that their child would be incarcerated if they ask for help.
Larry McPherson, a violence interrupter for 21 Days of Peace St. Paul, said some issues stem from youth with no guidance. McPherson and others patrol hot spots for crime across the city, including near the Midway neighborhood’s Kimball Court apartments where fentanyl drove a spike in robberies and drug violations.
“We’ve got a lot of mental health [struggles]. We’ve got a lot of doggone drug addiction that’s going on in our neighborhoods. We all got the best interests at hand for all people in our community, but we’re just not working fast enough,” McPherson said. “Until we get feet on the ground, people coming out of their own community and standing up for this real cause to take back the community, we’re going to have the same outcome.”
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