City leaders, media focus spotlight on �Black leadership� By: Isaac Peterson, III Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder Originally posted 11/5/2003
Divisive critics prompt show of unity
With the state�s recent racial profiling study confirming that Minnesota police do in fact disproportionately target people of color, and with the federal mediation process ongoing, an objective observer might believe that the Minneapolis Police Department would be doing everything in its power to avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing.
That has not proven to be the case.
Several high profile cases concerning allegations of police misconduct and violence have made headlines recently, and are causing emotions to run high, both within and outside of communities of color:
� Bryce Williams � Williams is involved with the Citizens United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB) advocacy group. He was recently arrested and held after participating in a rally at the new jail in downtown Minneapolis on October 25. The arrest came after a previous arrest that was carried out in the middle of the night on reportedly flimsy charges.
� Stephen Porter � Porter was allegedly sexually assaulted by police during a drug raid on October 13.
� Philander Jenkins � Jenkins is also claiming sexual assault by police while in custody on October 4. He and CUAPB activists say he was denied medical treatment for a broken jaw.
� Alfred Flowers and Alisa Clemons � The brother and sister suffered injuries from police during the arrest of Flowers at the Minneapolis Urban League on September 27. Charges were filed, then dropped.
The Minneapolis city attorney, however, has reinstated charges against both for �obstruction of legal process or arrest.� The charge against Flowers is based on an officer�s claim that Flowers �resisted by taking a bladed fighting stance, flailing his arm,� which caused him and the arresting officer to fall to the ground. While on the ground, the complaint continues, Flowers �kept trying to fight and struggle with the officer.�
The charge against Clemons is based on the officer�s claim that she grabbed the officer�s arm �with both hands causing him to lose control of the defendant.�
These incidents, and others that are lesser-known, have exposed more fault lines between communities of color and the police. City government and the mainstream media have been giving many in the community the strong impression that media coverage is being orchestrated for the benefit of city hall.
The federal mediation community negotiating team and others have accused Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak of instigating the reinstatement of charges against Clemons and Flowers for political reasons. When asked about these allegations, Rybak told us, �I have never and will never interfere in the charging decisions of the city attorney�s office. I had no knowledge of the progress of either of these cases [involving Clemons, Flowers, and Porter] until they were reported by the media.� The city attorney�s office did not return our calls by press time.
Rybak had a personal glimpse of the depths of anger smoldering in the community when he attended a forum at Farview Park in North Minneapolis on October 17. Communities of color have felt ignored and neglected by Rybak, and many, including Reverends Randy Staten and Jerry McAfee, let their feelings be known in harsh terms. McAfee and his group stood and walked out of the meeting after castigating Rybak (see City Pages article �Whiter Shade of Pale,� 10/29/03).
The local mainstream media, particularly the Star Tribune, have also come under fire in recent days. The Star Tribune, under even the best of circumstances, is not seen as a credible source of news by communities of color. The staff exacerbated the disconnect with those communities when they published allegations that Stephen Porter had been a police informant.
The reaction to the charges was swift and intense. Horrified and angry community residents have denounced the newspaper�s decision to print the allegations, which many feel were planted by the police department or the Police Federation, and declared that the Star Tribune has �signed Porter�s death sentence.�
An article last week by the Star Tribune�s reader representative concluded that it remains to be seen whether or not the decision to publicize the claim that Porter was an informant was a good one.
We were not successful in obtaining a response from the Star Tribune.
The allegations about Porter closely follow other columns in the Star Tribune which have angered community residents.
Columnist Doug Grow, in particular, has been a trigger of anger in the community. His columns dealing with the problems with the Minneapolis NAACP are felt by many to be uninformed, and to have helped widen the gulf between aggrieved members of the NAACP membership and its leaders.
Of particular concern to many has been Grow�s seeming willingness to parrot whatever claims are made by NAACP leaders, and to cast the dissenters as a �small group of dissidents� led by community activist Ron Edwards. Many feel that Grow�s columns are fueled by a personal dislike of Edwards rather than a desire to illuminate the actual issues, and are not conveying the true dimensions of the problems.
