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When St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter selected Axel Henry as the city's new police chief after a nationwide search last November, I had high hopes the popular internal candidate would be able to bring together residents and other key stakeholders to address rising public safety concerns in the midst of an unrelenting and unprecedented violent crime wave that has swept across our capital city.
Sadly, my hopes were dashed within weeks after Henry announced his 12-member senior leadership team, which includes four women, including one Latina, but no African Americans or other people of color.
Within hours of Henry's announcement, several Black city leaders met with him to make their concerns known about the dearth of racial diversity among his top lieutenants, particularly given the fact that the St. Paul Police Department (SPPD) has a long and distinguished history of promoting minority cops from within, including three African American chiefs.
According to local news reports, Henry claimed there were no qualified African American officers to serve on his senior leadership team at this time. However, he promised to revisit the group's concerns in the second or third year of his six-year term.
To my shock and dismay, Carter supported his new police chief's appointments, even though St. Paul's Black and brown communities are disproportionately affected by violent crime and have a deep mistrust of law enforcement.
I am also perplexed by Carter's response given that he is a proud alum of Florida A&M, a historically Black university. If anyone should understand the importance of representation, having a seat at the table, it's our mayor, the son of the first African American woman elected to a county board in Minnesota.