Sent June 18, 2022
Dear Public Health and Safety Committee Members,
As accurate as my last email was, I wouldn’t blame you for being skeptical about this one.
But once again, I see that not on the agenda for your upcoming meeting is any item having to do with lessons learned from MPD officer-involved killings that resulted in large civil settlements, including the questions that Judge Quaintance passed on from the jurors in the Mohamed Noor trial. She very publicly delivered those questions on June 7, 2019, and then repeated them at Mr. Noor’s resentencing on October 21, 2021. I sent you her initial statement, but I never sent you what she said at the resentencing. Just like in 2019, she began her sentencing remarks with those unanswered questions.
Here is what she said in 2021:
Mr. Noor, I last saw you on July 7, 2019, two years three and a half months ago, and certainly much has changed in the world since then. But I need to read a portion of what I said on that day, because the jurors in this case, citizens of Minneapolis, raised questions then that remain unanswered. On July 7, I said:
The primary concern of the jurors who heard the testimony in this case when I spoke with them after the verdict was: Will there be changes? Change is needed. Will some of these supervising officers be fired or disciplined? Is what we saw normal for the Minneapolis Police Department and the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension? How will this be prevented from happening again? Why are officers more concerned about their personal safety than the safety of the public, especially in such a low-crime neighborhood? Why should a civilian have to be afraid of approaching a squad car? What about the motto on the car door — ‘To serve with compassion’? Why were Mr. Noor and Mr. Harrity so reactive? What was their training? The jurors in this case were particularly concerned with Officer Harrity’s statement that his priority was making sure he did whatever he had to to get home safe each night. Jurors remarked that they thought the priority of the police was supposed to be to protect and serve the public.
No one who heard the testimony in this case or who works in the criminal justice system can question the difficulty of a patrol officer’s job or the dedication of the majority of the police and first responders. But here something went very much awry. The victim’s family and some of the witnesses, including some officers, have expressed concerns. A large amount of taxpayer dollars will go to Australia, but Minneapolis residents await the promised transformation, and the questions of the jurors remain unanswered. What has changed? What will change so that this does not happen again? How does the Department address officer safety without jeopardizing public safety? The jurors and the people of Minneapolis need and deserve answers.
The citizens of Minneapolis have now paid out $47 million in settlements for allegations of police negligence and malfeasance. Since we last met, another person has died at the hands of police after two other rookies responded together in a squad to a low-risk situation which escalated. The community exploded; another police officer has been on trial for murder.
Mayoral aide Jared Jeffries asked me if these were rhetorical questions. If they were, I doubt that Judge Quaintance would have publicly repeated them 27 1/2 months later. And not only repeating them, but also pointing out that the questions “remain unanswered.”
It’s not as if you, the Mayor, and the members of your predecessor Public Safety and Emergency Management Committee have not been made aware of the Judge’s remarks. But still, no one has responded.
What are you waiting for? Another MPD officer-involved killing that should not happen? I asked that question before George Floyd was killed. And just like Judge Quaintance, I am repeating it again. Would someone please raise this issue at your June 22, 2022, meeting?
The jurors in the Mohamed Noor trial, Judge Quaintance, and the residents of Minneapolis — we’re all still waiting.
Yours,
Chuck Turchick
Ward 6
