The University of Minnesota Police Department is searching for 19-year-old University student Sumith Maddi. 

Maddi was last seen leaving the 17th Avenue Residence Hall near Dinkytown around 2:40 a.m. on Saturday, according to an alert from the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). Maddi is roughly 6 feet tall and 170 pounds, and was last seen wearing a black puffy jacket, black pants and white shoes, according to the BCA. 

Maddi enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts last fall. 

UMPD is asking anyone with information to call authorities at 911 or 612-624-2677.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday morning the end of an investigation that found the Minneapolis Police Department(MPD) engaged in a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional, discriminatory and illegal policing. 

The announcement comes as a conclusion to a two-year long investigation into MPD the DOJ launched the day after former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd in April 2021. According to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the DOJ had four main findings. MPD—

• Uses excessive force, often when no force is necessary, including unjust deadly force and unreasonable use of tasers,
• Unlawfully discriminates against Black and Indigenous people in its enforcement, including stopping people from those communities being stopped by MPD at six times the rate as white people,
• Violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech, including retaliating against protestors and members of the press, and
• The city of Minneapolis and MPD discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities when responding to calls. 

With a slew of evidence of various misconduct, the Justice Department concluded MPD violated the First and Fourth amendments, as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Safe Streets Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, Garland said. 

“The patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible,” Garland said. “These systemic issues didn’t just occur on May 25, 2020. There were instances like that that were being reported by the community long before.”

Garland added MPD and the city have agreed to negotiate a court-enforceable, independently monitored agreement — otherwise known as a consent decree — with the DOJ to reform its policing. The Justice Department is recommending 28 remedial measures as a starting framework for MPD’s compliance with the Constitution and federal law, according to Garland.

According to Ann Bildtsen, first assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, it will likely take months and potentially a year for negotiations to be finalized. 

“Today, we have completed our investigation but this is only the first step,” Garland said. “We look forward to working with the city and MPD to achieve meaningful and durable reform.”

The report did not highlight specific steps MPD should take to address these problems, but instead laid out broad goals, like improving public safety and building community trust, to address in the future.

Federal consent decrees are not unique to Minneapolis. The DOJ currently has agreements with 17 other cities, which Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta cited as being effectives tools in cities like Seattle, Albuquerque and Baltimore to reduce use of force by police.

Although the government promised action to reform MPD and its practices, Gupta acknowledged the DOJ’s findings and remedies do not erase years of police misconduct and the pain it has inflicted on the community.

“I know this community is still hurting, and in today’s announcement, [the findings] also open up old wounds,” Gupta said. “There is nothing that I can say today that will undo the wrongs of the past, but I can tell you the Justice Department is committed to working with Minneapolis on a path forward to constitutional policing and a stronger police community.”

Despite the findings, Gupta said they commended Minneapolis for “moving expeditiously” to address police reform prior to the conclusion of the DOJ’s investigation. 

Minneapolis already approved its own consent decree with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) in March for reforms including intervention against officer misconduct and de-escalation training. The agreement came after MDHR conducted its own investigation and found a decade of MPD misconduct and racial discrimination, according to a 2022 report.

The DOJ’s findings were separate from MDHR’s, Gupta said. The two differed by investigating MPD’s violations of state versus federal laws, and the DOJ expanded its work to address allegations of discrimination against people with disabilities and excessive use of force. 

However, the new agreement will require a “transparent reform process” with input from community members, police officers and city employees, Gupta said. 

“It will take time, focused effort and sustained commitment to help us craft solutions that will result in real and lasting change in Minneapolis,” Gupta said. “Together, we can build a Minneapolis that protects the rights, safety and dignity of all.” 

According to Black Lives Matter Minnesota founder Trahern Crews, proactive work to reform policing is needed to prevent the list of agreements from growing in the future.

“We want to really get the community involved and come up with solutions and stuff like that to what the real future of policing can be that’s equitable and doesn’t continue to harm Black communities,” Crews said.

In statements following Garland’s announcement, President Joe Biden said “the findings are disturbing.” Rep. Ilhan Omar (DFL-Minneapolis) said they were “shocking, but sadly, not surprising.”

Gallery|6 Photos

Photo by CJ Bonk

The DOJ investigation was a two-year long effort by the department, and the results were announced at a press conference Friday morning. Here is the conference, in photos.

City leaders respond

In first words addressing the city’s new consent decree with the federal government to reform its police department, Mayor Jacob Frey recalled his first thoughts after seeing a video of George Floyd’s murder.

“I was heading into my office late at night and pacing with one thought in my mind, which is, ‘Now things have to be different. Now things have to change,’” Frey said. 

