Photo: Chris Steller, MnIndy

U.S. Sen. Al Franken introduced legislation Thursday that would encourage states to examine untested rape kits for DNA evidence. The bill would also provide for more health workers trained to administer rape-kit exams, particularly for Native American women.

Another aspect of the bill is that women couldn’t be made to pay for all or part of their rape kit exams — an issue that came up in the 2008 presidential campaign.

“We don’t bill criminals for fingerprint processing,” Franken said in a statement.

The Justice for Survivors of Sexual Assault Act is co-sponsored by Republicans Orrin Hatch of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, as well as Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California.

The bill follows by only a month Senate passage of Franken’s amendment defunding military contractors that make employees sign away their rights to take sexual assualt allegations to court.

Rape came up during Franken’s campaign for Senate when opponents publicized instances in his comedic past that touched on the topic.

Minneapolis City Hall. Photo: Wikipedia

Minneapolis is the safest city in America, according to Forbes. The ranking was based on crime rates, traffic deaths, workplace fatalities and risk of natural disasters. The Minneapolis metropolitan area ranked in the top 10 nationwide in each of these categories, including the lowest rate of on-the-job deaths. (St. Paul got short shrift from the Forbes’ editors.)

Milwaukee, Portland, Boston and Seattle rounded out the top five.

Akeley would join a growing club that now includes Remer, Longville and Hackensack, among others. Hoyt Lakes and Aurora might combine their police forces. Wyoming is downsizing its force by switching to uninsured part-timers.

The move would leave public safety for Akeley residents in the hands of an already-stretched county, the Detroit Lakes Tribune reports:

Hubbard County Sheriff Frank Homer, contacted after the meeting, said per statute, the sheriff’s department must provide coverage if the department disbands.

But no personnel would be added in the sheriff’s office, he said, noting the department covers roughly 1,000 square miles.

“We’re stretched to the limit now,” Homer said. “With another municipality, we’d be really stretched. We’d do it. We’re obligated. But you may not see the same response time.”

Akeley’s police chief was understandably miffed:

“How long has this been in discussion?” police chief Eric Klein asked.

“We’ve talked about this,” Cliff Johnson told him. After the meeting, Johnson said the subject has been proposed on several occasions prior to this; Klein is aware the city is considering the measure, he said.

“How long are we talking?” Klein asked, ostensibly questioning when the position would be terminated. “This affects my wife and four kids. I’ve cut everything. If I could turn back the clock, I would,” he said, referring to relocating to Akeley.

[Via Don Reeder]

Al Flowers

Al Flowers believes the cops are out to get him. The mayoral candidate filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County District Court Wednesday alleging that Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies violated his Constitutional rights while executing a search warrant at an Edina home last month.

Flowers was present during the raid and was ticketed for possessing a small amount of marijuana. But the Minneapolis resident insists that the pot wasn’t his and that officers set him up because he was advising people at the residence of their rights. Flowers also claims that the cops improperly seized his laptop computer and $240 in cash.

“It is unfortunate that this is a temptation for law enforcement, to steal cash from people at scenes like this one, assuming that they lack the know-how, clout or finances to be able to get it back,” the lawsuit states. “Or worse yet, believing that the courts will not believe a black person against the word of law enforcement — who will undoubtedly claim it was not taken.”

Flowers alleges that the citation is part of a pattern of harassment from public employees. In July his house was condemned by city inspectors, purportedly because the waters was shut off, an assertion that Flowers disputed at the time.

“From day one of this campaign, we told Minneapolis voters that ‘opponents of change’ would use every tactic under the sun to discredit our campaign and silence the many citizens who are demanding more from status quo politicians,” Flowers said in a press release regarding the pot bust. “This latest accusation was not only expected, but comes at a time when incumbents with no vision for the future typically launch ‘October Surprises.’”

Flowers is seeking the return of his property and more than $50,000 in damages. Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies Joe Poidinger, Matt Lunde and Erik Fleck are named as defendants in the case.

“There’s no allegation that he had marijuana on his person,” says Jill Clark, the attorney handling the case. “There’s no allegation it was in his pocket. It was found in a house that he had been in.”

