Minneapolis PD chief on consent decree, 'detached, bourgeois liberal mentality' remark
Minneapolis leaders react to motion to dismiss consent decree
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion on Wednesday to dismiss the federal consent decree created following the death of George Floyd.
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (FOX 9) - Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara joined FOX 9 All Day on Wednesday, discussing a slate of issues including the Trump administration's motion to dismiss the consent decree against Minneapolis and comments he made to the New York Post about a "detached, bourgeois liberal mentality" in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis police chief reacts to consent decree
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara reacts to the Trump administration's motion to drop the consent decree put in place after the killing of George Floyd on FOX 9 All Day.
Motion to dismiss consent decree
What we know:
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion on Wednesday to dismiss the federal consent decree created following the death of George Floyd.
The motion states that, after review, the DOJ no longer feels the "consent decree would be in the public interest."
In a news conference on Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey accused the Trump admin of playing politics.
Speaking with FOX 9 All Day, Chief O'Hara said the city will move ahead no matter what the federal government does - in part because the city has a separate consent decree in place with the State of Minnesota.
"I think the reality is the majority of all the major issues that people are concerned about with policing, whether it's the use of force, stop-search and arrest practices, oversight, disparate impact based on race," explained O'Hara. "All of those things are already covered under a very real consent decree that we have with the state. Just yesterday, the independent monitoring team released a report saying basically that over the last year, the Minneapolis Police Department has accomplished more in one year of a consent decree addressing those issues than any other police department in the country that's been under a consent decree."
Progress taking on Minneapolis gangs
The chief also discussed the rash of gang violence last month connected to a mass shooting that left four people dead along 25th Street that police connected to the Native Mob. Chief O'Hara talked about the progress the city has made combatting gang violence following a multi-agency effort led by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Minneapolis gang crackdown
Local perspective:
The chief also discussed the rash of gang violence last month connected to a mass shooting that left four people dead along 25th Street that police connected to the Native Mob.
Chief O'Hara talked about the progress the city has made to combatt gang violence following a multi-agency effort led by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
"I would say it's better than what it was," explained O'Hara. "And while some new gang activity has developed in the last couple of years through the partnership that we had with the U.S. Attorney's Office, we've had over 100 gang members, criminal street gang members that are out here committing violence, arrested and charged, related to the gang RICO cases. A lot of that has been focused on the north side of Minneapolis, which last year had the lowest number of shooting victims in almost a decade.
"So it was clearly effective in providing more safety on the north side of the city, which historically has had the greatest concentration of shootings and violence. And we are working through [the recent violence] with our partners – not just to close these cases but to try and do some things, some more long-term things have the same type of effect that we had on the north side. So it just shows progress is fragile, and we will always need to have sufficient resources and staff so we can continually adjust and try to keep everybody safe."
Minneapolis PD chief on NY Post article
Chief Brian O'Hara explained remarks he made to the New York Post about a "detached, bourgeois liberal mentality" in Minneapolis.
'Detached, bourgeois liberal mentality'
The backstory:
O'Hara has also made headlines recently for a remark he made to the New York Post, which did a story on troubles near George Floyd Square since Floyd's killing.
During the interview, O'Hara told the tabloid that in Minneapolis "it’s very, very ideological and a lot of times it’s like reality and facts can’t get through the filter. It’s a very detached, bourgeois liberal mentality … It’s bizarre."
O'Hara explained his remarks while speaking with All Day, adding the article ignored some of the "positive stuff" and improvements the city has seen since George Floyd.
"I was simply comparing what my life experience has been," said O'Hara. "I had one reality, my entire life, centered around the city of Newark, New Jersey. That's reality. And I was comparing the level of frustration that I have in this reality, which is very different in many, many ways. This is a totally different city, but certainly the politics here are different and the frustration I was trying to communicate is simply that policing in the city is overly politicized. It just is."
O'Hara continued, "I hear the community… the number one complaint that the community has is we need more police, we need more police presence. And so I am committed to doing everything we possibly can to both deal with crime and try and prevent it.
"My priority is just to do everything we possibly can to try and get crime under control – that's it. And it's frustrating when extremists on either side want to put up barriers to what is such an urgent need in this community."