Frey touted the city’s changes to policing in the past three years, including hiring new leaders, creating an Office of Community Safety and new policies that do not require officers to carry a gun. Although he hopes to double-down on these efforts in the future, Frey thanked the DOJ for highlighting where the city and its police have continued to fail its residents.

“The truth is, we needed this help,” Frey said. 

Frey emphasized that himself, MPD and the city are committed to partnering with the DOJ to reform its policing. He said he is optimistic MPD can become a constitutional and trustworthy department that anyone in Minneapolis feels safe interacting with. 

“Our success won’t be relegated to a report, it won’t be relegated to compliance figures or a judge’s signature,” Frey said. “Our success will be defined by the people of Minneapolis feeling safe, in fact, feeling safer when interacting with police in our city.”

MPD Chief Brian O’Hara was appointed in Nov. 2022 following a nomination from Frey. O’Hara echoed Frey’s sentiments with promises to transform the police in Minneapolis into the best police department in the nation,

“When I became the police chief, I pledged to work hand-in-hand with all of our partners to rebuild bridges of trust and safety in Minneapolis,” O’Hara said. “That work started the day I became chief, and it will continue in earnest until the MPD fully reflects the constitutional, fair and just system of policing services the people of Minneapolis deserve.”

Consent decrees are not new to O’Hara, who said he has “been through this before” during his previous job as an officer in Newark, New Jersey.

The DOJ agreed to a consent decree with the city of Newark after it published a report in 2014 which found its police engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional policing. 

Moving forward, police and residents will change policing in Minneapolis and emerge from the “darkness and trauma” caused by the MPD into something greater, O’Hara said. 

“As we move through this process together, we will continue to heal and we will rebuild stronger,” O’Hara said. “Our city will be sacred, and our police and all communities of this city will be more united than ever before.”

Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill into law on Tuesday legalizing recreational cannabis use in Minnesota, making the state the 23rd to permit marijuana use.

Possession will effectively be legal on August 1 for anyone 21-years or older. Anyone that age or above can possess up to two pounds of cannabis at home or two ounces in public. The bill also established an agency to be responsible for regulating the marijuana industry in the state.

Businesses will also be allowed to grow, manufacture and sell marijuana. The legislation includes 12 business licenses people can apply for.

As a result of the licensing process, retail dispensaries likely will not begin selling until 2025, according to the Office of Cannabis Management’s website, the agency responsible for regulating the new industry. 

“We’ve known for too long that prohibiting the use of cannabis hasn’t worked,” Walz said in a statement following his signature. “By legalizing adult-use cannabis, we’re expanding our economy, creating jobs, and regulating the industry to keep Minnesotans safe.”

Walz called the legislation “the right move for Minnesota,” adding decriminalizing marijuana and expunging criminal records will help “strengthen communities.”

Anyone with low-level marijuana possession convictions will have their record automatically expunged under the new law beginning in August, although the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension must process each case. People with felony convictions will also have the opportunity to appeal to a review board for expungement or reduced sentences.

Sen. Lindsey Port (DFL–Burnsville), who authored the bill, said in a statement following the Senate’s passing of the bill the new law has seen significant bipartisan improvements since its first introduction in January. 

The final bill passed the state Senate with a 34-32 vote on May 20 after passing the House 73-57 two days earlier, with votes from legislators from both parties.

“The prohibition on cannabis has had tremendously negative impacts on the lives of Minnesotans, especially our communities of color,” Port said in the statement. “It is time for us to change course, create a system that works for adult-use cannabis, and create a regulated market for Minnesota.”

The Minnesota Senate passed a bill in a 36-27 vote on April 21 to ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ youth and vulnerable adults in the state.

Conversion therapy is any practice from mental health practitioners aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Minnesota would become the 21st state to ban the practice, which is widely opposed by medical organizations including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The bill, which Gov. Tim Walz signed into law on Thursday, will subject anyone who administers conversion therapy to disciplinary action from professional licensing boards.

Kat Rohn is the executive director of OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. Rohn countered critics’ arguments that the bill restricts free speech and said the ban will instead protect Minnesotans from a practice that continues to negatively impact people’s lives.

“Broadly, folks understand that the historical practices of conversion therapy are just blatantly illegal and awful,” Rohn said. “Our approach to this bill is that it’s not about restricting speech or what somebody can say about a certain thing, it’s about restricting medical practices that are simply not effective and are harmful.”

Rohn said creating shameful feelings about a person’s identity rather than accepting them creates lasting trauma for victims, which often leads to suicide and substance abuse.

Minneapolis banned conversion therapy in 2019 after publishing a report describing the practice as dangerous, with no scientific basis, and recommended the city “stand up to protect our youth and vulnerable communities.” Additionally, Walz issued an executive order in 2021 restricting access to the practice.

