Posts about Public safety
Suspicious visitor prompts Washburn lockdown
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: February 27, 2013 - 1:49 PM
Washburn High School was placed on lockdown status and most after-school activities were canceled on Tuesday when a suspicious person showed up to inquire about the January doll-hanging incident.
Sgt. William Palmer said that an incident report said the man had a scarf over his face, and attempted to walk past school security personnel at a school entrance. The incident was reported at 10:38 a.m., but the man was gone when police arrived, Palmer said.
The school declared a code yellow alert, meaning that students were kept in classes without passes, doors were locked, and visitors were screened to allow only students and staff into the building.
The school canceled all after-school activities except for a basketball game, and students were asked to go directly home, according to a message the school sent to parents.
The visit followed an incident in which a small group of students were involved in the stringing up of a dark-skinned doll in a school stairway, and a larger group looked on before the school intervened. That incident sparked community indignation and an all-community meeting.
Federal recognition sought for Lee house
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: February 26, 2013 - 4:43 PM
Two marchers sang at the 2011 commemoration
The Arthur Lee house in south Minneapolis, the site of one of the more horrific racial episodes in the annals of the city, may get national recognition.
A team of students at the University has done extensive research on an episode involving the reaction of white neighbors when the black family of Arthur and Edith Lee moved into the house at E.. 46th Street and Columbus Avenue S. in 1931. Now a nomination for the National Register of Historic Places is being prepared.
The Lees move into their house turned out a mob of several thousand whites for several nights running that forced the city to summon police for their protection. The Lees stuck out the situation for about a year before moving. That history was commemorated in the 2011 dedication of a marker in the yard of the modest frame house.
Greg Donofrio, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, said his 36 students extended their research net well beyond the house and incident to try to capture the broader racial history of the area. Donofrio, who directs the heritage conservation and preservation program at the university, was contacted for research help by Stearline Rucker, president of the Field Regina Northrop Neighborhood Group.
Teams from the class looked into the history of the house and those who occupied it, but also looked more broadly at such themes as school integration, public life, home ownership and how the incident was covered in mainstream and black-owned newspapers. They inter viewed area elders about significant developments in the area’s racial relations.
Edith and Arthur Lee
With the support of Council Members Elizabeth Glidden and John Quincy, the neighborhood and Donofrio got a $4,200 state Legacy Fund grant through the Minnesota Historical Society to draft the nomination. Donofrio expects that draft by late spring.
“It’s really very exciting for us in the community,” Rucker said. She said that some of the research portrayed in displays by the students could be used in area schools.
Donofrio said that that although addition to the national register would bring recognition to the property and the events around it, another step would be to pursue local designation. That brings actual protections and restrictions on how the property may be altered.
The house’s elderly owner, Pearl Lindstrom, said she’s hoping the designations can be accomplished while she’s still kicking.
Beaten Henry student admitted to Hopkins
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: February 22, 2013 - 5:04 PM
Gary Vang
Star Tribune readers learned Friday about the travails of Gary Vang, the Patrick Henry High School junior who was set upon by two young men at a bus stop on his way home from school. He’s been suffering from a symptoms of a concussion since the Jan. 28 attack.
Vang got some good news Friday morning. His mother, Kia Thao, got a call saying the 16-year-old has been admitted to Hopkins High School, starting March 22, when that school’s fourth quarter begins.
That’s good news to Thao and Vang because it means he no longer needs to use his student pass to ride the Metro Transit bus to Henry. Vang was attacked at a bus stop on his way home from school.
Hopkins will provide school bus service to his new school. The loss of school bus service in Minneapolis has been opposed by some Hmong parents whose students attend Henry because they fear unprovoked attacks, such as groping of female students on buses or the beating Vang sustained.
Vang is the third of Thao’s children to be accepted to Hopkins under the Choice is Yours program, which allows low-income Minneapolis students to bus to suburban schools. Each student lost to the suburbs means thousands of dollars less in state aid for Minneapolis.
Thao said she hopes that the switch will mean her son is safer. She said another son, who will switch to Hopkins in the fall, worries daily about whether he’ll need to ride the bus or be able to get a ride from a family member.
Thao said she was told by a contact in the Hopkins district that normally it doesn’t admit students during the school year. Hopkins district officials didn’t return Star Tribune calls on why they admitted Vang.
Community organizer Jay Clark said the Minneapolis district rushed the introduction of Metro Transit service for Henry students. “By not listening and by not asking people their opinions first they set themselves up for this,” he said of the transfer.
Officer Mike scores big with Laney students
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: February 12, 2013 - 3:32 PM
Officer Mike Kirchen with President Barack Obama
Officer Mike Kirchen has always tried to cultivate a close relationship with the students at Lucy Craft Laney Community School, but his stock with them definitely rose after he was seated next to Barack Obama during the president’s visit last week.
Kirchen’s seat on the president’s right was captured in a Star Tribune photo that appeared the day after the North Side presidential visit.
Kirchen was included in the closed discussion of youth violence in large part because of his assignment as a school resource officer at Laney, or SRO. The 16 SROs stationed in Minneapolis schools are Minneapolis cops whose official purpose is to keep the school safe. But most of their time is spent cultivating relationships with students.
