Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Keiko Profile picture
@keikoinboston
May 23, 2021 • 100 tweets • 31 min read • Read on X
1. Here’s an update on how things are going in Minneapolis, one year after the police killing of George Floyd on 5/25/20.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of…
2. Sharrie Jennings from north Minneapolis should be going viral. She’s the grandmother of Ladavionne Garrett Jr., a 10-year-old boy who is one of 3 black children between the ages of 6 & 10 who’ve been shot in north Minneapolis in the past month.

3. I really encourage people to watch the full video of Sharrie’s fiery remarks but if you don’t have time, here’s the story:

fox9.com/news/we-gotta-…
4. I think she misspoke when she said:

“Why this community not angry? Why do y'all only march when black on black crime happened?”

Because later she says:

"How are y'all not mad? Where's everybody at? We only march when it's against the police, huh. ...
5.

... We ain't gonna march if it's two kids though gettin' shot. We ain't gonna stand up for their rights though. We ain't gonna do that. That’s too much, like right. We gotta do better Minneapolis. We got to do better. That’s unacceptable here.”
6. Ladavionne was shot in the head while riding with his parents in their car. He had brain surgery and was put into a medically induced coma.

fox9.com/news/hes-fight…
7. 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith was also shot in the head while jumping on a trampoline with other kids. Her father last told the media she was in stable condition.

mprnews.org/story/2021/05/…

mprnews.org/story/2021/05/…
8. 6-year-old Aniya Allen, granddaughter of peace activist KG Wilson, was shot in the head — caught in crossfire while eating a Happy Meal in her mom’s car. She died from her injuries 2 days later.
9.

Reporter: KG “expressed frustration that the community doesn’t seem as outraged as they do following deaths caused by police.”

kare11.com/article/news/l…
10.

KG: “I respect what Black Lives Matter do as an organization or a movement but when is black lives gonna matter to us? When we do something to us?"

11. No arrests have been made in the shootings of Ladavionne, Trinity, and Aniya. Today city and community leaders announced a $30,000 reward for information leading to arrests in these cases — up to $10,000 in each case.

kstp.com/news/30000-rew…
12. Last night 2 people were killed and 8 others wounded in a shooting in downtown Minneapolis, bringing their homicide total to 31 for this year.

mprnews.org/story/2021/05/…
13.

105 officers left MPD last year.

As of January 2021, MPD’s total number of officers had dropped from 817 to 638, including those on leave.

As of February 2021, 155 officers were on leave.

mprnews.org/story/2021/02/…
14. The intersection where George Floyd was killed remains closed with no timeline for reopening. That neighborhood has seen an increase in crime in the past year. Business owners and residents are frustrated.

mprnews.org/story/2021/04/…
15.

“[Activists] want the intersection closed through the trial of the three other former officers involved in Floyd’s killing. That’s set for August.”
16. Dwight Alexander, the black owner of a BBQ and soul food restaurant called Smoke in the Pit
spokesman-recorder.com/2020/12/04/bla…

said in March:

"They made a big, big mistake — the city, shutting it down. I just can't get it out of my head, throwing the businesses to the wolves. …
17.

… They didn't come down and see what type of support we needed. With people harassing our delivery drivers and turning our people away from the gate, you know, making us suffer. … I'm going to be here, but it is a struggle right now."

startribune.com/minneapolis-po…
18. Last August, a business owner in this so-called “autonomous zone” was "knocked unconscious during an assault and robbery at his business”.
19. An internal police report said that they and EMS were blocked from responding in a timely manner and it took 14 minutes to reach the victim.

A local activist called this a “blatant lie”.

kstp.com/news/police-sa…
20. Last fall the city tried to introduce a program called Minneapolis Violence Interrupters but pulled the plug after 4 weeks because it was too dangerous.

People in the neighborhoods hardest hit by shootings and carjackings asked for more police.

minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/11/06/min…
21. Former Minneapolis City Councilman, Don Samuels said:

“It’s not an either or, it’s both and. We want the cops who come to treat people civilly, but we want them to come.”