Conversion therapy’s impact on mental health

Although similar bills have failed in previous sessions, the bill will help not only to protect LGBTQ+ kids from conversion therapy, but it will also help validate their identities and promote acceptance in Minnesota, Rohn said.

“The joy of seeing this work finished, that LGBTQ Minnesotans have been trying to push for year after year is tangible, especially at a moment when we’re seeing so much anti-LGBTQ legislation passing elsewhere,” Rohn said. “That alone is worth it.”

The Trevor Project is a nonprofit aimed at ending suicide among LGBTQ+ youth. Troy Stevenson, director of state advocacy campaigns for the Trevor Project, said despite decades-long efforts to eradicate conversion therapy, the practice has returned to prominence in many places, including Minnesota.

“One of the biggest pieces of misinformation is people believe that this is something that ended years ago,” Stevenson said. “Instead, there was an underground effort from people that really kicked it up.”

When he was 15, Stevenson and his first boyfriend were chased out of their high school after a group of students saw them holding hands. After talking to him on the phone, Stevenson’s boyfriend kept saying “he couldn’t go back.”

Stevenson’s boyfriend committed suicide that night.

“I thought he couldn’t go back to school, but what he meant was he couldn’t go back to the conversion therapy situation his parents sent him through,” Stevenson said.

According to a 2022 survey from the Trevor Project, 43% of LGBTQ+ youth in Minnesota seriously considered suicide in the past year, including 52% of transgender and nonbinary youth. Additionally, 15% of LGBTQ+ youth in Minnesota reported being threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy in the past year.

A 2022 Minnesota Department of Health report also found among teenagers and young adults, those who had experienced conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide or have multiple suicide attempts.

Minnesota’s ban will hopefully serve as a “beacon of hope” for LGBTQ+ people in other states and encourage other legislatures to pass similar bans, Stevenson said.

“When the elected body of their state, the people that represent them and make their laws, affirm them and say, ‘We believe you are who you are and we‘re here to protect and support you.’ That sends an amazing message,” Stevenson said. “It’s not all darkness and hopelessness.”

“You know who you are”

After telling his family he had a crush on a boy at 16 years old, Mathew Shurka’s father insisted he see a therapist, who told him being gay was a mentally ill choice that would ruin his life. Shurka, terrified of losing his family and community, spent the next five years of his life in conversion therapy.

Shurka knew he was attracted to boys throughout his childhood and realized he was gay in high school. However, Shurka’s sexuality “petrified” him after being told it would result in his family not accepting him, being unable to find a job and likely ending up homeless.

“I’m 16 years old and a therapist looks me in the eye and tells me, ‘Don’t worry, you’re going to be okay,’ and makes me feel comfortable, tells me I don’t have to suffer,” Shurka said. “You can obviously see the manipulation and how horrific it is for any child to hear, but in that moment, I really believed the therapist, and I trusted my parents.”

Shurka’s family did not know what conversion therapy was at the time and Shurka said he believes in a way, they were “doing their due diligence” as parents by getting a licensed therapist to help him.

It is a common misconception to think of conversion therapy solely as physical abuse by people with no medical credibility, according to Shurka. However, the practice often includes conversations with therapists that can be difficult to distinguish from legitimate therapy.

“The reason it’s so dangerous is it’s not like this horrible place where kids are being thrown into,” Shurka said. “Most of the conversion therapy stories we hear when it’s working with a therapist is that it’s in a really nice setting.”

For the next three years, Shurka was his therapist’s “best student,” following every instruction he was given.

His therapist ordered him to stop communicating with any girl in his life to promote male bonding. As a result, Shurka did not speak to his mother or sisters for nearly three years.

“I was told I was having same-sex attraction because of my mom, because I was too close to her as a mother and son,” Shurka said. “There were times where she would be at home and cry and beg to me and say, ‘I know you’re gay, it’s okay to be gay, I love you so much.’ When she did that, I would, in response, throw a tantrum at her, even cursing, ‘how dare you.’”

When his therapist allowed him to go on dates with women, the teenage Shurka had to report the details to his therapist, including whether he “succeeded” in having sex. Shurka’s therapist prescribed him Viagra and gave advice on masturbation techniques and how to use pornography. Shurka was also told to report any gay thoughts or feelings he had.

After conversion therapy hurt his mental health and family relationships, Shurka said he resented that he was still a gay man because he feared losing people he cared about.

“The fact that I knew it’s not working means I’m failing at the therapy,” Shurka said. “I really believed I was never going to be able to overcome my same-sex attraction.”

Panic attacks began creeping in, followed by suicidal ideations. His last two years involved moving to several states to receive conversion therapy from three more therapists, Shurka said.

After five years of conversion therapy, Shurka left in 2009 after questioning his therapists on the effectiveness of the practice and asking to speak one-on-one with people whom therapists considered “success stories.”

