Cowgirl flunky, news junkie. Minnesota Star Tribune reporter covering City Hall. Signal: deenawinter69
Minneapolis-St. Paul
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When Amara Strande was just 16, a 15-pound tumor was found embedded in her liver. Nearly the size of a volleyball. She was one of many students at Tartan High School in Oakdale who got cancer. Students joked about the water fountains, saying, “Don’t drink the 3M cancer water.” 🧵
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I have read the 72-page state report on MPD, and compiled some of the most jaw-dropping portions. Here are some of them. 🧵
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BREAKING: 2 officers on a SWAT team that was caught on body camera video firing at citizens without warning from an unmarked cargo van days after the police killing of George Floyd were also involved in Wednesday's raid that led to Amir Locke's killing: minnesotareformer.com/2022/0…
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OK so I read the 89-page DOJ report on the Minneapolis Police Department, and here are some of the most jarring things I found in it: 🧵
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It was the darkest of jokes: In 2005, state officials announced 3M had contaminated Oakdale’s water with chemicals. People living east of the Twin Cities had elevated perfluorocarbons in their blood. By 2017, a 100-square-mile underground plume was contaminated w/ chemicals.
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Just talked to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who (in between insults) confirmed the FBI surrounded him while he was in the drive-thru of a Hardee's in Mankato today, and took his cell phone. Story to come.
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Amara’s story, while extraordinary, is not so unique in Oakdale. A 2017 study found that a child who died there between 2003 and 2015 was 171% more likely to have had cancer than a child who died in the surrounding area.
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Although 3M contends that a definitive, smoking-gun link between 3M’s waste and Oakdale’s cancer rates has never been established, the city’s cancer incidence went down after 2006, when 3M helped pay for a water filtration system and chemical contamination levels dropped.
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That’s the same year Amara began having headaches, nausea, frequent nosebleeds and horrific abdominal pain. Some days it seemed like all she could do was sleep. Now 20, Amara has had more than 20 surgeries to battle the tumors that keep growing in her body.
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MPD officers used covert, or fake, social media accounts to surveil and engage Black individuals, Black organizations & elected officials. As of December 2020, MPD did not use its covert social media accounts to track white supremacist or white nationalist groups.
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One patrol officer claimed they didn't engage in racial profiling, yet later in the interview provided an example of how they might solve a crime based on racial stereotypes, not understanding searching for someone based solely on racial stereotypes was racial profiling.
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Nearly 17 years later, Oakdale residents continue to grapple with lingering, seemingly unexplainable health effects, and they wonder about the role 3M chemicals may have played in their ailments. And why justice has been so elusive.
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A high-level MPD leader explained that officers often arrest and cite individuals with obstruction or disorderly conduct “for things that could fall under the category, arguably, of pissing off the police."
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After former Attorney General Lori Swanson settled a lawsuit with 3M in 2018, she made public all the internal 3M documents they'd obtained. I decided to read them; all of them. Here they are: ag.state.mn.us/Office/Cases/…
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Read my story: minnesotareformer.com/2022/1…
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Now the chemicals can be found in the blood of nearly all people on the planet, and in animals from polar bears to eaglets. They’ve been linked to low fertility, birth defects, suppression of the immune system, thyroid disease and cancer.
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MPD officers were 12% more likely to stop a vehicle occupied by a person of color or Indigenous person when it was light outside and officers were more likely to see the race of the people in the car, compared to when it was dark outside.
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By the 1960s, the company was generating 4 million gallons of wet chemical waste annually, dumping it into mostly unlined pits, even though 3M knew by then it was polluting groundwater, according to internal 3M documents obtained by Swanson.
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They show that in the 1950s, 3M began manufacturing chemicals for things like Scotchgard, Teflon cookware, fast food wrapping and fire retardants. 3M made (and still makes) chemicals in Cottage Grove, producing thousands of gallons of wet industrial waste every year.
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One Black man reported that MPD officers pulled him over at least 7 times in the last 5 years for alleged minor traffic violations, often saying they smelled marijuana & searching it while handcuffing him, sometimes with guns pointed at him. Officers never found any drugs.
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Producing these so-called “forever chemicals” that don’t break down in the environment has cost Minnesotans dearly. Beginning in the 1950s, for more than 40 years, 3M dumped “massive quantities” of waste containing perfluorocarbons east of the Cities.