22. Minneapolis Violence Interrupters is set to relaunch in June.

minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/05/22/ami…
23.
“The interrupters earn $25 an hour, and the city has committed $2.5 million to the program, with plans to expand and refine its operations this year.”

csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/20…
24. But community leaders can’t wait for June.

"Faith leaders are launching a new initiative to help curb the growing violence in Minneapolis, called 21 Days of Peace."

Volunteers will patrol in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Brooklyn Park.

kstp.com/news/21-days-o…
25. Rev. Jerry McAfee, New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis:

"We want to saturate all of those neighborhoods with people of goodwill. We're also asking the people who live in those neighborhoods to come out and join us.”
26. Violence interruption programs exist in other US cities. While numbers look promising, it’s unclear how effective they are.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_…
27. "The findings of the most prominent studies are generally mixed, according to research published in 2015 in the Annual Review of Public Health."

jsonline.com/story/news/spe…
28.
"Each evaluation revealed at least some evidence in support of the approach at the level of jurisdictions or communities, but none of the studies could clearly disentangle the results from national and regional trends in violent crime…"

annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/an…
29. It’s possible the violence interrupters will help to reduce violent crime. But this is a lot to put on a group of people that have been training for only a few months and when law enforcement resources are not available to back them up.
30. The violence interrupters in the city’s program will be “[u]narmed and lacking arrest authority”.

csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/20…
31. Here are a couple of films about violence interrupters in Chicago.

The 2011 film “The Interrupters" aired on PBS’s Frontline in 2012.

The Frontline version is available for free here:
pbs.org/video/frontlin…
32. The theatrical release of “The Interrupters” which is a few minutes longer is available on iTunes.
itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-i…

Looks like Amazon Prime Video may also have the theatrical release although they have a release date of 2012.

amazon.com/gp/video/detai…
33. “The Interrupters” is a very slow paced documentary and nearly 2 hours long so if you don’t have time, the film was based on this 2008 article The New York Times Magazine:

Blocking the Transmission of Violence
by Alex Kotlowitz

nytimes.com/2008/05/04/mag…
34. Trailer for the 2020 documentary, “They Ain’t Ready for Me” about @TamarManasseh and MASK - Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings:
ontheblock.org/about

35. “They Ain’t Ready for Me” appears to only be playing at film festivals for now. I wasn’t able to find any mention of release on streaming platforms.
theyaintreadyforme.com
36. National organizations and conflict entrepreneurs who parachute in to Minneapolis for press conferences and photo ops aren’t going to fix this.

carnegieendowment.org/2002/02/07/com… Image
37. Minneapolis and other US cities need bottom-up peacebuilding strategies in addition to criminal justice reform and government initiatives.

38. I feel like we don’t hear enough from the Sharries, KGs, and Dwights of the world. We hear too much from politicians, pundits, and national/online activists, many of whom are conflict entrepreneurs who don’t live in these neighborhoods.

39. Since the national media doesn’t amplify their voices much I’m choosing to use my small platform to do so. I’m aware that there are other people in Minneapolis who feel differently, but I feel their voices get more amplification so I’ve opted not to include much from them.
40. But people can and should seek out their viewpoints as well.

Any time you read a news story or social media post, always ask yourself what you’re not being told, whose voices are being centered and whose sidelined, and who benefits.

41. Update:

Yesterday Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced that the city is asking for law enforcement reinforcement from state and federal agencies to deal with surge in violent crime.

startribune.com/minneapolis-to…
42.

"Safety in our city has to be a priority," Frey said at a news conference Sunday, calling the reinforcements "really, really critical."
43.
"We need more police officers. There is no doubt in my mind," he said. [Randy] Ottoson [grandfather of Trinity Ottoson-Smith] said the city needs need police reform because Black lives matter, but he believes it needs more police on the street, too.”

44.
"I'm praying for all of these families but, you know what, I'm praying for the next people too," Ottoson said.”
45. I realized last night that I forgot to include a number of things in this thread including an update on the situation for businesses that were damaged in last year’s riots. I don’t have time now but will try to get to it tonight. Please check back later.
46. Adding to this thread because I forgot to include a number of things.