Many of these men were in their 40s and 50s, some with wives and children, Shurka said. However, every person told him being gay was something impossible to change.

“They all said that the feelings or homosexual feelings never went away,” Shurka said. “It was a big revealing moment that all of those men are just gay men forcing themselves to suppress their feelings. I didn’t want to be that, and they felt confident that I could find a different answer.”

Although he was terrified of his therapist being right about his sexuality ruining his life, Shurka said going out and seeing LGBTQ+ people accepting themselves and living happy, successful lives inspired him to eventually come out.

Since then, Shurka became the co-founder of Born Perfect in 2014, an organization aimed to end conversion therapy that helped Outfront advocate for Minnesota’s ban. Additionally, Shurka rebuilt his relationship with his family and is scheduled to marry his fiancee this winter.

His experiences in conversion therapy still trigger him, especially regarding trust and dating, Shurka said. However, he is now happily living by “going against everything I was taught in those five years.”

“Because of conversion therapy, [kids] are being shamed, basically, and told to doubt everything that is core to who they are in their foundational development,” Shurka said. “You do not have to doubt yourself. You’re actually very clear. You know who you are and you’ve got to trust that.”

In response to rising trends across the country, Minneapolis is working to improve its response to hate crimes with help from the community.

The initiative comes after the Minneapolis City Council advanced a staff directive last fall to evaluate and strengthen the city’s hate crime policies. Since then, city officials across several departments have collaborated to implement changes and conducted public engagement sessions to inform communities on the city’s resources to help victims.

Ward 2 Council Member Robin Wonsley introduced the directive after the Tawfiq Islamic Center, a mosque in Minneapolis’ Seward neighborhood, suffered more than $50,000 in damages from vandalization in September 2022.

“Many of the community members and mosque members all raised concerns with how the city responded, or the lack of response,” Wonsley said. “That made it very clear that we needed to revisit how we approach hate crimes, how we categorize them in the city, and then are transparent in communicating what resources are available.”

Some of the city’s changes include increased efforts to collect evidence such as graffiti and discriminatory language to elevate bias crimes into gross misdemeanors.

Minnesota state law defines a bias crime as a crime committed because of someone’s perceived race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin or disability. Three main crimes can be elevated hate crimes: assault, damage to property or harassment. If Minneapolis can prove a crime was motivated by bias, charges can be elevated to gross misdemeanors and will carry a prison sentence of up to one year.

Additionally, Minneapolis’ mediation program for non-criminal complaints helps victims of hate crimes meet with defendants after charges are filed to resolve hate crime complaints before a full investigation is conducted. Solutions for remediation can include monetary payments, getting a job back or businesses creating anti-discrimination training.

Wonsley said it was important for the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) to improve their response to hate crimes. MPD is currently discussing plans to establish reality-based training scenarios related to bias crimes.

“MPD did not have any training related to hate crime responses … This is tied to officers knowing how to appropriately decipher and record when a hate crime has happened,” Wonsley said. “That way, other departments can be activated and provide support to those cases.”

The Minneapolis City Council approved a police reform agreement in March that aims to improve officer training programs to eliminate discriminatory police responses. The agreement came almost a year after the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found discriminatory practices within the police department.

Kaela McConnon Diarra, director of Minneapolis’ Civil Rights Complaint Investigations division, said while several city departments have collaborated on the initiative, public engagement is needed to determine what resources communities need.

“Identifying the different tools that we have within the city has been the biggest push up to this point,” McConnon Diarra said. “The next step is going to be coordinating what changes need to be made.”

Minneapolis does not have a “super defined plan” for further improvements to its hate crime response and is relying on community feedback to make resources more accessible, McConnon Diarra said.

However, barriers remain for victims of hate crimes to access resources, according to Miriam Diaz, a victim witness specialist with the city attorney’s office. Diaz said these barriers for hate crime victims often include not seeking resources due to fears of not being believed, retaliation or their identity being outed.

According to Diaz, city officials must be responsible for becoming more aware of hate crimes and understanding how interactions between government and residents impact whether victims seek help.

“There is that side of accountability — I think of cultural barriers and just a lot of mistrust in the legal system that I think staff needs to take accountability for,” Diaz said. “I’m hoping for there to be a lot of learning.”

Increases in hate crime statewide

As Minneapolis tries to provide support to victims, hate crimes are increasing across the state. There were 301 reported hate crime incidents in Minnesota in 2021, a roughly 144% increase from two years earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The most common motivations for hate crimes are race or ethnicity, followed by religion, gender and sexual orientation.

David Bernstein is the criminal deputy of the Minneapolis city attorney’s office. Bernstein said he understands that not all victims may feel comfortable coming forward and recognized prosecuting hate crimes is a “big decision” for victims.

