Minneapolis, MN – Minneapolis city government placed a roadblock in front of the ballot measure to establish community control of the police, May 9. Community members say the fight will continue.

Last week, the volunteer organizers delivered the signatures of over 12,000 Minneapolis residents who support putting community control of police on the ballot, through a city charter amendment to establish an all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Commission (CPAC).

Today, May 9, the city clerk’s office reported to the city council that only 5445 were verified as Minneapolis registered voters, 3498 less than the number required to move their proposal to the ballot.

“We are outraged to see so many of our neighbors' voices be discarded by burdensome policies that make it impossible for a truly grassroots initiative to move forward,” said Jae Yates, Minneapolis for Community Control of Police (M4CCP) field organizer. “You shouldn't need paid staff or politicians in your pockets to have a say in how your own communities are policed.”

Minneapolis for Community Control of Police organizers hold that the current statutes exclude many Minneapolis residents who signed the petition and should have their names counted. According to the clerk, 1341 signatures were from registered voters who have simply moved to a new address since signing. In a city with many renters and widespread housing instability, this excludes registered voters.

While they will continue to collect signatures to show the strength of the people’s support before the May 20 deadline, M4CCP will soon announce plans for other avenues in the short term to achieve community control of police.

Petitioning has been ongoing since the trial of Derek Chauvin, with an army of volunteers knocking doors, and speaking to neighbors, co-workers and students at grocery stores, houses of worship, and every kind of community gathering in Minneapolis. Every signature collected represents many more conversations with community members, since a lot of people who wanted to sign the petition were not registered to vote or ineligible to vote.

Despite this massive effort, organizers are not surprised the city clerk’s count threw out so many of the signatures submitted. According to organizer Noah Schumacher, “We understand that grassroots initiatives taken on by the people face anti-democratic barriers. We saw what happened in Atlanta when Cop City organizers collected over 100,000 signatures against the building of Cop City. Their initiative was thrown out on a technicality.”

“We already have a mandate from the people,” says Jae Yates. “Tens of thousands protested in outrage after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd. Back in 2015, thousands joined the occupation of Plymouth Avenue and marches after the murder of Jamar Clark. The people of Minneapolis were in the streets for months following each of these murders, leading and joining protests and heartbreaking vigils, getting arrested, getting brutalized, and fighting for change. The people have spoken.”

They continued, “After the lynching of George Floyd, the city promised change. Months later, Minneapolis police murdered Dolal Idd. Then Leneal Frazier. Then Amir Locke. Then Tekle Sundberg. We know the list will go on and on, unless there is radical change. We need true accountability. No more do-nothing commissions that are set up to fail, leaving the mayor of Minneapolis still in charge of his murderous squad. No more million-dollar payouts for police brutality. No more lies, no more cover-ups. We need accountability, both for the past and going forward.”

The charter amendment put forward by this petition calls for an all-elected commission of 13 civilians to oversee the police department. The CPAC would be empowered to investigate every resident complaint and abuse of police power. They would set police department policy, hire the chief, and be able to discipline officers. They would be required to do full reporting on all their activities and results.

Humberto Martin of M4CCP said, “CPAC gets the mayor, and the mayor’s political and financial ambitions, out of the picture. We need an entity whose sole responsibility is to hold the police accountable that we the people control directly. We need CPAC.”

#MinneapolisMN #MN #InJusticeSystem #CPAC #M4CCP #TCC4J #PoliceCrimes

Minneapolis, MN – On Wednesday May 1, Minneapolis 4 Community Control of the Police (M4CCP) held a press conference in the Public Safety Center, the temporary home to city hall offices, to turn in their petitions to put community control of the police on the November ballot.

The petitions call for an amendment to the city charter, to establish an all-elected Civilian Police Accountability Commission (CPAC). The city charter determines the structure of city government and can only be amended by election, or a unanimous decision of the city council with mayoral approval. Citizens can get issues on the ballot by filing a petition signed by 8943 Minneapolis registered voters; the number required is equivalent to 5% of the votes cast in the most-recent general election.

M4CCP filed 10,208 signatures, which the city clerk will verify against the voter rolls over the next ten days. If the verified number falls below the required number, M4CCP has ten more days to file additional signatures to fill the gap. Once the required signatures are reached, there may be legal or bureaucratic challenges, but organizers say they are ready to take them on, and fight to get CPAC onto the November 2024 ballot.

