Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 18
Find alternatives for homeless in Minneapolis parks
The tent camps must be restricted, then cleared as soon as possible.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board took a step in the right direction this week by voting to restrict the homeless camps that have spread across several dozen city parks, including two large groupings of tents in Powderhorn Park. During the past several weeks, some of the camps have become havens for drug use, assaults and other illegal conduct. Some became so dangerous that volunteers seeking to help stopped going.
The encampments must be restricted and better managed, with the goal of clearing them altogether as soon as possible.
Board members sensibly dialed back their previous decision to allow the homeless to stay overnight in parks - a move that was a mistake. Parks leaders should have learned from the experience the city had with a sprawling tent community two years ago along the Hiawatha corridor. As that camp expanded, so did problems with violence, drug abuse and predatory behavior that became dangerous and unhealthy for the homeless as well as the surrounding neighborhoods.
The policy approved this week will limit encampments to 20 designated parks with no more than 25 tents each. Volunteers, nonprofit organizations and other entities would have to apply for permits to establish an encampment; those without permits would be cleared. The parks staff is working on which parks could continue to be designated “refuge sites.”
Park Board President Jono Cowgill told an editorial writer that commissioners should have “limited’’ the sites earlier. He said the parks staff will now consider several guidelines when selecting sites, involving such things as proximity to playgrounds and schools and the ability to maintain distance between tents to reduce chances of COVID-19 infections. Parks leaders will continue to work with other government and nonprofit partners to manage the sites, enforce the policy and find more appropriate shelter for those living in camps.
To that end, the city, county, nonprofits and volunteers are making dozens of efforts to help those experiencing homelessness, including setting up hygiene stations and portable toilets, coordinating public health services and delivering food and water. City leaders say they will have additional shelter space available in the coming months. This month the city and county issued a $14 million request for proposals using emergency federal funding for shelter, outreach, rapid rehousing and homelessness prevention.
While there were once tents at 40 parks, now the homeless are in 30 parks, according to the Park Board’s latest count. The Powderhorn sites also have shrunk, from a high of 560 tents to just over 300. City estimates report that between 800 and 1,000 people are homeless and living outdoors in Minneapolis.
David Hewitt, director of Hennepin County’s Office to End Homelessness, said the county’s goal is to get people out of tents and into shelters or more stable housing. He said the county has rooms available for families, as well as some shelter beds for single adults. But there still aren’t enough spaces to meet the needs.
Hewitt said the housing crisis has only been compounded by COVID-19 and the recent civil unrest in Minneapolis. And two imminent events may add to the problems: the emergency ban on evictions may soon be lifted, and additional federal unemployment payments are expected to end this month. Hewitt added that the needed outreach work involves building relationships and engaging with the homeless one-on-one to assess their individual situations and connect them with the services they need to move indoors.
While allowing the homeless to stay in city parks was well-intended, it still caused more problems that it solved. Park Board Commissioner Londel French, who has worked nearly daily at the Powderhorn encampments, said the board “may have bitten off a little bit more than we can chew” by allowing the homeless camps.
“Everybody decided to write these folks off, and we tried to do the right thing. Lord knows I tried, the neighbors tried, volunteers tried,” he said. “But now we have a situation where people aren’t safe … .’’
Minneapolis’ award-winning public parks are not campgrounds, and are not designed or equipped for use as outdoor living quarters. The multiple needs of those experiencing homelessness cannot be effectively met in tent encampments. For the health and safety of both the tent dwellers and the communities around them, the homeless must be moved out of the parks and into more appropriate shelters as soon as possible.
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The Free Press of Mankato, July 19
Symbols of Racism: MSU’s “Baton of Honor” must be eliminated
Why it matters: MSU’s baton award for law enforcement students carries a negative racial narrative that casts a shadow on the program.
Police batons have been used throughout U.S. history to beat striking workers, struggling immigrants and civil rights protesters.
But it’s a symbol of honor and recognition for students in Minnesota State University’s law enforcement program, the biggest law enforcement program in the state. MSU’s “Baton of Honor” award is given to high-achieving law enforcement students each year.
