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This city is stuck. It has been more than three years since George Floyd was murdered and the Third Precinct was burned. Yet, we are no closer to a new Third Precinct building than we were the day after the fire was put out. The Third Precinct ruin still stands on the corner of Lake and Minnehaha, a monument to the city's trauma and failure.
The building is not in my ward. I represent the northernmost part of Minneapolis, which is located squarely in the Fourth Precinct — something that I am grateful for. I've tried to avoid this hot mess out of respect for my fellow council members. This summer I even voted with my colleagues who represent the Third Precinct to disallow rebuilding at the existing site. I did this because I had hope that this action would help us move forward with an actual decision.
Clearly, that was a mistake. I regret my vote. It is one of the very few votes I regret. I am fed up with this and I can no longer stay silent.
Every day someone who lives in the Third reaches out to me to ask me to please help. It is clear to me that this discussion has been hijacked by a small and vocal group of activists, and it is the residents of the Third Precinct who suffer. In my nearly two years in office, I've seen the same small group of (mostly white) activists come down to City Hall time and time again to oppose rebuilding the Third Precinct building at its current location. These activists claim that they are acting on behalf of those of us who are Black and brown — that it is, in fact, the Black and brown people who don't want to see the Third rebuilt.
I am Black. I know a lot of Black people who live here. In my experience, most regular Black folks in this city are confused about why we are even having this debate. They don't understand why we wouldn't just rebuild at the current location. They are not mad at the building. They want us to focus on reforming the culture of the Minneapolis Police Department instead of wasting time and money arguing about a building.
It feels like we've lost the plot. We are allowing a small group of activists (who are never going to be happy with any decision we make) to delay this process indefinitely and drive the project costs up. These activists simply don't like the police. It is that simple. They will do anything to derail and disable the police, and unfortunately, some of my colleagues on the council are assisting them in this mission.
