After A Week Of Violent Threats, Minneapolis City Council Postpones Violence Prevention Proposal

After A Week Of Violent Threats, Minneapolis City Council Postpones Violence Prevention Proposal

More animosity was among city council members and community members on Thursday.

After a contentious, days-long debate over the future of violence intervention services, Minneapolis City Council on Thursday voted to delay any decision on shifting group violence intervention programs to Hennepin County.

The council has been considering temporarily moving some of its policing alternatives to the county, alleging concerns over fraud, wasteful spending, and lack of oversight of the city's Neighborhood Safety Department (NSD), which is led by Minneapolis Public Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette.

Threats at Monday meeting

Tensions have been high dating back to Monday, when Rev. Jerry McAfee, a pastor at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, made threats of violence as he interjected during a budget committee meeting.

McAfee is the founder nonprofit violence prevention group 21 Days of Peace, which the Star Tribune reports has received $3 million in Legislature-directed funding in recent years, while his church won a $300,000 contract from the city to carry out a de-escalation initiative.

During Monday's meeting, McAfee angrily addressed the council and criticized them for not taking his phone calls, before saying: "Maybe you all have not tasted the blood. I need you to get your fire back for why you ran in the first place and take care of our people ... I’m out there doing funerals. I’m out there on the block.”

After the live feed was cut to the chamber, McAfee accused council member Jason Chavez, who is gay, of acting like a girl, and accused council member Robin Wonsley of corruption.

He then proceeded to say "The way you lookin’ at me, if you wanna come behind that podium, you do it. I guarantee, I guarantee you will regret it ... I got 40 years of shit in me from seeing my people die."

When asked if that was a threat, McAfee said: "I don’t make threats, I make promises," and said if he was to be removed from the chamber, his "people" would come.

On a Facebook Live stream on Tuesday, McAfee said that he would keep things peaceful at Thursday's meeting, but he also suggested violence to some with the following statement:

"Rev. McAfee ain't hit nobody, I ain't shot nobody. However, I will if I have to. I don't want to. I'm not going to bother anybody, but I'm going to fight for my people."

The proposal to shift violence interruption programs

The "corruption" of which McAfee was accusing Wonsley referred to the proposal to move some of the city's group violence intervention (GVI) programs – which target known, high-risk individuals – to the county.

Wonsley said this proposal followed several complaints received by the council regarding the NSD, citing understaffing that followed "mass resignations," delays in payments on contracts, and a whistleblower alleging fraud and waste within the department.

"Despite the Frey administration being aware of council members’ concerns, NSD continued to operate in ways that raised significant concerns," Wonsley alleged in a letter Wednesday. "This concerning pattern of mismanagement, accompanied with lack of data on outcomes for almost two years, demonstrated that the department was currently unfit to properly administer public safety services."

If the proposal put before the council had been passed, it would have sent $1.13 million to Hennepin County, and task the county with administering the city's Group Violence Intervention and Youth Group Violence Intervention Programs.

The Ward 2 councilor also accused McAfee of making threats towards the council, both at the meeting held on Monday and later publicly via social media, which prompted heightened security at Thursday's meeting.

On Thursday, McAfee was in attendance with members of the 21 Days of Peace organization. After the council ultimately decided to postpone the vote, he thanked the council on his Facebook account.

"I want to thank the city council for tabling and postponing the transfer of those funds to the county. And thank you to the community for your support," he said.

The proposal has been opposed by several council members, as well as Public Safety Commissioner Barnette.

During the meeting on Thursday, some council members — including Ward 12's Aurin Chowdhury — accused Barnette of providing misinformation to media outlets that led to the corruption accusations.

"I do think misinformation is going on, and that’s what we’re trying to get to the bottom of, because it has inflamed this community, and it has led to threats," Chowdhury said. "This has just gotten way out of hand."

Council President Elliott Payne echoed this, saying the Frey Administration should work with the council rather than endangering members "by making false accusations."

"This conversation has gotten completely out of control and is simply distracting from the current issue at hand, which is a continued failure of the Neighborhood Safety Department to correctly administer programs that keep our residents safe," Wonsley said, adding while she was willing to postpone a resolution to the issue, she will continue to use her authority in maintain criticism of the department.

Council member LaTrisha Vetaw, one of Mayor Jacob Frey's allies on the council, defended McAfee's comments, and said she herself had felt threatened in the past only for no action to be taken by the council. She also said that no data exists to support moving the funding to the county and that the council needs to do the work in identifying that.

The withdrawal of the motion to GVI funding to the county indefinitely was unanimously approved in a vote.

SOURCE: Bring Me The News