•••
Good people of Rochester, as a former Animal Care and Control supervisor for the city of Minneapolis I have handled many nuisance crow complaints (“City takes aim at murder of crows,” Nov. 20). My research found these facts: Crows are protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. law. You need a permit to kill crows and prove they are a nuisance, which does not include mobbing during migration, roosting or mate selection between clans. Crow poop does not meet the definition of “nuisance.”
Crow facts: Crows are essential to cleaning up urban offal — think dead squirrels. Crows have a language of a wide variety of calls, tweets, etc. Crows live in extended families of lifelong mating pairs, elders, uncles, aunts and cousins. Crows do not breed until they are 2-4 years of age and the whole group works together to keep the young and old alive. Crows need to figure out how to mate. This behavior is as comical as your first kiss.
I once had to remove crows and kill them as part of my job. That still haunts me.
Nancy Przymus, Minneapolis
POLICING
Hindsight is 20/20
We support Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s decision not to resign and Mayor Jacob Frey’s decision to stick with the current public safety leadership team in the wake of the tragic near-fatal shooting of Davis Moturi (“O’Hara insists he’s here to stay,” Nov. 16). Leadership transitions result in lost momentum in changing the culture of the Minneapolis Police Department, and we have recent examples: the resignation of Chief Janee Harteau after former officer Mohamed Noor killed Justine Damond and the retirement of her replacement, Chief Medaria Arradondo, after the conviction of former officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. Both were good chiefs and reformers, but they lacked what we have now: reform efforts that are backed by a court-approved settlement agreement and monitor, and a police chief with deep experience garnering community support to transform police department culture under a consent decree.
Minneapolis’ revitalized public safety leadership, from Public Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette to Chief O’Hara, are committed to transforming the MPD into a race-neutral police force that prioritizes de-escalation over use of force and that takes special care with mentally ill suspects like John Sawchak. The alleged tragic shooting of Moturi by Sawchak shows the challenge of getting these priorities right in real time on the street, and it is appropriately under independent investigation.