It has been more than four years since George Floyd was murdered on a Minneapolis street, but one of the things I noticed throughout my first year reporting on criminal justice for Sahan Journal is that we are still very much grappling with the aftermath of the killing.
This year, city staff unveiled plans to redevelop both the intersection where Floyd was killed and the former Minneapolis Police Third Precinct building.
As a criminal justice reporter, I’m often writing about tragic events. I try to also report on positive things happening in the community, such as public safety agencies allocating more resources to help people of color.
Here are the top five criminal justice stories from this past year.
1. Community members feel unheard in redevelopment of Minneapolis police’s Third Precinct
When I started my job at Sahan, I wanted to find out what was going on with the former Third Precinct building. The building was damaged and set on fire during protests following George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Since then, the building has sat empty, and looks almost the same. The city didn’t take down the razor wire that encircled it until this past October.
Minneapolis officials announced earlier this year that they wanted to turn the building into a “democracy center” to house the city’s elections and voter services office, and to serve as an early voting center. City staff say that about 8,000 square feet of space would be reserved for community use.
But when I spoke with community members who live and work nearby, most said the city wasn’t listening to them, and was moving forward with plans that they didn’t support. Community members said they wanted more control in the process, and wanted the former building to serve the neighborhood and provide resources.
2. Minneapolis city staff back plan that would keep free flow of traffic through George Floyd Square
The intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis, known as George Floyd Square, also has remained mostly untouched since Floyd was killed there. While traffic has returned to the street, some buses still don’t serve the area. The People’s Way, a former Speedway gas station across the street, has been boarded up and covered in protest art.
The city started holding monthly workshops this year to get feedback on what community residents want the square to look like. I attended a meeting in July, and many said they want the intersection to serve the people who live and work there, not just those who come to visit the square.
In October, city staff unveiled their vision for the site at an open house for community members at a church near the square. In addition to keeping traffic flowing, and bringing back bus lines, the city also wants to widen sidewalks to make them more pedestrian friendly. It wants to have the ability to close down streets easily for events, like the anniversary of Floyd’s murder.
But in early December, the City Council voted to not move forward with the plan and research the idea of creating a pedestrian plaza instead.
3. How will Trump’s win impact Minneapolis police reform plans? One scholar says it could put a stop to progress.
After Donald Trump was elected president for the second time this past November, I wanted to find out what could happen to Minneapolis’ federal consent decree, which is still being negotiated between the city and the Department of Justice.
The DOJ opened an investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department after George Floyd was murdered and found patterns of police discrimination against people of color. A consent decree would be a court-enforced agreement between the city and DOJ that would require Minneapolis to make sweeping changes to how it approaches policing.
I spoke with an expert who worked for the DOJ during the Obama administration, and she said that if a consent decree isn’t negotiated before Trump takes office, the DOJ probably will walk away from the negotiations. She said that’s what happened to Chicago when Trump took power in 2017, which forced the Illinois attorney general to sue the city in federal court to start the consent decree process. Community advocates also expressed concern that a federal consent decree won’t happen after Trump is inaugurated.
4. Minnesota’s new Murdered and Missing Black Women and Girls Office could serve as model for country
In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law to create the first state office in the country dedicated to murdered and missing Black women and girls. This year, the Department of Public Safety announced the office’s director would be Kaleena Burkes. I wanted to meet with her and learn more about the office. I also wanted to learn more about why this office was needed, and how Black women are disproportionately impacted by violence.
Data shows that Black women in Minnesota are nearly three times more likely to be killed than their white peers. And while Black women make up only 7% of the state’s population, they comprise 40% of domestic violence victims in the state.
I also met with Lakeisha Lee, whose sister, Brittany Clardy was murdered in 2013. Lee served on a statewide task force, which called for the Minnesota office to be established. She said Black women and girls lack support from the justice system. Lee said she’s hopeful that the office will provide that support, and that she has been working with politicians to encourage others to follow Minnesota’s lead.
5. A place for ceremony, healing: Hennepin County will add sweat lodges to serve Native detainees
In May, the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners voted to build two sweat lodges at the Adult Corrections Facility, a jail in Plymouth.
Sweat lodges are dome-shaped, heated structures and are sacred spaces for Native people. Visual journalist Aaron Nesheim and I met Joseph Bester, a Dakota elder, at a sweat lodge near Fort Snelling. I had never entered a sweat lodge before, and knew if I wanted to write about them, I needed to see one in person.
Bester said that sweat lodges are especially helpful for incarcerated people. A sweat lodge ceremony gives people time to reflect on how they can help others and how they fit into a larger community, he said.
County staff say they hope that adding the sweat lodges will reduce recidivism rates.
