"It will be hard to fix either of those things if the highest paid employee in the history of Minneapolis spends his time yelling at the people that he works for on Twitter." "The biggest problems with Minneapolis and its police department are a lack of trust and poor leadership," said Charlie Rybak, co-founder of online news service Southwest Voices and son of the former Mayor R.T. "This sort of condescension and obnoxiousness should be grounds for suspension or termination," said WCCO radio host Jason DeRusha. Your hatefulness speak for itself," he said to a poster remarking on his $300,000 annual salary.īy late Thursday, some were calling for Alexander to be disciplined. "Stop winning," he said to someone accusing him of being rude. No one controls anyone anymore … sorry," he responted to a post calling him "one more cop can't control." Alexander spent the next couple hours replying to more critics with a total of 17 more tweets. "I'm interested in protecting this community not denouncing police who are trying 24/7 to protect us."įrom there, other users began interjecting into the conversation, some calling out Alexander's flippant tone. "I don't care about what you think," he told Twitter user Jim Kruzitski, who said Alexander "irrationally scolded" Minneapolis residents. Many criticized Alexander for taking the divisive tone with the critics he'd pledged to unite. "It's really going to take all of us to do that," he told the City Council in August. Since Frey nominated him to be the city's first community safety commissioner, Alexander has promised to work to better coordinate safety services and rebuild trust in Minneapolis. "Don't we want the squads to be empty? We want them out on the ground throughout our community talking to people and disrupting cycles of violence," she said. "I think on Twitter, it's almost as if everything goes, unless it's something you don't like," she said.Ĭlemons said she supports Operation Endeavor and believes the initial criticisms about the empty police squad cars weren't fair. Clemons said she's happy with the commissioner's work so far. Among them was Lisa Clemons, founder of the outreach group A Mother's Love Initiative. "I really hope that this inspires leadership to consider the residents more fully and lifts up the fact that we all should be more involved in what public safety is for Minneapolis." What we saw yesterday was the opposite of that," Foster said. "As the lead public official on public safety in Minneapolis the commissioner's behavior sets the tone for how Minneapolis police engage with community members. In a statement, Foster said she was glad to see how Alexander followed-up Friday to his earlier posts.
I'm not taking any criticism on operation endeavor quite the opposite … ask the residents in north Minneapolis in which I bet you don't live there." To which Alexander said: "Actually you're wrong again. Visibility on its own is not public safety it just isn't."
"But you came to Minneapolis where relationships between police and community are, at best, tense. "I understand that you're taking a lot of criticism around Op Endeavor," Foster replied. "Enough of the two faced talking from both sides of your mouth already!" "It shows an effort to increase police visibility throughout downtown and across the city if you didn't see them you would complain about that wouldn't you," Alexander replied. "What does this endeavor to show?" Foster, a city resident, asked in a reference to "Operation Endeavor," a data-centric policing initiative Minneapolis introduced last month. I regret the tone of my responses, and I'm committed to respectful, constructive engagement with the communities we serve."Īlexander's tweets began late afternoon Thursday after Amity Foster tagged him and Mayor Jacob Frey in a post questioning why the city had stationed nine empty police squad cars downtown on Nicollet Avenue. "I care deeply about the success of our community safety work in Minneapolis, and I know building trust happens one interaction at a time. "The way I engaged with constituents last night on Twitter did not meet the standards I hold for myself and the Office of Community Safety team," Cedric Alexander, who is two months on the job, said in a statement Friday. Minneapolis' new commissioner of public safety says he regrets the "tone" of his replies on social media to community members asking critical questions about his new policing strategy in downtown, responding to accusations of unprofessionalism from the evening tweetstorm.
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