THE VOICE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY SINCE 1934
September 10-16, 2020 Vol. 87 No. 6
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Serving the Community for Years
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“AS IT WAS SPOKEN ... LET US RECORD.”
Labor Day highlights struggles of Black workers
Widespread demands for change could rejuvenate organized labor
News Analysis By Mel Reeves Contributing writer
Courtesy MGN
A
ugust Nimtz, professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, said, “Labor Day was a sobering reminder for all workers, especially those in black skin, of what it means to lack a government and political system that serves their interests. “Friday’s job numbers revealed what they already knew: The greatest crisis since the Great Depression is knocking at the door. While White unemployment was at seven percent, for Blacks it was 14 percent. For Black teenagers it was 25%, a bit less than twice that of White teenagers. The latter numbers go a long way in explaining what took place two weeks ago on Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall. It won’t get better,” said Nimtz. Labor Day came in a year
The MSR recently took to the streets to gather the perspectives Since the police killing of of community members about George Floyd in Minneapolis on policing. We asked these quesMay 25, the issue of policing has tions: Are you in favor of disbeen a hot-button topic in Min- mantling the Minneapolis Police neapolis and across the nation Department? What’s your viwith calls to reform or dismantle sion for community policing? Read the reflections below the police. The uptick in violent crime this summer has only in- and join the conversation in our tensified discussions around the online comments. issue. By Nikki Love/MSR News
Courtesy MGN that has been filled with efforts by those who work for a living to get a bigger slice of the economic pie they produce for employers. This was especially true of Black workers, and this effort has been coupled with calls for racial justice on the job and in society, especially as it relates
to the police violence that continues to plague the Black community. While the U.S. has designated during the COVID pandemic that certain workers are essential because the nation could not function without them, there was no corresponding effort to protect
these workers. Nor were there offers to better compensate them until some took matters into their own hands and threatened and even carried out strikes. An outsized percentage of these “essential” workers are Black, which puts them at greater risk of falling ill from ■See LABOR DAY on page 5
St. Paul experiments with guaranteed incomes 150 families to be selected for 18-month pilot MSR News Services On September 3, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter signed Executive Order 2020-24 authorizing the creation of the People’s Prosperity Pilot, Saint Paul’s Guaranteed Income Demonstration Program. Led by the Office of Financial Empowerment, the People’s Prosperity Pilot will provide up to 150 Saint Paul families with $500 per month in guaranteed income for a period of up to 18 months. The projected budget of up to $1.5 million will be supported through a combination of the Mayors for Guaranteed Income national network, philanthropy, and City of Saint Paul CARES funds. Households will be randomly selected from CollegeBound Saint Paul, a college savings account program. Saint Paul families from the city’s most racially diverse and
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter MSR file photo lowest wealth neighborhoods. Cash payments to participants are expected to start this fall. “More than ever before, this economic crisis has pushed families into crisis, struggling to maintain basic necessities for their children,” said Mayor Melvin Carter. “This demonstration pilot is an exciting new approach to support our most vulnerable families while helping build the
case for permanent guaranteed income programs at state and federal levels.” “The divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ has never been more clearly on display,” said St. Paul City Council President Amy Brendmoen. “In our rich, developed nation, billionaire employers hire people at poverty wages and government programs are errantly designed to keep people stuck in lowwage jobs with no path upward. “I am proud that leadership in Saint Paul continues to create innovative ways to break cycles of poverty,” Brendmoen said. “The guaranteed income pilot program gives us an opportunity to directly impact our most vulnerable community members by leveraging private partnerships and non-local funding sources. It is my hope that this 18-month test will demonstrate a new approach that can be taken to a broader level.”
“A guaranteed income for Saint Paul families who are struggling more than ever is an essential step for the stability our residents deserve,” said Ward 4 Councilmember Mitra Jalali. “Our city has the chance to both help our residents in a crisis and contribute to national research that could restructure a more fair economy for all.” The Office of Financial Empowerment will randomly select from families enrolled in CollegeBound Saint Paul families located in the 55104, 55106, 55119 and 55117 St. Paul zip codes. Of the more than 1,800 families already enrolled in CollegeBound Saint Paul, more than 1,000 households are in these zip codes. These areas have been identified as neighborhoods that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, as defined by unemployment insurance claims and cost-burdened households from a report conducted
Aaliyah A.
We should defund the police because they are not protecting us. The money is for protection, but when the police pull up on the scene, we are not protected. I took criminal justice classes, and the police are supposed to come to serve and protect. The police instead are serving against us. When police start serving and protecting, we can then go from there. Fix how the police are being trained and check their
backgrounds. Make sure the new hires are actually coming to serve and protect, not coming to get power.
Tyrone W. All police officers are not bad, therefore I don’t think the whole department should be dismantled. I believe those who want to be police officers should have to go through a thorough background check, have more intense training and psychological evaluation. There are a lot of things that I am not in favor of dis- are missing in training the pomantling the police depart- lice, and we need to figure out ment. I do believe there needs what is missing. Stay strong! to be some changes.
Alicia S. I’m not in favor of defunding the police in this current state. Violent crimes are being inflicted upon my people by my people, I mean the African American descendants of the slaves. But I am in favor of transforming the police department.
■See INCOME on page 5
■See WORD ON THE STREET on page 5
Police ill-equipped to deal with mentally ill Too often police encounters with those in crisis end in death suffered from mental health problems, had run almost naked out of his Rochester, New York house into the snow. When offiWhen Joe Prude called the cers arrived, new video footage police on his brother, he was ask- shows, the March 23 encounter ing for help: Daniel Prude, who quickly turned violent. Prude died from asphyxiation under a hood officers had put over his head. Little more than a year ago, Kobe DimockHeisler was shot and killed by Brooklyn Center police. Dimock-Heisler was experiencing a mental health crisis at the time when police responded to a “disturbance call” that ended in his death. Two years prior, in 2018, Shukri Ali Said of Georgia also wound up dead after leaving her house during a mental health crisis on April 23. PRST STD U.S.POSTAGE PAID TWIN CITIES MN PERMIT NO. 6391
By Jennifer Sarrett Contributing writer
Police, called in to help, found Said standing at an intersection holding a knife. Officers shot her five times in the neck and chest, killing her. That same month, in New York, officers answered a 911 call about a Black man waving something that looked like a gun. In fact, it was a pipe. But when Saheed Vassell, a 34-year-old father with mental illness who was well known in his Brooklyn community, pointed it at police, they shot him dead. Prude, Dimock-Heisler Vassell and Said are among the hundreds of people with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses in the United States who are killed by police every year. According to The Washington Post, 197 of the 999 people shot by police in 2019 had a mental illness. A Star Tribune survey found that in Minnesota, out of 183 fatal
police shootings in the state from a mental health crisis at the time first responders in cases of men2000 until June 2019, at least 75 of of the shooting. tal health crises in the United Police are almost always the States, as they are in criminal and those shot had a history of mental illness or were in the midst of ■See MENTALLY ILL on page 5