Grow also inflamed many community residents with an October 19 article called �Recipe for community leadership.� In the article, Grow described going to a North Minneapolis barbershop and asking the question, �Do Spike Moss and Randolph Staten speak for you?�
Grow said he heard many positive comments about Moss, but then concluded, �No man provokes more irritation than the Rev. Randolph Staten.� Grow went on to ask, �But doesn�t credibility matter? The man once was treated for chemical addiction, and he�s got a record.�
The column sparked outrage, with a feeling by many that Grow and the Star Tribune are trying to tell the community who its leaders should be.
Staten and Moss have always been visible and vocal, but especially so lately.
Staten�s record has also been addressed several times recently. When Staten helped lead the effort against the appointment of David Jennings to Minneapolis school superintendent, the Star Tribune also came under criticism from communities of color by mentioning his past difficulties.
Rybak has also received his share of charges that he is trying to dictate who communities of color should follow. Community anger was fueled by an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio, where Rybak reportedly criticized community leaders who are the most vocal and visible to the exclusion of those who are doing quiet work in the background.
In response to these types of comments, Moss told us, �You never allow your oppressor to decide how you fight them back.� He went on to say that �If they come at you with knives and you just have rocks, they will criticize you for coming back to them again with knives... It is not up to them to dictate what our response to them should be.�
To charges of acknowledging only certain members of the Black community, Rybak offered this: �Hundreds of people in African American communities are doing the day-to-day tedious work and are not getting the mainstream media attention. These are the leaders I am spending my time with. For example, I spent six hours this week with a diverse group of leaders at the Urban League working on setting priorities for the Empowerment Zone agenda, including investing a million dollars on West Broadway.�
When asked to identify some of these leaders, Rybak�s office provided us with these names: Craig Lewis, Jonathan Palmer, Theresa Carr, Charnaah Caldwell, Willie Dominguez, Don Samuels, Arlene El-Amin, Karen Kelly-Ariwoola, Juan Linares, Xang Vang and Josephine Reed-Taylor.
An aide to Rybak provided us with more names: �Members of the Community Assessment Team [are] Ronald Brandon, Zachary Metoyer, Kenneth Brown, Rita Salone, James Everett, David Jones; a team of hardworking people who are working with members of the community and city leaders to help solve problems. Rita Salone and Kenneth Brown were also selected by the mayor to be civil rights commissioners.�
We were also provided with the names �David Ellis (Project SOAR) � who is in charge of the re-entry project with the Department of Corrections that is helping to reduce recidivism by working with inmates before and after they return to the community for successful re-entry; Reverend [Albert] Gallmon and Brett Buckner [of the Minneapolis NAACP]. Titilayo Bediako, executive director of WE WIN Institute, is doing incredible work with African and African American children within the Minneapolis Public Schools and the community.�
The truth is that there is no such monolithic, single-minded entity called �the African American community.� There are middle-class Blacks (many or most of whom choose not to live in the inner city), Black Republicans, and other subsets of Black people. There exists no Black �hive mind,� except in the minds of many who seek to lump all Blacks together.
Can anyone honestly say that Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, or Colin Powell speak for, or represent �all Black people,� or even those represented by Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or Louis Farrakhan?
And just to remain clear, there is a Black socio-economic �under-class,� an unfortunately large group that has been systematically and deliberately kept at arm�s length from the American Dream. This large group is faceless and voiceless, and we only see those faces or hear those voices when events put them at the head of the line of those vying for media attention. Most often, locally we see those faces represented by the Spike Mosses or Randy Statens.
Consider this: As divisive as Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakhan and others may appear to some, they do speak for someone. If this were not true, they would speak to empty venues without microphones. The same is true for Moss, Staten, and others. As distasteful as some may find what they have to say, they do speak for someone.
And ironically, one thing seems to be clear: Despite what many seem to feel is an attempt by the City of Minneapolis and the local media to divide the African American community, the opposite appears to be occurring. Some who had been critics of Moss, Staten, and others now seem to be standing behind them in an all-too- uncommon show of unity in the face of a larger problem.
Isaac Peterson welcomes reader responses to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Booker T Hodges North side
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