Flowers has sued the city numerous times over the years, including a lawsuit against Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels filed earlier this year. In 2007 he won a $3 judgment against the city for violating his free speech rights.

Flowers is among 10 challengers looking to unseat Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. He is running as a Democrat, but does not have the party’s endorsement.

Photo: Minnesota Independent

On a Saturday night last month, roughly 70 Minneapolis Hmong residents gathered at Fairview Park on the city’s North Side. They were joined by Minneapolis City Council members Barb Johnson and Don Samuels, who represent the area, to discuss relations between the Minneapolis Police Department and the Hmong community.

The meeting was prompted, in part, by a recently released study by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) that documents the paucity of Hmong police officers on the force. But also shadowing the meeting were several troubling incidents involving cops assigned to the MPD’s 4th Precinct and the Hmong community in recent years. In 2006, 19-year-old Fong Lee was shot eight times by an officer after fleeing police. Then in 2007, 22 shots were fired when police wrongly raided a Hmong family’s home during a botched drug raid.

“We’re a group that oftentimes doesn’t get heard from,” says Yia Yang, a community organizer with CURA who attended the meeting at Fairview Park. “But there’s really not that much trust with the Minneapolis Police Department.”

A couple of seemingly simple proposals came out of the meeting at Fairview Park. Representatives of the Hmong community wanted to sit down with Police Chief Tim Dolan and 4th Precinct Inspector Michael Martin to express their concerns. More concretely, they wanted a Hmong-speaking officer assigned to the day shift in the 4th Precinct as soon as possible.

The CURA study seemingly backs up the need for such a personnel move. At the time of the 2000 census, the most recent period for which figures are available, there were just under 10,000 Hmong residents of Minneapolis. Roughly 70 percent of those inhabitants were clustered in the 4th Precinct, which covers all of the city’s North Side.

But MPD recruitment has failed to keep up with demographic trends — a phenomenon that certainly isn’t limited to the Minneapolis force. The 900-officer agency has just eight Hmong police officers, representing less than one percent of the force.

Further troubling to members of the Hmong community is where those officers are assigned. More than half of the Hmong officers patrol the 5th Precinct in southwest Minneapolis, an area that is predominantly wealthy and white. Just 226 Hmong residents — or roughly two percent of the city’s overall Hmong population resided in the 5th District at the time of the 2000 census.

Meanwhile the 4th Precinct, home to the majority of Minneapolis’ Hmong population, has just two Hmong officers. What’s more, both of those cops work the overnight shift. The upshot: when Hmong residents of the North Side, many of whom are recent arrivals in this country and have limited English language skills, call the cops for help there’s generally no one available who speaks their language. Shifting one of the existing Hmong cops to the day shift in the 4th Precinct seemed like a simple, common-sense means to at least partly address the problem.

“That is what the community feels would address this problem for them,” says Don Samuels. “I’m supportive of it.”

But Samuels and others realize that getting a Hmong cop assigned to the day shift in the 4th Precinct is not as simple as it might sound. MPD’s personnel policies are governed by a labor contract with explicit rules regarding assignments and shifts. In essence, individual officers bid for assignments based on order of seniority.

“We can’t tell people where they can and cannot work,” says Sgt. Jesse Garcia, an MPD spokesman. “To actually move somebody over there would be outside of the contract and basically against their rights as an employee.”

Garcia compares it to posting a job listing for a police liaison at (predominantly-black) North Community High School and limiting it to African-American candidates. “You would be staring down the barrel of a lawsuit at some point,” he says.

Garcia also points out that the CURA study relies on outdated numbers to draw its conclusions, as the 2000 census was completed nearly a decade ago. He argues that the Hmong community is no longer so heavily concentrated on the North Side. “It has spread out through the city much more,” he says.

In addition, any deal would have to be brokered with the Minneapolis Police Federation. The police union has notoriously sharp elbows and lately has been at loggerheads with police brass over the firing of officer Jason Andersen.