However, Bernstein said he hopes the city’s work will provide better outcomes for victims who decide to work with the city and encourage more people to seek help.

“For the people that do want to proceed with prosecution, we want them to feel empowered, we want them to feel supported, we want them to feel safe,” Bernstein said.

Razor wire and barricades surround the former Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) Third Precinct, where black scorch marks on the building’s exterior are scars of a community uprising nearly three years ago.

Now, Minneapolis is planning to hold community discussions to determine the building’s future.

MPD abandoned the former Third Precinct, located at the corner of Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue, during the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd by former MPD officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020. The building was then set on fire and heavily damaged.

Since then, MPD officers from the Third Precinct have operated out of a facility downtown.

The city is now considering whether to repair the existing building or build a new facility less than a mile away, according to a statement released by the city on March 29.

“Identifying two viable locations for the Third Precinct building has been an enterprise-wide effort,” Mayor Jacob Frey said in the release. “The next phase of this process will undoubtedly be marked by debate and discussion, but we should all agree on one thing: there should be a Third Precinct building in the Third Precinct.”

Minneapolis held a listening session for business owners on April 11 and three sessions for the general public April 13-19. City officials will analyze the feedback and present reports to Frey and the Minneapolis City Council in May.

In a statement to the Minnesota Daily, MPD Spokesperson Garrett Parten echoed Frey’s calls for a new precinct building.

“MPD believes that the residents deserve a police precinct at a location within the Third Precinct,” Parten said in the statement.

Several Minneapolis activists disagreed.

According to Michelle Gross, the founder of Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB), rather than repair the existing Third Precinct site, city leaders should “raze it.”

“It’s important to the community that we don’t pretend what happened after George Floyd was murdered didn’t happen,” Gross said. “I don’t want to see them tear that down and put up some shiny new Third Precinct.”

Gross said she would be more open to discussing relocating the Third Precinct.

MPD’s Third Precinct had a longstanding reputation for being “very brutal,” with many people complaining about police conduct over the last several years, according to Gross.

From 2007-2017, Minneapolis paid $2.1 million in settlements from lawsuits involving Third Precinct officers’ misconduct, according to reporting from the Star Tribune.

More recently, a 2022 report from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found MPD as a whole engages in a “pattern or practice of discriminatory, race-based policing.”

“Culture is a top-down phenomenon,” Gross said. “The people at the top shape the culture either by what they pay attention to, what they tolerate, what they accept, what they don’t accept and how they discipline.”

Chauvin received more than two dozen complaints against him throughout his roughly 18-year career with MPD before he murdered George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for nearly 9 ½ minutes, according to CUAPB.

Additionally, former MPD Union President Bob Kroll, who retired in 2021 amid controversy following Floyd’s murder, had more than 50 complaints and 13 lawsuits filed against him during his roughly three decades with MPD.

Toshira Garraway Allen is the founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence (FSFAPV), a support group dedicated to people whose loved ones have been killed by police. She said a new police station in the Third Precinct would cause further damage to a community that is trying to heal.

“Building another police station would be really traumatizing to the community,” Garraway Allen said. “It went down because of the trauma and the pain, so putting it back up there would add more pain, hurt and retraumatizing feelings for the community.”

FSFAPV grew significantly in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, going from a local organization to a statewide community, according to their website.

The future of the Third Precinct should be left for the community to decide, Garraway Allen said. Rather than creating a new building for MPD, the site could be used to find a “better solution” for improving MPD’s relationships with Minneapolis communities.

“Riots and all of that kind of stuff were the voices of the unheard — people felt unheard and unseen,” Garraway Allen said. “We were the community being oppressed, and I think [the Third Precinct] should be a space where voices that have been unheard can be heard. That’s where healing starts.”

Former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak finished officiating the first same-sex marriage in Minnesota at 11:59 p.m. on July 31, 2013, one minute before a law to legalize it went into effect. Minnesotans are now celebrating a decade of Pride.

Rainbow lights and flowers sat among the white chairs that filled Minneapolis City Hall in preparation for the weddings. Hundreds of people gathered and waited for their turn to walk up the marble staircase covered in garland and white roses and be married on the second floor landing in front of a stained glass window.

The Gay Men’s Chorus sang, “Marry Me,” a song Rybak had heard them perform many times at parades, but as a way of celebrating LGBTQ+ relationships while knowing that marriage for them had always been a “pipe dream.”

As the clock struck midnight and a bell rang in City Hall, Rybak looked at Cathy ten Broeke and their partner Margaret and said, “By the power finally vested in me by the state of Minnesota, I pronounce you legally married.”

“And then it just went nuts,” Rybak said.