Press conference speakers addressed the importance that CPAC would have in the city of Minneapolis.

Jae Yates, field director for M4CCP, opened the press conference, “First I want to say how proud I am of every single person who has mobilized over the past three years to make this moment possible. TCC4J launched our campaign in the wake of the George Floyd Uprising because we, and members of our community, saw the need for transformation of the balance of power between the people and the police. We were honored to have Jamar Clark’s mother, Irma Burns, be the first person to sign our charter amendment, in memory of her son who was stolen from her and from the Minneapolis community in 2015. And we have been fueled by the support of thousands of people who have seen the brutality visited on communities of working-class people in our city, who said yes to substantive, permanent change that takes the power out of the hands of the cops and puts it into the hands of the people.”

Yates continued, “When George Floyd was killed, Mayor Frey promised us that he would be the mayor to eradicate police brutality in Minneapolis. Instead, what we have seen is millions of taxpayer dollars going to a police department that couldn’t even make it a full year without committing more brutal murders. Amir Locke, Dolal Idd, Tekle Sundberg and Leneal Frazier were all killed by MPD in the years since the Uprising. And yet the mayor danced in the streets with Black children on Juneteenth knowing he had done nothing to address the decades of discrimination and brutality that MPD has visited on Black neighborhoods.”

Stacey Gurian-Sherman, of Minneapolis for a Better Police Contract, who is also an appointed member of the city’s Community Commission on Police Oversight (CCPO), stated, “The need is obvious for an entity that provides effective, independent and fair police accountability. Without that, no reforms are real,” she said. She described countless problems with the CCPO, which the city established a year ago, to address a dysfunctional police conduct review process. “The reality, after a full year, is that it is disturbingly, more of the same.” She described how the CCPO is only empowered to make recommendations, its process has police investigating themselves, and operates behind closed doors, without public transparency.

Gurian-Sherman talked about how CPAC would have independently-elected commissioners, independent investigations, and “determinations, not ‘recommendations,’” declaring, “CPAC provides the answer to the vexing problems of police accountability and oversight that has eluded this city for decades. It’s time the city had a fair, genuine and needed commitment to police oversight. Voters can and must take the reins this November at the ballot box and vote in the Civilian Police Accountability Commission.”

The next speaker was Alissa Washington, of the Wrongfully Incarcerated & Over-sentenced Families Council-MN and an advocate for her husband, Cornelius Jackson, who is sentenced with a life without possibility of parole for a 2006 crime that he did not commit.

Washington stated, “I am here to support CPAC because it is much needed. As we know, most convictions that are wrongfully-incarcerated start with the police. They have our Black and brown men and women who are new slaves. Not the slaves that my ancestors were, but they’re new slaves here, and it’s been going on for far too long. And I believe that we do need our voices heard and something done about the police here in Minneapolis. And you know, just to start in Minneapolis, hopefully it spreads throughout all of Minnesota and across the world.”

Toshira Garraway, founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, said “I am here to stand for the lives that have been stolen unjustly, to stand for the father of my son, Justin Teigen.” Garraway works with many families killed by police, and described the pain she has witnessed from families she works with, including the mothers of Amir Locke and Courtney Williams, both killed by Minneapolis police. I stand with CPAC today because it is time for our community to be the ones stand up to make the decisions, because clearly something has gone drastically and deadly wrong when it comes to the police department.”

After responding to media questions, the group of about 20 descended the escalator carrying stacks of petitions to file with the city clerk. They entered the office chanting, “When killer cops are out on patrol, how do we stop them? Community control!”

M4CCP continues to collect signatures, many were out again that day collecting signatures, including at the annual International Workers Day rally and march in Minneapolis. If you are a registered voter who lives in Minneapolis, contact them right away to sign your name to the petition.

The M4CCP campaign was initiated by Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice, a branch of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR). TCC4J began calling for community control of Minneapolis police in 2017 and started drafting concrete language for CPAC after the 2019 refounding conference of NAARPR. The petition campaign was launched during jury selection for the trial of Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd in March of 2021. Dozens of volunteers have collected signatures by knocking doors, at community events, outside grocery stores, in churches and mosques, on college campuses, and at countless other places in every corner of the city.

#MinneapolisMN #M4CCP #TCC4J #NAARPR #CPAC #Feature