Andersen is the cop who shot Fong Lee in 2006. He was exonerated of any wrongdoing by the department, and a civil jury subsequently ruled that Andersen did not use excessive force in shooting Lee. But Andersen was subsequently arrested on a domestic assault charge, which apparently prompted an internal affairs investigation by the MPD and led to his dismissal.

The police federation has made it clear that it’s not happy about Andersen’s firing. Lt. Robert Kroll, vice president of the police union, told the Pioneer Press last month that Andersen was simply a hard-nosed cop doing his job.

“In the current administration, that is not tolerated,” Kroll told the St. Paul daily. “They don’t want big, tough street cops. They feel he got them negative press over Fong Lee, so they’re going to make him pay.”

While the internal-police spat has little to do with whether a Hmong cop is assigned to the 4th Precinct day shift, it might mean that the police federation will be in little mood to compromise over contractual obligations. (Calls to the police union by Minnesota Independent were not returned.)

Despite these hurdles, Wameng Moua, editor of Hmong Today, argues that the city’s leadership can get a Hmong officer assigned to the day shift in the 4th Precinct if it’s truly viewed as a priority. Even a Hmong liaison who is not a sworn law-enforcement officer would be a big improvement, he notes.

“We all know that if anything is a priority they’re going to pursue it despite any budget restraints,” Moua says. “To me it just seems the mayor, the chief, they just don’t see it as a priority to help out a big part of their constituency.”

Samuels hopes that some kind of deal can eventually be brokered.

“I think we have to broach the subject with the police and the union to see if exceptional circumstances could bring about an exceptional compromise,” he says, “because there is significant hardship in the community.”

Elizabeth Glidden and Greg McDonald, two of five candidates vying for the Ward Eight council seat

In 2005, the Ward Eight city council race was arguably the most hotly contested in Minneapolis. The primary featured 10 candidates — more than any other ward in the city. The principal reason for this electoral scrum: there was no incumbent candidate. A controversial redistricting plan had lumped council member Robert Lilligren into Ward Six with fellow incumbent Dean Zimmerman.

In the end, Marie Hauser and Elizabeth Glidden emerged from the crowded field to advance to the general election. Glidden, a civil rights attorney, then won the seat handily with 59 percent of the vote.

This year’s Ward Eight contest is slightly less crowded, but there are still five candidates running for the post. Glidden is seeking a second term, while challengers Gregory McDonald, David Regan, Jeanine Estime and Michael Cavlan are looking to oust her from the council.

There will be no primary election this time around, however, because Minneapolis is using instant-runoff voting for the first time, in which voters will rank their preferred choice of candidates. The change seems to have spurred many to take a shot at electoral politics. There are currently 53 candidates across the city running for the 13 city council posts.

“I think this gives more people an opportunity to have a say in the election,” says Glidden. “We know that you have dismal turnout at the primary. That’s where you’d often see this big lineup of candidates.”

Ward Eight is among the city’s most diverse, both economically and ethnically. It stretches from Lake to 50th streets and from Cedar to Lyndale avenues. At the time of the 2000 census, more than half of the residents were minorities. The median household income in the Central neighborhood was just over $32,000, while in Kingfield that figure was nearly $52,000.

In the ’80s and ’90s some parts of the ward, most notably Central, were notorious for gang violence and crime. But many residents believe that over the last decade the area has made significant strides in restoring calm to the streets. This success, however, has left some grumbling that Ward Eight doesn’t get its fair share of resources from City Hall.

“The relative peace we have over here compared to the north side is a very, very hard fought battle that’s being waged every day,” says Steve Washington, a juvenile probation officer and 15-year resident of the Central neighborhood.

“We’re quiet over here for a reason. It’s because we work at it. Yet we lose funding. The city pumps money into the dysfunction of the north side.”

Ward Eight certainly continues to have its share of problems. The area is among the hardest hit in the city by the foreclosure crisis. Through July of this year, 156 homes had gone into foreclosure. That’s the third highest total in the city, ranking behind only the wards on the city’s beleaguered north side. The plight of homeowners trying to stay in their residences has been highlighted in recent months by Ward Eight resident Rosemary Williams, who has refused to leave her home of nearly three decades even after being ordered to vacate the premises by Hennepin County Sheriff’s deputies.

