As Mary reported earlier, Brooklyn Center, MN, saw a third night of the type of Antifa/BLM-led rioting and looting that occurred with regularity last year in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.
But as local law enforcement tried in vain to quell the chaos that erupted on city streets in response to the officer-involved shooting death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright, a different kind of chaos involving city leaders was taking place behind the scenes.
Brooklyn Center’s City Manager Curt Boganey, who is black, was out of a job Monday after the City Council voted to fire him. Boganey’s 16-year employment with the city was terminated just a few hours after he publicly expressed disagreement with Mayor Mike Elliott during a press conference where both addressed the shooting:
“Let me be very clear – my position is that we cannot afford to make mistakes that lead to the loss of life of other people in our profession,” Elliott said. “I do fully support releasing the officer of her duties.”Before leaving the podium, Elliott noted that Boganey, as city manager, had the authority to determine whether the officer would be fired. Boganey noted that he would not take immediate action to remove the officer.“All employees working for the city of Brooklyn Center are entitled to due process with respect to discipline,” Boganey said. “This employee will receive due process and that’s really all that I can say today.”When pressed on whether he personally felt the officer should be fired, Boganey again called for due process.“If I were to answer that question, I’d be contradicting what I said a moment ago — which is to say that all employees are entitled to due process and after that due process, discipline will be determined,” Boganey said. “If I were to say anything else, I would actually be contradicting the idea of due process.”
Brooklyn Center Council Member Kris Lawrence-Anderson, who voted to fire Boganey, explained that her decision to do so was based on fear of retaliation from the Black Lives Matter radicals who were wreaking havoc on the city:
At a virtual council workshop, Council Member Kris Lawrence-Anderson said she voted to remove the city manager because she feared for her property and retaliation by protestors if she had voted to keep him.”He was doing a great job. I respect him dearly,” she said. “I didn’t want repercussions at a personal level.”
For those keeping score at home, the city manager was fired for standing by the fundamentals of affording the accused due process. At the same time, at least one council member openly admitted she cast her vote based solely on what she thought the mob of rioters might do to her or her property if she voted in a way that displeased them.
The council also voted to put Mayor Elliott in charge of the police department, which happened as rumors swirled that they wanted the city’s police chief Tim Gannon out. Gannon resigned the following day after being badgered by so-called reporters for, among other things, calling the riots “riots.”
Anyone who thinks putting Mayor Elliott in charge of the PD is a good thing might think twice after reading his reaction to the resignation of 26-year-veteran police officer Kim Potter, who fired the fatal shot:
The mayor said he hopes the resignations will help bring calm to the community, and that the city will continue to work toward transparency and accountability.”The officer stepping down has the effect, I think, speaking to one of the things the community, that folks who’ve been out here protesting, have been calling for,” Elliott said.
So in Elliott’s view, it’s a good thing Potter stepped down because it’s what the mob of rioters demanded.
There was also Elliott expressing the eye-opening opinion yesterday that he did not believe police officers should always be armed during traffic stops:
Elliott has also requested that the Daunte Wright case be reassigned to state Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office. Ellison, I should note, is an Antifa supporter:
The police are now saying Wright’s shooting death was “accidental,” that Officer Potter meant to use her taser and not her gun.
Though the claim is of no comfort to Wright’s family, who have accused Potter of “murder,” what is of no comfort to Brooklyn Center residents is the fact that the city has approached “lunatics are running the asylum” territory rather quickly. At the same time, the media continues to fuel the fire.
What’s happening here is tragic all around, but if how Minneapolis handled their city after Floyd’s death is any indication, the aftermath for Brooklyn Center – a suburb of Minneapolis – is about to get a whole lot worse.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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