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The chemicals migrated through landfill soil into four aquifers used for drinking water in the East Metro and ended up in groundwater beneath and downslope from four 3M disposal sites. By 2017, a 100-square-mile underground plume was contaminated. A map:
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County prosecutors said MPD officers are much less professional and respectful than officers from other departments … prosecutors said it can be difficult to rely on MPD officers’ body-worn camera video in court because of how disrespectful and offensive MPD officers are
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Due to MN law, lawyers weren’t allowed to discuss whether the chemicals were harmful. A jury decided in 3M’s favor in 2009. Washington County District Judge Mary Hannon later confirmed that her father worked for 3M for about 40 years, but she did not recuse herself from the case.
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Based on 300 MPD use-of-force files from 2010 to 2020, supervisors failed to do a thorough review of officers' use of force in 48% of cases. And in 24% of use-of-force files, evidence contradicts or disputes the information an officer recorded in their report.
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Yes Minneapolis is STILL a hellhole do NOT come. Pass it on. Feel free to add proof.
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Robert Bilott sued DuPont in West Virginia over chemicals polluting farmland near its Teflon plant and won a landmark 2004 settlement, inspiring a book and the 2019 film “Dark Waters.” 3M manufactured the chemical for DuPont beginning in the 1950s.
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To read more, here's my story: minnesotareformer.com/2022/0…
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In 28% of all use-of-force incidents, MPD officers failed to request or provide medical attention to community members who required it.
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But what about those who'd already been drinking the water for years? Minnesotans who think they have been sickened by 3M chemicals have struggled to get the kind of help found elsewhere. Such as West Virginia.
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Meanwhile, the 4 tumors Amara had removed in New York are back. More tumors grew next to her heart, with one wrapping around her upper right chest, fracturing her ribs. They can’t do surgery this time. She was recently hospitalized and is no longer able to use her right hand.
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In 2005, chemicals were detected in five Oakdale city water wells — and the town became the second U.S. city to find such contamination. 3M paid $10 million for a water treatment system in Oakdale in 2006 and helped Lake Elmo provide municipal water service to two neighborhoods.
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Part 2: After the state settled its lawsuit with 3M in 2018, the AG made public thousands of internal 3M documents. We read them all. They show 3M ignored, delayed, minimized and obscured research that raised red flags about the chemicals for decades: minnesotareformer.com/2022/1…
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Several people recently told the Reformer they’re working with attorneys on a new lawsuit against 3M, but attorneys involved in past suits say first Minnesota lawmakers need to change the law to allow medical monitoring claims.
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Oakdale residents asked Bilott for help, and he joined a Minnesota lawsuit against 3M. But Minnesota law doesn’t allow medical monitoring claims to be pursued in class action suits. So the Minnesota case did not lead to the kind of huge settlement Bilott won in West Virginia.
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The Police Conduct Oversight Commission & Internal Affairs investigators fail to properly investigate a significant percentage of police misconduct complaints by not reviewing body-worn camera footage or other evidence or failing to interview relevant witnesses.
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For years, MPD used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who committed at most petty offenses and sometimes no offense at all.
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The delay between discipline and the underlying officer misconduct means many officers did not receive discipline for over a year after the misconduct. And in some cases, officers did not get disciplined for multiple years.
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The OPCR improperly investigates about 50% of police misconduct complaints, and Internal Affairs improperly investigates about 25%.
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MPD used force to punish people who made officers angry or criticized the police.
MPD patrolled neighborhoods differently based on their racial composition and discriminated based on race when searching, handcuffing or using force against people during stops.
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The city failed to provide prosecutors with any updated impeachment information about MPD officers from the beginning of 2020 through at least the fall of 2021. (Prosecutors are required by the constitution to disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense, under the Brady rule.)
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In preparation for criminal trials, prosecutors will sometimes choose to simply remove a police officer from a witness list instead of producing impeachment evidence related to that officer.
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In 37% of OPCR cases that were referred for coaching from 2014-2018, supervisors did not coach MPD officers and no corrective action was taken.
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City leaders have been aware of deep organizational culture problems within MPD resulting in the disproportionate impact of race-based policing, & in the vacuum of collective action from key city and MPD leaders, the organizational culture at MPD has existed unchecked.
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Current and former city leaders said without arbitration reform or changes to state law, the city’s hands are tied when it comes to accountability and oversight. MDH argues that's not the case — the city and MPD leaders could immediately make substantive changes.
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MPD officers discharged firearms in situations where there was no immediate threat.
Of the 19 police shootings that occurred from January 1, 2016, to August 16, 2022… a significant portion of them were unconstitutional uses of deadly force.
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MPD officers have continued using neck restraints since the city banned them after George Floyd's police killing.