Glidden says the resulting abandoned properties littered throughout the ward are adversely affecting the quality of life for the remaining residents. She’s working to secure funds to help revitalize distressed properties and get them occupied once again.

“These are huge crime magnets,” she says. “They push down property values. They push down the livability of the neighborhood.”

Crime remains the most significant issue for many Ward Eight residents. McDonald says its the primary reason he’s running for city council as an Independence Party candidate. “My 12-year-old son won’t walk to the store by himself,” he says.

McDonald wants the city to beef up inspections and target neglectful property owners. “They aren’t penalizing negligent landlords enough,” he says. “The police, every officer I speak with, their hands are tied.”

He argues that Glidden, a Kingfield resident, is out of touch with the concerns of poor residents in the area. “She lives in an upper middle-class Minneapolis neighborhood,” he says. “She comes from a completely different background from the majority of the people in Ward Eight.”

Cavlan has a different perspective: He believes cops are a large part of the problem. The registered nurse says he was motivated to run for city council in part by the heavy-handed security tactics during last year’s Republican National Convention and civil rights abuses by Minneapolis police officers. He wants a beefed-up civilian-review board to oversee the conduct of cops and believes that chief Tim Dolan should be fired.

“Chief Dolan has set a tone with the Minneapolis police where there is no accountability,” he says “There are sections of Minneapolis where the people are either afraid of the police or getting very angry with the police. We’re headed towards a confrontation in this city if we don’t get these people under control.”

Cavlan is a former Green Party activist, but grew frustrated with the party’s inability to present a credible alternative to the Democrats and Republicans. He’s now running as an Open Progressive and will be the first candidate representing the fledgling party to appear on the ballot. Despite this lack of electoral history, Cavlan believes that Minneapolis’ new ranked-voting system gives him an opportunity to win.

“I really do believe that instant-runoff voting is going to change everything,” he says. “Those of us who have these views and opinions are no longer marginalized.”

The motivations of other candidates on the ballot are tougher to surmise.

Regan registered to run as a Republican, but ascertaining much more information about him is difficult. The phone number filed with the city’s elections office is disconnected and he doesn’t appear to have a Web site.

Jeanine Estime is running as a Green Party candidate. The Haitian-born Powderhorn Park resident has lived in Minneapolis for more than 15 years. She works as an education assistant at her daughter’s school and has volunteered with the Powderhorn Youth Farm and Tubman Family Alliance. Estime’s web site describes her as “strong, visible, progressive.”

(Estime didn’t respond to two calls seeking comment.)

Glidden says criticism that she is out of touch with the ward’s poorer residents or unwilling to take action on thorny issues is unfounded.

“I have been a very hands-on person in working with neighborhoods and block clubs on crime and safety issues,” she says. “I have not just been someone who works on the big-picture policies.”

Washington, who previously chaired the Central neighborhood’s Weed & Seed anti-crime initiative, backs up Glidden. He notes that when a tornado recently ripped through part of Ward Eight, the city council member was immediately out on the streets assessing the needs of her constituents.

“Elizabeth gets on the ground and she makes relationships with people and she gets the job done,” Washington says. “Until Glidden does something extremely strange she’s earned the job.”

This is the first in a 13-part series on Minneapolis City Council races.

The full series:

Ward One: Five seek open seat in northeast Minneapolis
Ward Two: Gordon, Aigbogun and … no DFLer
Ward Three: Hofstede tries to hold off four challengers
Ward Four: Trio of challengers take on political dynasty
Ward Five: Crime and economic development dominate North Side race
Ward Six: South Minneapolis contest draws crowded field of contenders
Ward Seven: Despite full campaign coffers, lawsuit clouds Goodman’s prospects
Ward Eight: Glidden faces four rivals in south Minneapolis
Ward Nine: Schiff, Bicking vie again
Ward Ten: Four candidates vie for Uptown council seat
Ward Eleven: Three vie for Benson’s South Minneapolis seat
Ward Twelve: Colvin Roy faces three challengers
Ward Thirteen: The independent ward could see fireworks in November

“The Minneapolis Police Department is extremely disappointed at the scope and serious nature of the allegations regarding some Minneapolis officers assigned to the task force,” he said. “Our ability to police requires the communities’ trust, and these allegations fundamentally undermine the faith and trust that we work so hard to earn.”