If you want to read from the beginning, start here:

47. The situation for businesses is not looking good.

1,500 businesses in Minneapolis and St. Paul were damaged in last year’s riots after the police killing of George Floyd.

48. Despite damage estimates north of $500,000,000, the federal government denied aid requested by Gov. Tim Walz to rebuild.

49. As of March, businesses destroyed in last year’s riots were still waiting for state aid.

kare11.com/article/news/p…
50.
“The DFL-controlled [Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party] House passed an aid package known as the PROMISE Act last summer during a special session, but the bill never gained traction in the GOP-controlled Senate during a contentious election year.“
51. In addition to last year’s damage, 140 businesses were damaged this April in what law enforcement called an “opportunistic crime spree” following the police shooting of Daunte Wright in nearby Brooklyn Center.

52.

53. See my thread on the aftermath of the Wright shooting in Brooklyn Center for more.

54. Owners of businesses damaged in last year’s riots had been planning for the possibility of more riots following the conclusion of Derek Chauvin’s trial (officer who killed George Floyd) but the violence came unexpectedly after the Wright shooting.

startribune.com/twin-cities-bu…
55.
“We were putting together some plans," said [Matthew] Lerner, [East Lake Liquor]’s owner. "I thought that we had a couple of weeks left, roughly, before the verdict. Now this happened."
56. Last year violent crime "surged to record highs across Minneapolis” with "the heaviest toll in the city’s poor, ethnically diverse areas”. See in-depth analysis from @StarTribune.

startribune.com/analysis-poore…
57.
“...the increase in violence that intensified after the unrest over the police killing of George Floyd is exacting a heavier toll on neighborhoods already suffering the effects of trauma, poverty and lack of access to adequate health care.”
58.

"Minneapolis is in line with a national trend that has seen slayings increase nearly 15% in the first six months of the year"
59.
"Experts caution against reading too much into year-over-year changes in crime, saying that homicide statistics are particularly subject to huge swings.”
60.
Despite the increase in violent crime, "crime is still hovering near historical lows. In Minneapolis, for example, crime rates peaked in the mid-1990s, when the city had tens of thousands of fewer residents.”
61. Homicides in Minneapolis hit a high in 1995 when 97 people were killed.

Last year, “the city recorded 84 homicides, according to a database maintained by the Star Tribune — which differs slightly from the official statistics maintained by the MPD…"

startribune.com/minneapolis-vi…
62. The Star Tribune noted in February that Baltimore & other cities experienced "surges in violent crime in the wake of a controversial police killing”. Image
63.

“Shortly after Floyd’s death, a group of council members announced their intention to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a “transformative” public safety system.”

startribune.com/analysis-poore…
64.

“The proposal lost steam in recent months as crime ticked up. A proposed charter amendment that would have eliminated the requirement to maintain a police force failed to get on the November ballot."
65. As of the end of 2020, more than half of last year’s homicides remained unsolved. Officials cite the volume of homicides + lack of investigators as the reason for this.

mprnews.org/story/2020/12/…
66.

"The majority of homicide victims in Minneapolis this year, as in past years, are African American."
67.

“We’re down a significant number of investigators,” [Inspector Charlie] Adams said. “And I don’t see me getting replacements in the future as people continue to leave the department.”
68.

“Homicide investigations often stall because people are either too afraid to come forward with information or they refuse to “snitch.””
69. Here’s the Minneapolis Police Crime Statistics Dashboard. The dashboard is interactive but has limited functionality and will only show 2021 data compared with 2020.

minneapolismn.gov/government/gov…
70. Some additional detail on the officers who have left MPD:

"Scores retired, left for jobs at other agencies, or taken a voluntary buyout.”

startribune.com/minneapolis-vi…
71. Found another report about inadequate police response to residents who live near George Floyd Square due to what CBS described as the “no-go zone”. These cases involve domestic violence. (Go to tweet #14 for more.)
72. In April, a 911 dispatcher who reported to police that a domestic violence victim was “bleeding and cut everywhere” was asked by police to have the woman relocate a block away so they could meet her.