For the next six hours, Rybak led a “conveyor belt of love” by officiating a wedding every seven minutes. Between each wedding, Rybak walked down the stairs to sign the now-legal marriage certificates and read about the next couple as he walked back up.

Attendees ranged from college students to couples who had been together for decades, wearing a mixture of colored outfits and three-piece suits.

“We did one wedding after the other, and I personalized every single wedding,” Rybak said. “I was completely choked out by the incredible beauty of it.”

Despite serving for more than a decade as mayor, Rybak said like many of the people he married that night, he did not believe he would see same-sex marriage legalized in Minnesota.

Increasing allyship following a history of “bigotry” 

A 1971 Minnesota Supreme Court decision prohibited marriages between same-sex partners, and an appeal to the decision was dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Additionally, a 1977 state law defined a marriage as a civil contract “between a man and a woman.”

Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act 25 years later, which limited marriage to being legal between one man and one woman. Minnesota passed its own version in 1997. Appeals failed in courts for years, and the state Legislature proposed an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage in 2011.

The amendment failed in the 2012 elections, but in 2013, former Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill into law making Minnesota’s marriage law gender-neutral.

The bill went into effect on Aug. 1, making Minnesota the 12th state to legalize same-sex marriage.

“It’s hard to remember that the city we are today actually at one time had a lot of officials who were very bigoted … and [LGBTQ+ people] had to fight like hell for their fair rights,” Rybak said. “I saw the pain of those years and heard from almost everyone, ‘I never expected this would happen.’”

One of the couples Rybak married that night was Nic Zapko, the ASL interpreter for Gov. Tim Walz, and their partner Lisa. As the two signed their vows at 2 a.m. and their kids tossed petals, Zapko said the celebration was “fairytale-like.”

“It was our big moment, our right to legally marry – it was unreal,” Zapko said in an email statement to the Minnesota Daily. “That was the beauty of the night, there was no shortage of inspiration and joy.”

Zapko and their partner were nearing their 12th anniversary before becoming legally married after the two held a “spiritual marriage” in 2001.

Throughout their relationship and even as protestors stood outside City Hall, Zapko said they were unsure if they would ever be married or accepted in Minnesota. Despite there still being “room for improvement” in equality and inclusivity, Zapko said finding allies has become much easier as time has passed.

“It feels much more comfortable, supported and safer to be part of the LGBTQ+ community,” Zapko said. “When we first started dating in the ‘90s, we were very cautious and were not sure we lived in a state that contained so many allies. Now we know we do.”

Andi Otto is the executive director of Twin Cities Pride, an organization aimed at empowering LGBTQ+ people. Otto had to hold off on getting married 10 years ago to wait for it to become legalized in the state.

When that moment came, there was celebration and relief, while acknowledging that “the fight is not over,” Otto said.

Walz signed a bill Thursday making Minnesota a refuge state for those seeking gender-affirming care. The law comes as several states have recently advanced legislation aimed at restricting the rights of transgender people.

“I’m a trans man, and it’s incredibly scary, the legislation that’s coming out and the hate that’s coming toward the community,” Otto said. “We want to celebrate the wins, but sometimes those wins come with a little more hate.”

In the decade since same-sex marriage was legalized in Minnesota, Otto said he has seen the number and attendance of pride celebrations across the state grow significantly.

“If you look at the climate of Minnesota, that wouldn’t have been the case 10 years ago,” Otto said. “The overall feeling of Minnesota is nothing but love and acceptance. We still have our hate in the state, but overall, I would say this is a pretty good place to live.”

This year, Twin Cities Pride’s theme will be “elevate and amplify.” According to Otto, he chose the theme to ensure all LGTBQ+ voices are being heard and prove they are not going anywhere.

“We are a strong community, and we will continue to fight injustice towards our community,” Otto said. “While it’s great to celebrate and we will celebrate wholeheartedly, we have to continue to keep our hand on the pulse and make sure we aren’t quiet when times call for it.”

Many activists remain concerned about the future of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) after the City Council approved an agreement to reform policing on March 31.

Minneapolis’ settlement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) comes a year after the MDHR published a report detailing evidence of MPD misconduct and racial discrimination over the previous decade.

Minneapolis agreed to negotiate an agreement to bring sweeping changes to many of MPD’s policies after the report was published.

The court-enforceable agreement, otherwise known as a consent decree, includes non-discriminatory and crisis intervention police training, monthly data collection and a requirement for officers to intervene against officer misconduct.

Additionally, MPD will require officers to de-escalate interactions and prevent searches on the bases of smelling marijuana or mechanical issues with vehicles such as expired registration tabs or a broken mirror.

“Following the approval of this agreement, the city’s overarching goal will not be limited to compliance or words on a page,” Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement. “Our overriding goal will be building a better, more just approach to policing and community safety in Minneapolis.”