The gang unit’s current troubles began in June when the state auditor’s office released a report stating that 14 vehicles and roughly $18,000 in cash that had been seized by officers could not be located. That was followed by a blistering report on the gang agency’s activities by former federal prosecutor Andy Luger and former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent John Egelhof. Last week state legislators held a special hearing at the Capitol to scrutinize the alleged wrongdoing. The FBI has been brought in to determine if any crimes were committed by gang investigators.

Dolan was briefed today by Luger and Michael Campion, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. There has been a string of new developments involving MPD officers in recent days. On Thursday Sgt. Randall Olson, a former supervisor in the gang unit and a ten-year veteran of the department, resigned. He had been on paid leave since mid-August. Then on Monday Sgt. Kelly O’Rourke filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis, claiming that he was retaliated against after raising concerns about activities at the gang unit.

The St. Paul Police Department has acknowledged that six of its officers assigned to the gang strike force are under investigation, according to the Associated Press. A single deputy from the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office is also being scrutinized for possibly mishandling evidence.

Michael Campion, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety

Exactly what criminal use might a street gang have for a wood chipper? And what about a stump grinder?

Those were among the questions contemplated by legislators at a hearing Wednesday afternoon scrutinizing the beleaguered — and now defunct — Metro Gang Strike Force. The special session was prompted by two damning reports released in recent months alleging that the law enforcement agency routinely seized money and other items from citizens without justification, failed to adequately account for its assets and displayed a general disregard for the civil rights of citizens, particularly minorities.

The evidence from the two probes has been turned over to the FBI in order to look into possible criminal charges.

The initial report from the legislative auditor’s office was released in June. Among the findings: the law enforcement agency couldn’t account for 14 vehicles and thousands of dollars in cash that had been seized from individuals. In addition, the probe scrutinized 545 instances in which cash was appropriated from people. Investigators discovered that in 202 of these cases, the proper paperwork accounting for the seizures could not be located.

“We basically found that the gang strike force lacked fundamental controls,” James Nobles, the state’s legislative auditor, told legislators. “When we went to the gang strike force the problems from the first day we walked in the door were obvious.”

Among the other assets seized by gang investigators: the aforementioned wood chipper and stump grinder. While Nobles acknowledged that some people might be amused by these unusual purported tools of criminality, he insisted that it’s not a laughing matter.

“Upon reflection it really concerned us that the gang strike force had gone out and seized somebody’s wood chipper and stump grinder,” he said. “I don’t know that that’s involved in gang and criminal activity. It seems to me that’s somebody’s business livelihood that they took.”

The legislative auditor’s report was followed by an equally damning assessment from former federal prosecutor Andy Luger and former FBI agent John Egelhof. It determined that some gang investigators routinely mishandled seized property and violated the civil rights of individuals, primarily minorities.

“We reached the conclusion that some of the individuals at the Metro Gang Strike Force engaged in serious misconduct, misconduct that we believe was appalling and outrageous,” Luger told legislators at today’s hearing. “Something went terribly wrong at the Metro Gang Strike Force, and it must never happen again.”

Luger stated that the handling of investigations was so slipshod that it was impossible to conduct a thorough probe of the agency’s operations.

“We cannot overstate how poorly documented the strike force’s operations were,” Luger said. “File after file that we reviewed is missing essential documentation to explain what happened in an investigation or with an informant or with evidence. Some files were simply empty. This is inexcusable and would not be tolerated in any professional police agency.”

Much of the blame for the troubled law-enforcement agency has been laid at the feet of former gang strike force commander Ron Ryan, who retired last year. According to Nobles, when the new commander, Lt. Chris Omodt, of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office, attempted to clean up some of the problems he encountered serious blowback from his new charges.

