Star Tribune
Minneapolis reacts to JD Vance’s portrayal of Minneapolis as city in decline
Politicians just can’t keep Minneapolis’ name out of their mouths.
JD Vance spent part of his short visit to Minneapolis on Monday in front of the husk of the shuttered Third Precinct police station, set ablaze in 2020 in the unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd. The GOP vice presidential nominee portrayed Minneapolis as a city in decline, saying he spoke with residents who said their quality of life has decreased since the city was “overrun with crime” under Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz.
Unsurprisingly, plenty of residents of Minneapolis vehemently disagreed. Local social media quickly populated with posts celebrating some of the city’s most scenic and popular locations.
The public transit in Minneapolis in particular received some of the highest marks, as residents pointed to high transit scores and surveys that ranked the city the best in the country for bikers.
Even Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey got in on the fun, quickly posting a scenic running video, autumn leaves swirling in the background as he cited the city’s ranking in happiness studies and as the best for college grads. If anything in Minneapolis is declining, Frey suggested, it’s crime.
“Let me know next time you’re here,” Frey said.
Star Tribune
Top-ranking Minneapolis Police Department officer sues Liz Collin, Alpha News for defamation following film, book
Chauvin is then interviewed in the film about his training with maximal restraint technique and shows a page from a department training manual about the technique. The lawsuit argues that, “In the film’s deceptive framing and editing, Collin and Chaix lie about the nature of Blackwell’s testimony with the hope that the viewer will believe that Blackwell perjured herself by stating that the MRT was not part of police policy. In reality, Blackwell testified that she did not recognize the technique used by Chauvin as any technique officers are trained to use, including the MRT.”
The lawsuit notes that the film concludes later that Blackwell “turned her back on the city of Minneapolis and implies that Blackwell’s testimony was responsible in part for a whole host of public safety concerns.” That includes a spike in crime, a dramatic drop in the ranks of sworn Minneapolis police officers and “general deterioration of the city.”
“The Fall of Minneapolis” has currently been viewed 2.8 million times on YouTube, where it is available for free, and the lawsuit notes the film has surged back into the public consciousness after Governor Tim Walz was selected as the DFL nominee for vice president.
The lawsuit has been assigned to Fourth District Judge Edward Wahl.
Star Tribune staff writer Liz Sawyer contributed to this report.
“There are many people that have had sincere conversations about what the future is for that old Third Precinct building. JD Vance is certainly not one of them,” Frey said. “But look, let’s not hand JD Vance a prop to use in a political way.”
After the City Council directed the Frey administration to engage with the community about the proposal, the city conducted two surveys, including a “demographically representative” survey that found 63% of respondents support the proposal, with 70% support among those living within the Third Precinct.
On Tuesday, City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher said work has been done all summer inside the building on windows, elevator shafts and doors but the city had to do another request for proposals to mitigate the effects of the fire. The next steps will be that cleanup and exterior work. Then the city will seek proposals from providers to manage and operate the community space, and an architect to redesign the building.
Kelliher said funding is available for the requests for proposals and to move forward with designs, but Minneapolis City Council approval would be needed before renovations could begin. And council approval is in question, given a pair of votes the council’s Committee of the Whole took Tuesday afternoon. The full council could take up the issue again Thursday.
Some council members questioned whether the elections center could be moved to a different city-owned building, the cost of breaking the elections center current lease, and whether the addition to the building would be a “windowless warehouse.”
The committee rejected, by a vote of 6-7, a non-binding position statement proposed by Council Members Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley supporting a city-owned, community-centered development “for the purpose of racial healing.” Chavez said it could be used to address racial disparities, homelessness, the opioid epidemic or economic development.
Star Tribune
Driver, 15, crosses in no-pass zone, is one of two killed in head-on crash in Dakota County
A teenage driver trying to pass a truck in a no-passing zone on a Dakota County road caused a head-on crash that killed him and the other motorist, officials said Tuesday.
The collision occurred about 3:30 p.m. Monday on 160th Street W. near Biscayne Avenue in Rosemount, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The drivers who died were identified by the Sheriff’s Office as David Rojas, 15, of Rosemount, and Dennis Dahlstrom, 81, of Champaign, Ill. His wife, 78-year-old Sandra Dahlstrom, was critically injured, the Sheriff’s Office said.
It was not immediately known whether Rojas had a valid license at the time of the crash.
According to the Sheriff’s Office:
Rojas was driving his car east on 160th behind a semitrailer truck, then he “pulled into the westbound lane in a no-passing zone in an attempt to pass,” a Sheriff’s Office statement read.
Witnesses told law enforcement that Dennis Dahlstrom, heading west in an SUV, and Rojas each swerved onto the right-hand shoulder at the same time and collided.
Emergency responders declared both drivers dead at the scene. Sandra Dahlstrom was hospitalized with critical injuries.