73. Another woman who fled her home and filed a police report after a domestic incident said that police refused to take her directly home where she needed to check on her daughter who she left behind, dropping her off blocks away at 1am.

minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/5543048-…
74. The violence interrupters in “The Interrupters” (see tweet #31) were working for a program called CeaseFire. They have rebranded as Cure Violence.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cure_Viol…
cvg.org
75. Their mission is to "To reduce violence globally using disease control and behavior change methods.”

cvg.org/about/#mission

Some quotes from the film:

76. Minneapolis Violence Interrupters is based on CeaseFire. (Go back to tweet #20 for more.)

startribune.com/analysis-poore… Image
77. In 2013 after a one-year contract, the city of Chicago dropped CeaseFire "deciding to focus instead on community policing and other strategies to combat the city’s high murder rate."

pbs.org/wgbh/frontline…
78. Homicides in Chicago have have spiked twice since 2013 — in 2016 and then again in 2020.

Sources for graphs:
L: chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/…

R: Graph I created with data downloaded from Chicago Tribune article ImageImage
79. Violence always spikes during summers and the pandemic likely also played a role in last year’s spoike so it’s difficult to know at this point how much the lack of police presence has contributed to the increases. But some residents clearly believe that it does.
80. In August 2020, a group of 8 Minneapolis residents from the Jordan & Hawthorne neighborhoods sued the city council and Mayor Jacob Frey for more police protection.

mprnews.org/story/2020/08/…
81. Excerpts from the op-ed from Sondra & Don Samuels, the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

I recommend reading the whole thing. See also tweet #21 for an interview with Don, a former city council member.

startribune.com/why-we-northsi… ImageImageImage
82. In November 2020, a judge issued an order saying the 8 residents have standing to sue.

minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/11/23/thi…
83. Cathy Spann, one of the co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit is running for city council this year as a Democrat. Public safety, housing, and employment are her key issues.

cathyspannforward5.com/pages/public-s… Image
84. It’s unclear how representative these plaintiffs are of Minneapolis residents.

Residents were divided at an early December city council meeting to discuss public safety and changes to MPD.

startribune.com/hundreds-deman…
85. The situation in Minneapolis is extremely complex and I’m sure that I missed other important stories from local media. There is so magic solution to fix the problems in Minneapolis which run much deeper than MPD behavior and post-George Floyd unrest.
86. Unfortunately, with leadership and residents fighting with each other and amongst themselves, there doesn’t appear to be a clear path forward. They're stuck in high conflict.

Other cities should take heed.

87. If you came in on the second half of this thread and want to read from the top, start here:

88. Update:

Trinity Ottoson-Smith died this afternoon. 😔

Despite the $10,000 reward announced on Sunday, there have been no arrests in her case or those of the other 2 children shot in Minneapolis since April.

89.
"Trinity becomes the second young girl to die from a stray bullet to the head in north Minneapolis in the past eight days.”

minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/05/27/tri…

90. Update on businesses in St. Paul:

This is a long read but really worth your time. Gets into the details of the struggles businesses destroyed in last year's riots have faced including wrangling with insurance, lost leases, total loss of inventory.

91. Of the 270 St. Paul businesses that were vandalized in last year's riots, 35 are still closed.

$500m of the $700m in damage to Minnesota businesses was to "immigrant-heavy business corridors" in St. Paul & Minneapolis. Image
92. "It was the worst urban destruction the nation had seen since the Los Angeles riots of 1992."

As I noted upthread (tweets 48–50) neither the federal government nor the state have provided any aid.

Local orgs have stepped in but it’s not enough.

93. The St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce and other local chambers and business develop orgs raised $1.35m. All but one grant recipient still need help. ImageImageImage
94. Some businesses have been forced to relocate but they have stayed in St. Paul. Image
95. Jim Stage, the owner/head pharmacist of Lloyd’s Pharmacy which has been in Minnesota since 1918 struck a hopeful note. He’s rebuilding a “new two-story building harkens to the structure that stood there before it”.

lloydsrx.com/about-us
gofundme.com/f/lloyd039s-ph… ImageImage
96.
“Stage said he’s learned intimate lessons over the past year about forgiveness and gratitude. … Image
97.
“I think it’s important to note that what happened to us, as ugly as it is, what came out of it now is very beautiful, & something that can be a testament to the character of people, & how people supporting one another & working together, what that can look like,” he said…
98.
… It’s a testament to God and his faithfulness to us. … There were a lot of people in the community cheering us on, and my family cheering us on. All the employees, the extra hours, the hard work. It’s a building, but there’s so many people behind it.”
99. Definitely read the article in full to understand how devastating riots are. No city should ever have to go through this.