We believe the Baton of Honor should be vanquished from a program that must reshape its culture to one where use of a baton should never be the goal.
The police baton is a symbol of racism and injustice, and it shouldn’t be glorified. While law enforcement literature calls it a defensive weapon to presumably fend off striking workers or civil rights protesters, the literature notes its many offensive capabilities including lethal blows to the head.
The Free Press asked MSU leaders for the history of the baton and its purpose as a student award. Professor Pat Nelson, chair of the Department of Government, told us through a spokesman that she wasn’t aware of the history, but faculty was going to “discuss that award and whether it still has a place in the program.”
We would argue the award and its symbolism has no place in a modern-day law enforcement program. We would urge MSU, its alumni and its community stakeholders to come together and reject it.
The standard police baton, according to industry literature, has a higher “risk of lethality” than stun guns or pepper spray, meaning it can be more deadly than both. It was most popular in the 1800s England and 1900s America as the “billy club.” But the baton has also fallen out of regular use since new technology such as stun guns have come online.
The baton is repugnant as a symbol of force and racism and not acceptable as a useful tool in the new world of public safety and community security.
MSU’s Baton of Honor also does a disservice to the many good students in the program who have been recognized in the past. Recognition through a “special baton” should not be something coveted by a modern-day law enforcement student.
And while an academic program should be more concerned with best practices than best publicity, one cannot ignore the narrative that comes with a former “baton” winner being charged with manslaughter after a routine police stop and the killing of a person of color.
That was the case with MSU graduate Jeronimo Yanez in the Philando Castile killing in 2016, where Yanez was acquitted of manslaughter after he shot Castile multiple times for what was a routine traffic stop gone bad. Yanez was fired shortly after he was acquitted.
The case for removing the Baton of Honor as an academic plaudit is overwhelming. MSU should do away with it.
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St. Cloud Times, July 17
America’s next rising pandemic: misinformation
America is seemingly being attacked from all sides. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic downturn and surge in unemployment and a national reckoning with centuries of racial injustice, there is barely a wall to have our backs against.
And yet, because the year 2020 has zero quit, another disease is spreading across America: misinformation.
An infodemic - as aptly called by the World Health Organization - is spreading like a virus on social media.
False claims, specifically around the effectiveness of preventative measures like wearing face masks, spread from person to person quickly if we don’t take the time to fact check and confirm.
A mask is intended to trap droplets that are released when the wearer talks, coughs or sneezes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Asking everyone to wear a mask can help reduce the spread of the virus by people who have COVID-19 but don’t realize it.
According to the CDC, face coverings provide source control - that is, they help prevent the person wearing the mask from spreading COVID-19 to others. The main protection individuals gain from masking occurs when others in their communities also wear face coverings.
While COVID-19 is still relatively new and not everything is known about the infection, we do know there are a few simple steps we can take to try to limit its spread:
Stay home if you feel sick, wash your hands regularly, practice social distancing and wear masks when inside and when social distancing is not possible.
And no, you won’t harm yourself by wearing a mask - as many false social media posts are claiming. We know there are some people who are negatively impacted by wearing one (and many mask mandates have made exemptions for people with health conditions that are adverse to mask-wearing).
As we have said in previous weeks’ editorials, these are simple steps proven to minimize the spread of COVID-19. Adhering to them shows you care about the health of your fellow Americans.
If wearing a mask is such a big deal, why didn’t we mandate them right away? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says health officials didn’t know the extent to which people with COVID-19 could spread the virus before symptoms appeared, or that people could be positive for COVID-19 while not displaying any symptoms.
And again, please don’t get sucked into some useless debate about how they do or don’t make a political statement. The recent flood of conspiracy theories, hoaxes and falsehoods can mislead or even harm people if they are taken for truth.
The director of the CDC said earlier this week the coronavirus surge could be controlled in 4-6 weeks if people were disciplined about wearing masks.
But others - non medical professionals, pundits and conspiracy theorists - are determined to spread misinformation claiming otherwise faster than the virus.
Take the time to fact check information and don’t spread lies that can prove to be just as deadly as a virus.
And please, wash your hands and just wear the damn mask.
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