“So here you have a man who is walking into a difficult situation as a commander of a paramilitary organization and he clearly did not have command of the situation,” Nobles said. “That I think is a very dangerous situation.”

The Metro Gang Strike Force was established by the legislature in 2005 following the dissolution of a similar agency that operated statewide. Legislators expressed dismay that the problems at the organization had apparently been festering for several years without coming to their attention. Sen. Linda Higgins (DFL-Minneapolis) wondered why the word “corruption” had not been used in either of the reports scrutinizing the gang strike force.

“These are people who have, or should have, the public trust,” Higgins noted. “Did you think about the fact that this is corrupt behavior?”

Luger didn’t exactly shoot down this characterization of the investigation’s findings.

“We did not come across any evidence in our review of an officer taking money from an individual and putting it in their pocket,” he said. “We can debate the definition of the word corruption, but that is the kind of behavior that I would use that term to describe. Others may use that term to describe what’s in our report. We chose not to.”

Some legislators expressed surprise that few of the people whose assets were improperly seized apparently raised a stink about the matter. But Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park) suggested that the lack of uproar shows a troubling cynicism among many metro residents with regards to law enforcement.

“Some of these people are just beaten down and they’re not going to fight,” Latz said. “Because they know if they do they’re going to be targeted again. The cops are going to come back after them again and again and again, and make them pay for standing up for their rights. This is not in defense of gang-bangers. This is in defense of every citizen, or person, that is entitled to a certain amount of rights under state law just as a member of our society.”

Near the close of the three-hour hearing, the state’s public safety commissioner, Michael Campion, addressed legislators. He vowed to get to the bottom of the matter and implement any changes deemed necessary by the legislature to avoid such systemic failings in the future.

“In hindsight I believe now that we gave the Metro Gang Strike Force and its two advisory boards too many chances,” he said. “This is a very sad time for law enforcement and people in the criminal justice system.”

Somali flag (Image: Wikipedia)

Why would young Somali men living in Minnesota return to their war-ravaged homeland to wage jihad? That’s the thorny question that’s been debated by the Somali community and federal investigators since the mysterious disappearances of as many as 20 young men surfaced last year.

A new Associated Press story provides some additional insight into the tools employed by the al-Shabaab terrorist network, which is believed to be at the center of the recruiting campaign. The group, which purportedly has ties to al-Qaeda, utilized YouTube videos glorifying martyrdom, phone calls from Somalia and secret meetings in Minneapolis to entice the young men into the fold. The AP story also fingers the possible key role of a man named Zakaria Maruf:

Stephen Smith, an attorney who represents several young Somalis questioned by authorities, said his clients describe Maruf as someone with a bravado that appealed to younger men he met on the basketball court or at mosques.

Smith said one of his 18-year-old clients got a phone call from Maruf, in Somalia, asking him to join the fight. Maruf and the teenager also exchanged e-mails and had a brief conversation in a chat room, Smith said.

Smith said the teen didn’t go but felt uncomfortable turning down someone he looked up to.

Maruf’s whereabouts aren’t known. Some family members say they believe he was killed in Somalia last month, but federal officials could not confirm that.

At least three of the young men recruited to travel to Somalia have since died. Three other would-be jihadists, who eventually returned to the United States, have pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges.

Related:

‘Missing youth’ story rattles local Somali community

Are jihadist groups luring Minnesota Somalis back to fight?

A group of activists and lawyers showed up to protest the Ramsey County Attorney’s handling of the so-called RNC Eight prosecutions. The protesters carried signs that read “Hands off the RNC8″ and “Justice Means Drop the Charges on the RNC8,” and handed out literature to passersby.

The eight activists were arrested for plotting to reap chaos during the Republican National Convention last September. They were initially charged with conspiracy to commit riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism and conspiracy to commit criminal damage to property in furtherance of terrorism. But the more incendiary terrorism charges were dropped in April. The eight defendants still face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Gaertner is seeking the DFL endorsement for the 2010 governor’s race. But her handling of the RNC Eight cases has raised the hackles of some party activists.

Chicago Indymedia was on hand at Friday’s protest and shot this video: