Minneapolis police push IP out of meeting room
A party official says he was told the group couldn't use the 5th Precinct house as a base for distributing materials.
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Share on DiggBefore Saturday, the Independence Party had used the community room in the Minneapolis Police Department's 5th Precinct headquarters dozens of times, party official Peter Tharaldson said.
But Saturday, the party was booted from the room.
Tharaldson, the chair of the party in the Fifth Congressional District, said the party was told that it couldn't use the room to distribute lawn signs and leaflets calling for the hiring of more cops.
Party officials wound up doing so from cars on a nearby street.
"Pretty much every officer that I talked to was embarrassed by it," he said. Tharaldson said that he was told by Inspector Kris Arneson that the directive had come from Police Chief Tim Dolan.
Arneson said Monday that the buck stops with her, but that she would not have approved use of the room for distributing political materials had she known of it in advance. She said the party could have used the room for meetings but not distributing materials.
"Having it here gives the appearance of tacit endorsement of the activity or political event," she said. Arneson said that the department is developing a new policy for political use of department space.
The party has reserved the community room dozens of times for such meetings as caucuses and endorsing conventions, Tharaldson said. He said it distributed material for congressional candidate Tammy Lee from the room in 2006.
It doesnt strike me as the most brilliant thing to do from a public relations standpoint, Tharaldson said. Ive been told theres probably some First Amendment issues involved.
The hire-more-cops effort has particular political sensitivity because the Independence and Republican parties are uniting to put pressure on DFL Mayor R.T. Rybak. Their campaign calls on Rybak to hire 50 more cops to hit the 893-officer level budgeted for 2007.
Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438
Steve Brandt • sbrandt@startribune.com