Although the agreement is “a step in the right direction,” according to Black Lives Matter (BLM) Minnesota Founder Trahern Crews, it does not go far enough to include community voices in finding solutions to police brutality.

“I’m still concerned that [the agreement] doesn’t have enough teeth,” Crews said. “It does put people on notice that there is the will to do something, but not what to do.”

Crews said while some impacted families and community members may have been included in negotiations, the city did not provide many leading activists and organizations, including BLM, an opportunity to provide recommendations on how to hold police accountable.

MDHR conducted community engagement sessions with hundreds of Minneapolis residents, nearly half of whom were people of color, according to a report from the Minnesota Justice Research Center.

The report listed three community recommendations for MPD to address race-based policing: change its practices to shift away from a culture of violence, prioritize reciprocal relationships and institute more and better accountability.

Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB) was one of the organizations to provide input for the MDHR’s agreement, according to President Michelle Gross. Despite positive reforms being included in the agreement, Minneapolis has not proven the changes will be enforced, Gross said.

“These things that are in the consent decree are things that the city could have been doing on their own all along,” Gross said. “They have never had the political will, and consequently, I don’t trust that they would have it now.”

Policy changes such as prohibiting the smell of marijuana as a pretextual basis for police searches provides relief for many, Gross said. However, no document can change police culture without leaders committed to reform Gross added.

Gross said CUAPB is working to hold a hearing where community members who were not involved in negotiations can raise issues to be added on to the agreement.

“A court order is only as good as the enforcement of that order,” Gross said. “We’ve got to make sure that this order gets enforced in a way that’s meaningful.”

Other activists agreed that they did not trust city leaders to implement the agreement. In a joint statement, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) and Minneapolis for Community Control of Police called for increased community control in holding police accountable.

“The consent decree does not make the police permanently accountable; effectively, it puts them on probation,” the statement read. “In order to have true accountability, the people of Minneapolis need to be steering the process from start to finish.”

Jae Yates is a member of TCC4J, and said the agreement was “performative” in reforming Minneapolis policing.

“It’s always good to increase mechanisms of control in policing, given that historically, they have been allowed to kind of do whatever they want,” Yates said. “I can understand how the consent decree would make some aspects of accountability easier, but it’s hard to see how it would do that in a concrete way.”

Yates said they do not have faith in the consent decree to reform policing because it builds upon existing MPD promises that have historically been broken.

Toshira Garraway Allen, founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, also said the historical lack of police accountability in Minneapolis led to a lack in community trust.

“Although there’s good and bad in every profession, police officers have a special profession because they’re entrusted with authority over other human beings,” Garraway Allen said. “That is what has been so significant about the pain that’s been caused. They were entrusted with people in our community, and trust has been violated.”

MPD is one of many departments within the city that needs to take accountability for police brutality, Garraway Allen said. However, a consent decree is necessary to ensure Black and brown communities are treated fairly and prevent MPD from abusing its authority.

“It’s very necessary that it’s enforced to possibly save somebody’s life, save someone else’s family from being traumatized and save our community from facing another outcry for help,” Garraway Allen said.

Former Brooklyn Center Police Department officer Kim Potter is set to be released from prison on Monday, two years after killing Daunte Wright. 

Wright, a 20-year-old unarmed Black man, died after Potter claimed to confuse her gun for her taser and fatally shot him during a traffic stop on April 11, 2021. Potter resigned two days after she killed Wright and was convicted of first and second-degree manslaughter in December 2021. 

Potter, who had no previous criminal history, was sentenced to two years in prison in February 2022, only 16 months of which were to be served in prison. The remainder would be served under supervised release. 

The sentence was below typical guidelines for someone without a criminal history, which is at least six years in prison for first-degree manslaughter and 3.5 years for second-degree manslaughter. 

While the exact time of Potter’s release is uncertain, she is expected to be released from Minnesota Correctional Facility – Shakopee under standard release procedures, according to Minnesota Department of Corrections spokesperson Andy Skoogman. Potter’s release time will not be released due to “security reasons.”

“Our criminal investigative analysts are working closely with law enforcement to monitor the situation to ensure Kim Potter, like all incarcerated persons, is safe as she leaves our facility,” Skoogman wrote in an email to the Minnesota Daily. “We will quickly adjust and alter our release procedures if we obtain information that indicates there is a credible threat to Kimberly Potter’s safety or the safety of others.”

Wright’s murder came during Derek Chauvin’s trial for killing George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, and sparked further protests from activists for several nights to mourn Wright and call for police reform. 

“Her incarceration was just a moment in time,” Katie Wright, Daunte’s mother, said, according to reporting from the Star Tribune. “She’s cursed us with a forever life sentence.”

Nearly a decade after Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers were first equipped with body-worn cameras, activists are continuing to fight for more transparency with the footage.

