Down This Road Before

If you're not from Minneapolis, you might have heard of the crime wave that's been sweeping the city - or the fact that Minneapolis' crime has been high for a city its' size for quite some time.

You might not have heard why.

Minneapolis has a "weak mayor, strong council" system; the City Council has much more power than in, say, Saint Paul (Minneapolis has obliged the system by electing a series of very weak mayors - Don Fraser, Sharon Sayles-Belton and now R.T. Rybak).

As a result, things like picking a police chief are inevitably a matter of building painstaking consensus from councilors who, while inevitably rigorously left of center, represent areas and values as diverse as posh Linden Hills, the twitchy West Bank, blue-collar Northeast (outside the newly-boho lower part of the 'hood) and crime-riddled Near North. Which is why the city has had to go outside - to New York for Tony Bouza, Suffolk County (NY) for Bob Olson, and Dayton for Bill McManus. The local special interests develop, it seems, long dossiers on all local cops; by the time they get to senior command level, being squeaky clean (from the special interests' points of view) would be superhuman.

As, indeed, it may have been for Tim Dolan, the latest nominee, who lost a vote at the city's Police/Community Relations Council 10-6:

The concerns were raised about the death of Dominic Felder, who police said died during a struggle after he threatened to kill a neighbor.

The Police Community Relations Council (PCRC) members were concerned that co-chairs of the group had been given information on the shooting that Felder's relatives hadn't yet been told.

Also driving Tuesday's developments was a dispute about how many times Felder was shot.

The family believes that Felder was shot seven times, and Clyde Bellecourt, co-chairman of the PCRC, told community leaders that Dolan said Felder was shot seven times.

However, Dolan disputed that account, saying he told the co-chairmen of the PCRC that Felder had seven wounds, which could include more than one wound per shot. He said that the department is still investigating whether all seven shots fired in the struggle struck Felder. The Hennepin County medical examiner's office has said only that Felder died after being shot multiple times.

On Tuesday night, a spokesman for Rybak said the mayor feels pretty confident that he has enough support to get Dolan through for the full council vote. A majority of council members have informally thrown their support to Dolan.

But at least one of the Executive Committee members said Tuesday that the PCRC's move raises concern.

"The vote is clearly not a good sign," said Council Member Cam Gordon, who remains undecided on Dolan. "The PCRC is an important group."

Cities embody something of the character of their residents. Minneapolis has that Scandinavian passive-aggressive thing in spades.

Posted by Mitch at September 27, 2006 07:42 AM | TrackBack