On Feb. 2, an innocent resident of Minneapolis was murdered by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). His name was Amir Locke. He was not a suspect. He was sleeping on a couch when MPD barged in and killed him within a few seconds of being startled awake. Four days after this 22-year-old was killed, a handful of residents came together as strangers with a simple question: What can we do?
In the wake of Amir Locke’s extrajudicial killing by the Minneapolis Police Department, the Ethical Practices Board at the City of Minneapolis should have investigated ethical violations related to the mayor’s handling of that case. Instead, on March 16 they dismissed more than 1,000 ethics complaints submitted by Minneapolis residents.
We determined that since it is our responsibility to hold our leadership accountable, we as residents and neighbors were obligated by our commitment to each other to submit an ethics complaint against Mayor Jacob Frey. We did not take this lightly. It is a serious decision to launch a complaint against a mayor.
After a week of discussion and organizing, we held an event at City Hall with more than a hundred people – including clergy, university professors, musicians, elders and young people – to mourn Amir Locke. At that event we submitted the ethics complaint to the City Attorney’s office, with the signatures of more than 1,300 Minneapolis residents.
The complaint states that Frey violated the city’s Ethics in Government Code. The mayor failed to exercise judgment to further the best interest of the city and allowed city resources to be used unlawfully, breaching his fiduciary duty. Mayor Frey allowed MPD to execute a dangerous, predawn no-knock search warrant in a downtown apartment building. He knew no-knock warrants were dangerous, for both law enforcement and community members, which is why he claimed to have banned them previously and campaigned on that lie. Instead of firing the police officer that extra-judicially killed Amir Locke, Mayor Frey continues to authorize paid administrative leave and held a press briefing wrongfully stating facts about the careless operation that led to Mr. Locke’s execution.
On March 15, the Ethical Practices Board dismissed the complaint without even a cursory investigation of its merits. The mayor himself dismissed his own constituents’ concerns as a political stunt. This is wrong. It demonstrates this administration’s dismissive attitude toward residents who demand safety, transparency and accountability, the very things the mayor identifies as his vision for the city but fails to provide.
Unfortunately, the review by the Ethical Practices Board was done in a closed session, and there is not a meaningful explanation of the decision’s merits included in the Board’s official dismissal document. According to reporting by the Star Tribune, the Ethics Officer Susan Trammel did notify the mayor that, “… the Board went further in the order and authorized me to dismiss any future complaints on the topic without bringing them back to the board. Thus no future complaints about the Amir Locke no knock warrant situation will come before the Board.”
In other words, the Ethics Officer and Ethical Practices Board are promising the mayor that they will shield him from accountability.
Despite the boards’ audacity, we will work to hold the mayor accountable, and we are calling on all residents of Minneapolis to pay attention to this administration’s actions. Until we have accountability, the rift of mistrust between Minneapolis residents and the city will continue to grow.
Elianna Lippold-Johnson, Jennie Leenay, Kristen Ingle and Jonathan Banks are Minneapolis residents who worked (with others) on organizing The Residents’ Complaint. For more information about their efforts, go to https://ift.tt/4LOZadQ.
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