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An off-duty officer fired his gun at a car containing six people within three seconds of getting out of his squad car. The off-duty officer had responded to a “shots fired” call.
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Feeding Our Future trial now getting into the involvement of a nonprofit formed by Minneapolis Council Member Jamal Osman. Incorporated in August 2019, an investigator testifies that it appeared to be a shell company, with no employees, office or financial activity. 🧵
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MPD officers often used neck restraints in situations that did not end in an arrest. MPD officers used neck restraints during at least 198 encounters from January 1, 2016, to August 16, 2022. Officers did not make an arrest in 44 of those encounters.
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Since 2016, the only officers disciplined for failing to intervene were the officers who failed to stop Derek Chauvin from murdering George Floyd. No other officer has been disciplined for standing by while their colleagues violated someone’s constitutional rights.
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MPD stops Black people at 6.5 times the rate at which it stops white people, given their shares of the population.
MPD stops Native American people at 7.9 times the rate at which it stops white people, given population shares.
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Officers fired their tasers 7 times into a man having a behavioral health crisis. The man stood on a 16th floor apartment balcony holding two knives but did not approach or threaten the officers. Nevertheless, the officers tased the man despite the risk that he could fall.
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Getting reports of an attempt to tamper with a witness at the second Feeding Our Future trial today... this on the heels of an attempted juror bribe during the first trial. Story to come.
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An officer threw a handcuffed Black man to the ground face-first, claiming he had “tensed up” during a search, while other officers had him bent over the hood of a squad car. For several minutes before the takedown, the man had been compliant.
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MPD officers pepper sprayed people in apparent retaliation for observing, questioning or criticizing police activity, in violation of the First Amendment right to free speech. An officer sprayed 2 bystanders to a suicide call after they questioned what officers were doing.
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BREAKING: A juror in Feeding Our Future case was contacted last night and the prosecutor has just asked that jurors be sequestered when they begin deliberations after closings today and that their phones all be confiscated immediately.
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A man experiencing a behavioral health crisis was handcuffed to a stretcher. The man spat on an officer, who slapped & punched him in the face. After the man was transported to a hospital, the officer said: “I’m really proud of myself; I only hit him twice.” He wasn't disciplined
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One MPD presentation described traffic law enforcement stops as the “top tactic used by MPD for illegal gun recovery.” But only a small percentage of MPD’s traffic stops resulted in recovering guns.
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Waiting on the Minnesota Department of Human Rights to talk about the results of its two-year investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.
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An officer used force against an unarmed, handcuffed man reported to have been trespassing inside a vacant house. When the man attempted to go back inside the house, the officer grabbed the handcuffed man by the neck, dragged him down several steps, and threw him on his back.
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On a traffic stop for a broken taillight, MPD sought to remove a Black teen from the backseat of the car because he had not been wearing his seatbelt. The teen requested over 20 times that officers call a supervisor to the scene, and the driver asked twice. ....
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Instead, an officer threatened the teen with a taser to try to get him out of the vehicle. After the officer activated his taser, the teen repeatedly said, “I’m scared! I’m scared!” Instead of de-escalating, officers forcibly removed him, pinned him to the ground & handcuffed him
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You can’t get within a mile of Vance Boelter’s rural home about 5 miles from a bucolic hamlet of Green Isle, about an hour southwest of Minneapolis. Nobody I’ve talked to in the 2 town bars knew the suspected shooter.
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"The ambulance had to push him off him,"she testifies. "They asked him nicely to get off him. He still stayed on." She said this made her sad because it seemed like it was stopping Floyd from breathing; seemed like they were hurting him. Defense does not cross-examine her. Recess
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On numerous occasions, officers responded to a person’s statement that they could not breathe with a version of, “You can breathe; you’re talking right now.”
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O’Hara to New York Post: Minneapolis has a “very detached, bourgeois liberal mentality” startribune.com/minneapolis-…
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An MPD officer drew his gun and arrested an unarmed Black teen for allegedly taking a $5 burrito without paying. The officer, in street clothes, followed the teen out of the restaurant, unholstered his gun, and pinned the teen to the hood of a car.
