Legislators, we need catalytic-converter help

While it is gratifying to see that the St. Paul City Council has addressed the issue of catalytic converter thefts, for myself and many others it is too little and too late.

In the middle of last year my car’s converter was stolen while the vehicle was in a locked, underground apartment garage. Later, my RV’s one was taken while it was in a locked, fenced storage lot.

Since these thefts were not in St. Paul, I don’t think this city ordinance would help.

As suggested in the Jan. 20 article, it is hoped that the state will also investigate this problem.

Also, why haven’t the insurance companies made complaints about the lack of laws concerning these thefts?

Alinda Wengenroth, Inver Grove Heights

 

Where the blame belongs

Why do the media blame the president for issues he has no control over? If the Republicans were really interested in preserving our democracy, they would be on board to support the nation’s voting integrity. Evidence of changing voting laws to disenfranchise voters in 19 states is very well known. If they wanted to make sure that we retain our right to vote they would be supporters of the bills.

The two Democrats who oppose ditching the filibuster are not the fault of the president. It seems no matter how much he pleads to change their position they seem to believe the Republicans will come around and negotiate. It isn’t going to happen. And when the Republicans take charge of congress, they will certainly get rid of the filibuster because it will suit their needs.

When you have a public that is brainwashed by pundits and the former president and his political allies concerning vaccines and masking against the procedures, the fault is not Biden’s. The opponents talk about the rights of the individual and are certainly not concerned about the health of the nation’s citizens.

The media should put the blame where it belongs.

Gary Spooner, Cottage Grove

 

Plowing problems

On Friday Jan. 14 we received a snowfall of over 3 inches. The snow emergency routes were plowed but not the side streets.

On Tuesday night, Jan. 18, at 11 p.m. a snowplow came through, four days after the snow fell.

Because no one was notified cars weren’t moved so after the plow came large ridges of snow surrounded the vehicles. Imagine if that is a vehicle belonging to a nurse or doctor attempting to go to work the next morning.

Are we saving money with this “new” snow removal plan? Paying someone to plow at 11 p.m.? Waiting four days after a storm for plow service?

My taxes are going up. Could things maybe improve? Someone in charge needs to address this ineptitude.

Carol Dey, St. Paul

I asked a veteran Minneapolis cop of color recently what he thought of Medaria Arradondo’s tenure as police chief.

“He underwhelmed,” said the cop. “I expected more.”

I got a different take from another police officer I know, also of color.

“He was good. He tried,” said the officer. “With the police union and political resistance, no one person can reform a culture that in many cases needs to change.”

And that pretty much sums up the major camps of views on Arradondo, 54, a South Minneapolis native, 32-year police veteran and divorced father of two who announced last month that he would not seek a third term as chief. His last day in office was Jan.15.

Most newly appointed police chiefs in recent years, particularly those of color, have been promoted or elevated to the top in response to high-profile police-involved shootings, excessive-force incidents or other crises that have further frayed trust between police and communities of color. It is not that surprising that a spate of them — from Dallas to Seattle to Sacramento to now Minneapolis — have left the job in the past two years.

But arguably few have faced more challenges in a short time — the George Floyd murder, a destructive riot, a rise in violent crime, a manpower shortage and a wave of cops retiring early or leaving the force in the midst of a pandemic — than “Chief Rondo.”

He became the first Black chief in the department’s 155-year history following the July 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk, a white woman, by a cop of Somali descent. Public outrage and demands for accountability and substantial police reform both locally and nationally reached an unprecedented crescendo in May 2020 after the world witnessed Derek Chauvin snuffing out the life of Floyd at the corner of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue — just a few blocks from where Arradondo grew up and first dreamed of becoming a cop in his hometown.

If Chauvin and the MPD became the face of police brutality in America, Arradondo became at that moment the face of the progressively minded police chief in America. He reached out personally to Floyd’s relatives. He knelt in reverence and lowered his hat as Floyd’s casket passed by. He testified against one of his own at the Chauvin murder trial and he may potentially do so again in St. Paul in the federal civil rights trial of the three other former Minneapolis cops charged in Floyd’s death.

He also tussled with a city council that resisted his efforts to hire more police officers and that also backed a controversial plan to essentially eliminate the police department in its present form and replace it with a vaguely detailed Department of Public Safety. A majority of Minneapolis voters rejected that plan at the ballot box in November, by a 56 percent to 44 percent margin. Some critics of the chief lambasted him for “campaigning in uniform” and partly blamed his public opposition to the proposed change for its failure at the ballot box.

He has received some praise for, among other steps, revising rules limiting high-speed pursuit chases that have resulted in deaths, eliminating low-level marijuana police stings, banning neck- and choke-hold restraints, and calling for a need to tweak union contract and arbitration agreements that in his view make it difficult to discipline officers.

Yet some Black community members and activists who aggressively lobbied for Arradondo to be named chief four years ago have expressed disappointment that he did not do enough to rein in or boot out problem cops like Chauvin. They point out the group of SWAT cops seen and heard on body-camera videos during the riots “hunting” for protesters in an unmarked white van. In one incident captured on surveillance video, they fired rubber bullets at and kicked and punched a protester, Jaleel Stallings, a St. Paul truck driver and Army veteran, after Stallings fired his licensed firearm at the van in self-defense. Stallings, who said he was not aware that the shooters inside the vehicle were cops and feared they might be white-supremacist vigilantes, was charged with several counts of attempted murder. He was acquitted in October after a jury trial. He has filed a civil lawsuit against a city that has paid out a combined $47 million alone in out-of-court settlements in the Ruszczyk and Floyd deaths.

Although an internal affairs probe was launched, none of the cops in the Stallings case have reportedly faced any discipline. There are also underway separate city and federal civil rights probes into whether the Minneapolis Police Department historically engaged and still now engages in a pattern of discrimination and excessive force. The results of those probes, including a possible consent decree, could lead to substantial reform changes.

But Arradondo’s popularity with most residents, particularly those who live in neighborhoods most affected by a surge in homicides not seen in a generation and other violent crime, is without question.

A Star Tribune poll conducted last September found that more than half of Minneapolitan respondents had an unfavorable view of the scandal-scarred department. Yet, only 22 percent had an unfavorable view of Arradondo.