Readers Write: Policing, politicians’ lying ability, Israel, higher ed

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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I am an unabashed supporter of fair, effective, just and trusted policing, which I believe the men and women of the Minneapolis Police Department largely deliver to our community day in and day out. I was also president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. We didn’t flee from our partners at the MPD as so many did, but we did state emphatically that friends tell friends the truth. And the truth then and still today is that reform of training, discipline, and operational and other procedures and policies is essential to build an even more fair, effective, just and trusted department. For this reason it’s exactly the wrong move for the U.S. Department of Justice consent decree to be suspended, as the Trump administration may consider based on Minnesota Star Tribune reporting (“Trump could end MPD reform plan consent decree,” Nov. 13). Rather than help the MPD and the community move forward toward an even safer future for all, it would be a major setback.

Steve Cramer, Minneapolis

The writer is former president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

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The Star Tribune’s report on the disturbing and deadly conditions under which Hennepin County jail’s inmates are held ought to make Minnesotans disgusted and ashamed (“State orders Hennepin County jail to reduce inmate numbers,” Nov. 9).

The way our society treats inmates speaks volumes about our collective moral character. Prisoners and defendants facing criminal charges are incredibly vulnerable to the whims of the state, public officials and the guards and law enforcement officers overseeing them.

When seven inmates die under one jail’s care (or shortly after) in just over two years, we must make drastic changes. The officials in charge, especially Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt, should face further investigation as a result of this extreme failure, which included falsifying documents and failing to adequately check on inmates.

Minnesota Department of Corrections officials are right to call for Witt to reduce the jail’s inmate population. She should stop resisting those calls and do everything in her power to decrease Hennepin County jail’s population and ensure there are no more senseless deaths. If rehabilitation is a serious goal of our legal system, permitting brutal conditions in our jails and prisons will certainly not assist with that rehabilitative process.

In this vein, Minnesotans should look for pathways to divert nonviolent criminals from our criminal legal system, reserving our state’s jails and prisons only for people who commit rape, murder and other violent offenses. Doing so would improve inmate conditions, save money and pave the way for individuals convicted of crimes to lead a happy, free life post-incarceration.

Brian Wagenaar, Eden Prairie

Donald Trump lies. We all know this. What most offends me is the lack of workmanship.

Anyone who aspires to be president should be able to lie convincingly. His prevarications should have an innate authenticity and his mistruths should reflect the gravity of the office of the president of the United States and the leader of the free world. This great country was not built on the lies of guilty five-year-old boys. It was created on a foundation of magnificent misrepresentations, gravely crafted by serious statesmen and deceptive visionaries with glorious ulterior, hidden motives.

E plausibilitus deniabilitum. The original motto of our country. Those are not just pretty words that aren’t even real Latin. They are the heart and soul of every public servant who announces he is leaving office to spend more time with his family. It sounds righteous and sincere and is part of the official record, even though we know it was because he was caught with an underage hooker in the cocaine-dusted back seat of his government Ford Crown Victoria and there is a video posted on YouTube.

Trump must adhere to the historically approved pattern of political canards uttered by the vaunted, near-mythological heroes of our storied past. The elevated standard of staggering but basically unchallenged untruths that are hallowed by tradition and consecrated by time. Utterances that historically tarnish and heroically blacken the lofty edifice upon which the presidency perches. Trump’s amateurish lies must end. They reflect poorly on each of us, who justly expect a higher standard of evasion and obfuscation.

John Robinson, St. Paul

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I am stunned every day that the president-elect announces appointments for people who are not qualified by education or experience to head the tasks they are given. Fealty to Trump is not the standard voters should respect. We can do better.

Janis Bibee, Anoka

I have long felt that American Jews fail to recognize the importance of the Jewish state of Israel to the Jewish people of the diaspora. Probably that is the result of having the security of living in a free and democratic country that in the last decade saw a significant and encouraging decline in the number and intensity of antisemitic attacks. However, that illusion has been pierced since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel triggered a dramatic increase in antisemitism in both Europe and America, and most recently in the “Jew Hunt” in the Netherlands, where Jewish fans attending a soccer match were beaten in the streets of Amsterdam (”Israeli soccer fans are attacked,” Nov. 9, and “More arrests coming in melee,” Nov. 13).

But unlike what happened in Europe in the 1930s, when Jews had nowhere to go to escape the slaughter that was coming, we are no longer helpless. Israel’s sending of planes to rescue the Jews under attack in the Netherlands demonstrates that when Jews are under attack today, there is someone to come to their aid. Hopefully Jews in the diaspora, and in particular those living in America, will better understand the need to support the continued existence of a strong and independent Jewish state.

Ronald Haskvitz, Minnetonka

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Does history repeat itself? The answer is a resounding yes, and never has it been more obvious than the recent events that took place in Amsterdam. As we learned more about the attacks, Jews and others sadly recall that 86 years ago (Nov. 9-10, 1938), Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against German Jews during Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass).

In 1938, led by mobs of SA (Sturmabteilung), a paramilitary wing of the Nazi party composed of young men who engaged in violent street fighting, people roamed the streets attacking Jews who literally ran for their lives. In Amsterdam, according to the Associated Press article, “hordes of young people apparently riled up by calls on social media to target Jewish people” attacked Israeli soccer fans after the soccer game. Once again Jews were running for their lives, this time through the streets of Amsterdam in an attempt to escape their attackers.

Unfortunately antisemitism continues throughout the world.

Thankfully, unlike 1938, this time around people like the president of the European Commission have denounced the attacker’s violent behavior and the Dutch minister of justice and security vowed to track down and prosecute the perpetrators. So let us not forget that, unfortunately, history sometimes does repeat itself, and when we see discrimination and injustice taking place it is our responsibility to speak out and condemn hatred and violence of any sort.

Sylvia Fine, Minneapolis

In “Concordia University defies trends as enrollment climbs” (Nov. 11), the reporter rightly remarks on Concordia’s amazing feat of having doubled enrollment over the past decade while so many other colleges are barely hanging on. The article paraphrases the former admissions director, Kristin Vogel: “In the end, the reset didn’t require subsidizing tuition, Vogel said, because they made up for it by enrolling so many additional students.”

My (obvious) questions are: Has Concordia likewise doubled its faculty during the same period? And how have faculty workloads changed? Something doesn’t add up: Do the math.

Charles McKhann, St. Paul