MPD implemented a six to nine-month program for select officers to wear body cameras in 2014 before expanding the program to the entire department two years later. The program has evolved over time to include requirements for all officers to wear cameras at all times, often in response to incidents in which an officer kills someone.

While all officers are now equipped with cameras, footage captured by the cameras may not be made public for months.

Paul Bosman, chief counsel for Communities United Against Police Brutality, has worked on roughly 20 lawsuits against officers. According to Bosman, state law has left loopholes in place for police to hide footage from the public while the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) conducts investigations.

“We request [footage] and they tell us it’s under investigation, and we can have it when the investigation closes,” Bosman said. “That could take between 10-14 months, in some cases longer, for the BCA to close their investigation and make the video public. Frequently, that stuff never made it into the media, so there was no practical accountability.”

Under Minnesota state law, body camera footage is nonpublic except when it is part of a criminal investigation. Once an investigation is complete, footage becomes public if it shows an officer discharging a weapon or using force that results in “substantial” bodily harm.

In Minneapolis, MPD’s body camera policies have evolved over time. MPD began requiring all officers to wear body cameras in 2016 after the officers who killed Jamar Clark while in police custody a year earlier were not wearing them.

Minneapolis updated the policy again in 2021 to prohibit officers from turning off their body cameras. The change came in response to additional police killings, including George Floyd in 2020.

Last year, MPD released some body camera footage one day after police killed Amir Locke. The BCA released additional footage after finishing its investigation roughly two months later.

Although the city has made improvements to body camera accountability, Bosman said Minneapolis remains one of many departments that is “stingy” with video footage.

“In the past, Minneapolis has been terrible when they release video on their own,” Bosman said. “We’re hoping Minneapolis gets better.”

Other activists such as Jae Yates, a member of Twin Cities Coalition For Justice 4 Jamar, said they are tired of waiting for Minneapolis to increase transparency.

Despite communities’ continued demands for accountability after MPD kills someone, Yates said Minneapolis officials have offered “smoke and mirrors,” rather than meaningful action to make body camera footage more accessible.

“The fact of it is, they’re in positions of power to make decisions that people will live or die by,” Yates said. “There’s going to continue to be a loss of trust between us and our city government because they’re not representing the people that are affected the most by these decisions.”

MPD did not respond to requests for comment.

Due to body camera footage’s inaccessibility, it has become the public’s responsibility to record and share unedited video of police encounters, according to Yates. Yates cited Darnella Frazier, the 17-year-old bystander who recorded and shared video of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.

Body camera footage is often traumatizing to those who see it, Yates said. However, the potential harm of viewing traumatizing footage does not justify censoring or keeping footage from the public.

Yates said while many people may have the privilege of the ability to click away from body camera footage, many communities have to witness it firsthand on a regular basis.

“These things are happening right where we live, and whether they’re on camera or not, we don’t have the luxury of being desensitized to it,” Yates said. “Because tomorrow it could be us, or someone we know, or a loved one.”

Robbinsdale police release Khalil Azad body camera footage

While Minneapolis is “horrible” at providing body camera footage, according to Black Lives Matter (BLM) Minnesota Founder Trahern Crews, footage accessibility is a statewide issue.

Crews said BLM Minnesota worked with the family of Khalil Azad to push local authorities to release body camera footage after his body was found two days after an incident involving Robbinsdale police last year.

On July 3, 2022, police attempted to pull Azad over for a suspected DWI, according to a police statement. Azad did not pull over and crashed his car into a tree before fleeing. Police searched for Azad and found his body two days later in a nearby lake.

Azad’s family countered the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s and police’s conclusion that Azad drowned, alleging differences between Azad’s autopsy report and photos of the body.

Robbinsdale police released body camera footage of the traffic stop on March 7, roughly eight months after Azad’s death.

Footage showed officers responding to the scene where the vehicle had already crashed and Azad had fled. Police detained two other passengers, one of whom was the car’s owner, and multiple officers and a police dog searched for Azad through woods, yards and water near the lake’s shoreline.

“Police canine, you’re under arrest,” police said as they began searching. “Give yourself up now, dog will be sent. Dog will find you, dog may bite you.”

A combination of legal hurdles and respect for the family’s privacy led to the footage taking longer to access, according to Crews.

“We have to apply pressure on local government agencies that are holding body camera footage — we like securing justice for people, but this is hard,” Crews said. “It just is something that has to be done.”

While BLM Minnesota continues to seek answers for Azad’s family, Crews said having accessible body camera footage is an important tool in identifying dangerous policing and holding officers accountable when it occurs.

“The government or government officials aren’t necessarily more informed, I think the community itself is more informed,” Crews said. “We have an educated population [in Minnesota] that has zero tolerance for police misconduct.”