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Foot traffic fell at Target after it backtracked on DEI. But Costco, which refused to retreat on DEI, saw traffic increase. retailbrew.com/stories/2025/… via @MorningBrew
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Brooklyn Park police waited more than 60 minutes to enter the Hortman home and several law enforcement agencies were unaware of the situation for hours: startribune.com/new-details-…
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Like many salesmen, "the MyPillow guy" Mike Lindell is best at selling himself. Through his memoir and countless media appearances, he’s created a rich mythology. Less well known are allegations of domestic violence by an ex-wife and an ex-girlfriend: minnesotareformer.com/2021/0…
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Interim US attorney Joe Thompson says Vance Boelter went to the homes of FOUR Minnesota politicians Saturday morning w/ the intent to kill them. FOUR. Not two.
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Whoa Sheriff Hutchinson was driving over 100 mph without a seat belt while under the influence, State Patrol says
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Who donated to Attorney General Keith Ellison and his son, Minneapolis City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison, in the 10 days after the AG's meeting with Feeding Our Future figures? startribune.com/attorney-gen…
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Wow: The Minneapolis DFL admits mayoral candidate DeWayne Davis was bumped out of contention by mistake after the first ballot when he actually had enough votes to survive to the second round of voting: startribune.com/dfl-wades-mi…
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Yes, this is Minneapolis. And no, you shouldn’t come. It’s a hot mess and we don’t have room for any more canoes.
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Four months after Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into George Floyd’s neck, killing him outside Cup Foods, Jacqueline Bilek called MPD about a man who was putting fliers on car windshields condemning Black Lives Matter. Sgt. Scot Kaiser answered the phone that day.🧵
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You forgot to mention who he is: Abshir Omar, who worked for Feeding Our Future: minnesotareformer.com/2022/1…
Watch this powerful testimony from a former Minnesota Democrat Somali leader:
“I fundamentally believe that [Trump] is our best bet moving forward.”
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Almost as bad as not telling viewers of your Derek Chauvin "documentary" that your husband is the former head of the Minneapolis police union. minnesotareformer.com/2024/0…
“That is a journalistic dereliction.” Megyn Kelly reacts to the Star Tribune removing Walz’s IVF lie from a headline, initially without adding an editors note. Since the recording, the Star Tribune has now added a note.
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Search warrant app. says autism providers billed the state $400 million in 2023 and 2024, but federal investigators say they've found "substantial evidence" providers submitted fraudulent claims for services not provided or covered by the program.
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If you’d told me last year in one day I’d cover the biggest police brutality case in history, a huge protest & militarized response after another police shooting, all while wearing an N-95 mask (+gas mask) to avoid catching a lethal virus during a raging global pandemic, I...
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More than two years later, Kaiser still works at the MPD, and Bilek has no idea if he was ever disciplined. Read my story: minnesotareformer.com/2023/0…
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I met Amara Strande last fall while working on a story about 3M chemicals. She was 20 & full of spunk, but dying of cancer. She got involved in a fight to regulate chemicals at the capitol, where her voice grew weak but resonated. Amara died yesterday. minnesotareformer.com/2022/1…
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Former Somalia Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire says Somalis should not vote for a Black man or white person over US Rep. Ilhan Omar in meeting with Omar, state Rep. Mohamud Noor, Rep. Hodan Hassan and Minneapolis Council Member Jamal Osman:
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Federal search warrant says they're investigating autism centers, including several created by people involved in the Feeding Our Future federal fraud case.
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From the report: MPD officers used covert, or fake, social media accounts to surveil and engage Black
individuals, Black organizations, and elected officials unrelated to criminal activity, without a public
safety objective.
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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey calls for state and federal ban on assault weapons, ban on high-capacity magazines. "There is no reason somebody should be able to reel off 30 rounds before they even have to reload," he says at City Hall.
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BREAKING: The attorney general filed an assault charge against one of the officers involved in beating Jaleel Stallings after he fired back at an MPD SWAT team that was driving around firing rubber bullets at people out after a curfew imposed after George Floyd’s police murder
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Don’t let #walz fool ya; it’s so bad here in Minneapolis that people are jumping off bridges #nogominno
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Prosecutors noted that it can be difficult to rely on MPD officers’ body worn camera video in court because of how disrespectful and offensive MPD officers are to
criminal suspects, witnesses, and bystanders.
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The report indicates Nathan Sundberg was on the SWAT team, along with officer Mark Hanneman, that entered the apartment where Hanneman shot and killed Locke. Kristopher Dauble was listed as a member of a second SWAT team on the scene. #AmirLocke
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Even after Dustin Dupre was arrested in 2003 for assaulting his ex-wife, he kept his job as a Minneapolis police officer. Even after he was charged with puncturing a woman’s tire in Cottage Grove in 2017 in a fit of road rage, he kept his job. 🧵minnesotareformer.com/2022/0…
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