If you want to read from the beginning, thread starts here:

100. This thread has gotten really long so I’m continuing here.

Going to be a long week for the Twin Cities after yesterday’s failed reopening of 38th & Chicago/George Floyd Square and fatal officer-involved shooting by sheriff’s deputies.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Keiko

Keiko Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @keikoinboston

Keiko Profile picture
Oct 10, 2022
1. Day 2 of livetweeting my life to show people what it's like to live with a moderate case of #MECFS. Starting a new thread because the previous one is long.

2. First thread starts here:

3. Background:

Read 99 tweets
Keiko Profile picture
Oct 10, 2022
1. I'm going to attempt to livetweet my next few days to show what it's like living with a moderate case of ME/CFS. So many people just don't understand what it means to live with a post-viral illness.

I was planning to start this earlier today but I was too exhausted.
2. AMA about what I'm tweeting about or #MECFS in general. I'll try to respond to everyone but it may not be until later this week.
3. I'm currently dealing with PEM (post exertional malaise) that is particularly bad because I had to run errands on Friday and couldn't rest for a full day before a friend came over on Saturday to help me assemble some carts.
Read 50 tweets
Keiko Profile picture
Sep 4, 2022
1. A few hours ago Cloudflare dropped Kiwi Farms after previously saying they would not.
cbsnews.com/news/cloudflar…

Cloudflare's message when you try to go to kiwifarms.net claims this is "Due to an imminent and emergency threat to human life...", however…
2. … Kiwi Farms founder/owner Joshua Moon posted to Telegram that “If there is any threat to life on the site, I have received no communication from any law enforcement.”

t.me/kiwifarms/19
3. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Price:

“This is an extraordinary decision for us to make and, given Cloudflare's role as an Internet infrastructure provider, a dangerous one that we are not comfortable with.”

blog.cloudflare.com/kiwifarms-bloc…
archive.ph/5ziDX
Read 41 tweets
Keiko Profile picture
Sep 3, 2022
1. Student journalists reported news. Principal tried to censor + sanction advisor.

“The courts have been very clear that students working in student media are not school employees, or agents of the school in any way,” he said. “They're students telling stories, providing news.”
2. @ThePearlPost named the librarian, the only "teacher at the school [who] had opted out of vaccination and didn’t show up to work".

Read the 11/8/21 story here:
thepearlpost.com/27098/showcase…

Archive in case it gets removed: web.archive.org/web/2021110903…
3. Four months after publication "school principal Armen Petrossian emailed a threat of disciplinary action to Chavira if she didn’t remove the librarian’s name by the next day."

The Pearl Post declined to remove the librarian's name and got help from @SPLC.
Read 5 tweets
Keiko Profile picture
Sep 3, 2022
I'm in a really weird corner of the Internet and it's really defying expectations. I shouldn't be surprised because I've spent time here before but this is something else. 🤯

People should read more primary sources as much as possible.
Also, much respect to people who meet their trolls where they are and engage with them human to human instead of shitposter to shitposter. This takes so much courage but seems surprisingly effective when people are genuine.
I don't even want to engage with other people's trolls and try to just stick with a rule of no engagement these days.

Facing total strangers who you owe absolutely nothing to and being vulnerable in their midst on their turf is something I've never seen before.
Read 4 tweets
Keiko Profile picture
Sep 3, 2022
1. Down another tangent rabbit hole tonight and thinking about credibility.
2. In any incident there are minimum of 3 sides to the story.

Assuming 2 parties, they each tell the story through their lens and then I’ll call the third side “reality”, which can't always be ascertained by observers.
3. There are always some facts which may or may not be provable but there’s also people’s motives and perceptions which can’t always be proved. So determining what “reality” is, isn’t always straightforward.
Read 22 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(