Or as Kirchen put it, ““I really wanted to get across that a really small part of our job is writing tickets and bringing kids down to juvenile.” He tries to let students know cops as something other than a siren-blaring presence racing down the streets of the North Side by building relationships with them. He’s a bike cop in the summer and checks in with some students at home to see how they’re faring.
The day before Obama arrived, Kirchen had been in the room in a police training facility in the former Hamilton school, and noticed his preferred seating spot. That dashed his hopes of keeping a low profile during the ensuing discussion of youth violence, where Minneapolis officials told Obama about strategies they’ve employed to cut youth violence by 40 percent.
Fortunately, Kirchen is used to spending time around elected officials after spending six years as Mayor R.T. Rybak’s bodyguard. The room consisted mostly of federal, state and local officials, and although there were also police brass there, Rybak put Kirchen at greater ease by pointing out that he was closer to the streets than anyone in the room. Kirchen described his work, and told Obama it should be replicated across the nation.
His appearance in a photo next to Obama caused a sensation at the school, where even students too young to correctly pronounce Obama’s name know who he is. So Kirchen is making the rounds of classrooms to talk about the experience. He said the kids, sometimes squirmy even when there’s a canine patrol dog visiting, are rapt. “The kids are captivated. They just listen. It’s just amazing,” he said.
Because he knew he’d be seated next to Obama, Kirchen brought a Sharpie pen and after the session broke up, asked the president to sign Kirchen’s name card with the White House insignia. That spawned several other requests, and Kirchen said Obama gave him a mock see-what-you’ve-started look. As Obama was turning to leave, Kirchen had one more request” “Mr. President, I need that pen back.”
Now it’s a souvenir for Kirchen’s three children, ages 12 to 16. Kirchen, 47, is a 21-year department veteran who has also done patrol in the Third Precinct, walked a downtown beat, and been on the SWAT team. But he’s well known for the bike work he does with other officers in the summer on the North Side, which includes giving out helmets, and even awarding bikes to kids he catches using those helmets. It's called Bike Cops for Kids.
Police: Gun incidents rose in 2012
Posted by: Eric Roper Updated: February 12, 2013 - 3:02 PMBy Matt McKinney
A police measure of citywide gunplay showed a slight rise in the number of incidents last year, the first time that’s happened in at least five years, according to new analysis from the Minneapolis Police Department.
The finding, released Tuesday in a city report, said police responded to 1,335 incidents involving guns last year. The police took that count by searching their records for all incidents in which a person was shot or shot at, reported a gunshot wound, reported the discharge of a weapon, or otherwise reported that a gun was used.
The rise amounts to a 3.4 percent increase over the previous year, when 1,290 such incidents were reported. That number stood at 1,978 in 2007 and had been steadily dropping until last year.
News of the rise comes one week after President Obama stopped in Minneapolis to praise local efforts to reduce gun violence.
More broadly, serious crime rose in Minneapolis last year for the third consecutive year. The number of people shot remained nearly unchanged from a year ago, with 220 reported in 2012 compared to 221 in 2011.
Those numbers do not equal the number of homicides reported in the city since many of those victims survived. The city saw 391 people shot in 2006, with the number of victims mostly falling since then.
Faced with a rise in serious crime in the past three years, city officials have emphasized that overall crime levels remain at historic lows, with overall violent crime (a subset of serious crime) at its second-lowest level since 1983.
ADVERTISEMENT
recent posts
- Markham-Cousins assigned to jail school
- Poland to Chihuahua, they seek Council seats
- Minneapolis, St. Paul snag boost in state aid
- State gives city new tool to fund streetcars
- State will help pay $33M in Minneapolis library debt
- Washburn principal will return for commencement
- Vacant theater in Uptown will likely be retail space
- Minneapolis schools reject million-dollar offer for Shingle Creek School
- First Somali mayoral forum set for May 31
- Police seek tips on McKinley arson string
- Proposal would tweak voter intent guidelines
- Bread challenge highlights strange city rules
- City Hall to open early for gay marriages
- Zipcar expands Minneapolis operations
- Anatomy of a gun seizure that wasn't
- Minneapolis approves bringing car sharing to the streets
- From pothole, Winton slams city road conditions
- Fourth council member leaves convention without DFL nod
- Portland and Park Avenue bridges to close for the summer
Post By Category
- New home prices rise at strongest rate on record
- Lessons From Moore, Oklahoma Tornado (tracking a partly-nice holiday weekend)
- Opening Belz, May 23
- Renting better than buying in the Twin Cites?
- State gives city new tool to fund streetcars
- Lessons from a Tornado Tragedy (best apps for keeping you safe during life-threatening weather)
- Moss & Barnett to relocate to Fifth Street Towers
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
inside the StarTribune
-
425 Portland Av. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55488
(612) 673-4000
- Company
- Subscriber Services
- Website
- Buy Ads
- Store
- Connect with Us
© 2013 StarTribune. All rights reserved.
StarTribune.com is powered by Limelight Networks
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters