LEAN Duluth
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I'm constantly looking over my shoulder...
May 17, 2021
Ever since I saw Duluth riot police line up against a group of teenagers on the highway during the summer, I'm constantly looking over my shoulder whenever I see police around. I know there's nothing anyone could do if they decide to hurt someone.
I have been silent for too long. I’m a Black Native woman that lived in Duluth for years. I was arrested in 2018 on a bench warrant due to missing court. I was diagnosed with a brain tumor also in 2018 due to my ex assaulting me and leaving me with internal brain bleeding. A headache is the only way my tumor was discovered. I've lived in Minnesota my whole life and have never got the health care that I deserve. Can get help with literally everything else but my health. So in this situation I needed to leave state to get my tumor looked at and I called St. Louis County to tell them I wouldn't make it to court and they said they would chart it. What they tried to charge me with is assault. I was in the hospital due to mental health which I've suffered with since a young child. I was in the mental health unit calmly pacing the hallway talking to the security guard. When out of nowhere this nurse come and orders a dose of Haldol. Now mind you I'm allergic to Haldol and the nurse who issued it knew that. So for no reason she ordered it. And when I refused it orally she called the security guards to come in and hold me down. Now mind you the security guard I was talking to was baffled and she told the nurse to stop. However the nurse said shut the f up and after that the security guard vanished and these Men rushed in and slammed me to the ground. They then proceeded to pick me up and bring me to the room where they would shackle my wrists and ankles to the bed for no reason. I panicked and started flailing and spitting. That's when they came with a spit mask and and put it on my head making it almost impossible to breathe. If people don't know what a spit mask is its a black net they put over your head and its not pleasant. I spit not to be disrespectful at first but because they were triggering me. The old man that I bit made almost sure I wasn't able to breathe. At one point in time all these Men had me held down and this old man came and put his hand over my mouth and nose. Doing it in a way no one could notice what he was doing. I started flailing my legs because mind you I have asthma and autism so i was beyond triggered. He he held his hand there for a good minute to the point i couldn't breathe and I couldn't think of anything to do so I bit him. Right in the thumb area and he release his grip on my face. After that I was transported to a different part of the hospital for the remainder of my stay. It wasn't until the day I was released did I find out the guy was trying to press charges even though I hadn't drawn any blood. When I finally was released I was called out of state for a family emergency and to get my tumor looked at. And the courts new I couldn't make it. When I finally made it back to the states later id literally been in Duluth for months before being picked up on a bench warrant. I was only picked up because me and my ex girlfriend got called on for fighting. But when they arrested me they said got her as if I was hard to find. So being I had never been arrested I was terrified. I was lied to about my phone call and getting my mental health meds. I was in the holding cell the whole time I never made it back to the jail because I was having a mental health breakdown and was put in a straight jacket. If people don't know what those are its a very stiff piece of material that you wear over your whole body like a dress. After being thrown in a straight jacket they then proceeded to bring me into a tiny ass cell with a brick platform where they shackled me to it. Now mind you I'm a sexual assault survivor so this was beyond traumatizing. I was left there for hours where I ended up peeing myself and puking which sat inches from my face. The guards laughed at me for hours and it was a female sheriff that got me out and is like this is wrong. After that I found out I had been booked completely wrong. I was booked as a man like what. I finished my time I had to there and then was released. However I'd gone in with a $400 and my phone and none of it was returned to me when they let me go. I from the St. Louis County jail to Im sharing my story because the system needs to DO BETTER. And people need to be held responsible for their actions.
This past July I was at work going door to door in the Lincoln Park neighborhood when I witnessed a man being questioned by Duluth Police Department officers. They started to arrest the individual when he started yelling, "help me! help me!." I witnessed the arrest from a distance and then approached the officers after the individual was safely put in the squad car. I approached the officers and asked if everything was okay. I asked why the man was being arrested. They told me that it was none of my business and that I could check the jail roster. When continuing to ask whether the man is okay, officer Jim Nilson became noticeably escalated, asking for my name. I also stated to the other officer, Daryll Driver, that he ran a stop sign at high speed without his lights/sirens on. I expressed my concern about safety with a school and day care nearby. At this time, Officer Nilson said my name into the radio and asked if there were any warrants out for my arrest. He stated to the dispatchers that I was interfering with the arrest. At this time, I left, walking away from the officer because I did not want any trouble. The officer then followed me down the sidewalk to my coworker and demanded to get my information and who I worked for. I showed him my badge and the conversation was over. Following this encounter, the DPD called my employer and left voicemails stating that I was interfering with an arrest while at work. I was confused because I kept a safe distance from the officers at all times, was extremely respectful, and left when they asked me to. I didn't even approach them until after the man was safely placed in the squad car. Additionally, if they think I was interfering with an arrest, why didn't they just charge me with that on the scene? Having them call my employer felt like retaliation for questioning their work. Furthermore, as a Black man it felt like the status quo from the Duluth Police Department. After this, I reached out to the Duluth NAACP to further investigate the situation. While Chief Tusken had a long conversation with me about the incident, his department never followed up. I spoke multiple times at the Citizen Review Board and they have not done anything either. The Duluth NAACP got body cam footage that verified everything that happened. After their conversation with the department, I received a letter written by Chief Tusken saying that the officers should not have escalated the situation or called my employer. However, the letter also said that the incident was not grounds for formal discipline of the officers involved. The letter merely inferred that the incident was due to misunderstandings on both sides and that a restorative conversation with the officers would improve relations in the future. It neglected the power difference involved when two police officers retaliate against a Black member of the community. It also neglected the fact that the officers' actions could have severely impacted my livelihood. I am not convinced that anything has been done to prevent the same situation from happening in the future.
I went to the Duluth Police Department for help and they turned everything around on me so I told them forget it, I don't want to talk to you. They started chasing me down eventually catching up to me. Officer Kneeland then grabbed my arm and twisted it. I yelled in pain. When I yelled in pain, Officer Kneeland then brutally punched me in my face. Officer Kneeland also started choking me while I was fighting to breath on the ground. His partner then falsified her police statement saying that I punched Officer Kneeland and stating I said "I would have killed him," which I never said. She also never mentioned in her report that her partner choked me and assaulted me. All of the officers involved falsified the statements to fit their story and may have altered their body and vehicle cam footage.
Officer Tinsley violated my rights years ago when a guy punched an old guy in the face down town and i was a witness. I yelled at the guy to get back hear as Tinsley was sitting in his car but did not see it happen. He immediately got out and asked me for my id, i asked him why and told him he was getting away. He then yelled give me your id or your going to jail for disturbing the piece. Under fear of arrest i gave him my id to check me for warrants and was cleared as i have never broken the law. I have studied the constitution and would now challenge him on the fact that you can yell at a criminal to attract police attention with out being id'ed. After clearing me he finally went to the apartment the guy went in to only feet away and came out and said he gave him a fifth degree assault ticket. I confronted him a few years later about it but he said this is not the time or place at a public setting. So when is the time and place you can talk about it or apologize for how you treated the situation.
Hi, this is [...] calling from Berkely, California. I’m from Biwabik, Minnesota, so I was waiting for the shuttle on top of the hill to come from the Minneapolis airport and I was walking around as dark approached with a rubber physical therapy band around my ankles. There was nobody there as far as I could see except for the woman inside the office, where the door was locked. She was working with the Skyline Shuttle. Then three officers come up to me and said they had a 911 call stating ‘whatever’, so they surrounded me [...] they were much taller than me, and intimidated me and ridiculed me. These were Hermantown police, and they said that I was funny or something. So then I said ‘am I free to go?’ or I think I just told them I didn’t have my driver’s license - I don’t know if they asked for it. For some reason I thought they knew that I didn’t have a driver’s license, so I said ‘am I free to go?’ and they said ‘yeah’. I started walking away and they said ‘sit in your car!’. Well I didn’t feel like sitting in the car without a driver’s license, [it was] my brother’s car, so I knocked on the door of the big [shuttle] office there. Anyways, she came and unlocked the door and I sat inside and escaped these intimidating officers. That’s my statement.
I'm in the Beltrami County Jail and I fear for my life. I've been verbally assaulted by staff and physically by inmates. The jail staff covers up these incidents and allows crimes to be committed against me. I have documented many incidents involving me and other inmates about the corruption in this jail, courts, and police force. I have a lot of evidence and witnesses to this corruption.
Last year in Miller Dwan police were allowed into the mental health triage to arrest me. It's a shame that the police were allowed to violate hppa laws while I awaiting mental health services.
I was being harassed by police and they started to use loved ones to act as if they were snitching. They would get me pissed off and try to get me to stop caring about them. They would spark up problems and then set up a scene where they be sick of me and set me up. That made me seem like the bad guy in every situation.
During my nine years of living in the twin ports, I have had my share of police interaction. Some were because of my own doing. Speeding, not coming to a complete stop, minor offenses of those nature. But there were some interactions that didn't have anything to do with a traffic violation. Stops that, after they occurred, I would document on Facebook the absurdity of said stop. For instance, I was once pulled over in Morgan Park because my tags were going to expire in a couple months. While this wasn’t anything new for me and other people of color in the twin ports, I did have a weekend where I was pulled over 4 times total and 3 times in the same night. This is that story. While going to school and working full time in Duluth, I would also drive for Uber to make a little extra money. This would not only require my license and insurance be up to date but also my car having to pass the occasional inspection. I say this because its important to know that on the weekend in question, my license was not only up to date, but my car had also met the requirements to be used for Uber. The night that all three stops happened was a Saturday night while driving Uber. The first stop happened on a Friday night while leaving a bar in East Duluth. There was an officer in that parking lot who followed me all the way to downtown Duluth. Once we came to a stop, he flashed his lights and came to my car. He told me that he noticed the “drunk people” getting into the car at the bar and he wanted to make sure nobody was driving drunk. I explain who I was, and we were free to leave without incident. The next night, I was stopped three times. The first one came while transporting a few people from a bar in Proctor down to downtown Duluth. The officer stated my bright headlights were on and that’s why he pulled me over. While its embarrassing to be pulled over while having clients, the people in my car were very understanding and the cop let us go without ticket or any other incident. After dropping off that group, I picked up some other people from a bar downtown. While headed up the hill, I was pulled over again. This was the first time I had ever been pulled over twice in the same day. Let alone within an hour of each other. When the officer walked up to my car, he seemed shocked to find me in the front seat of the car. His exact words were “You’re not *****”. ***** is my wife and co-owner of the car. I responded by telling him I wasn’t, and he asked who ***** was. I told him she was my wife and that if he checked, he’d see that the car was also registered to me. He took my license and ran it and returned and let me go. This time, I was told that I was pulled over because when the plates were ran, ***** was the only one who popped up, and it was clear I wasn’t her. The final stop of the night came while I was in Canal Park. This stop was different as I had made an illegal left turn. Though I was unaware this was illegal, once I went back to the spot, I saw the sign that clearly stated this fact. During the 3rd stop, I was very agitated at this point, and when the officer walked up, I raised my voice at him. As soon as I saw who it was, I was immediately apologetic. I knew this officer personally, and I explained to him that this was my 3rd stop of the night. This officer informed me of what I did and apologized for the stop and let me go. I then decided this was a sign and went straight home for the night. Being stopped in Duluth was a common occurrence for me while I lived in Duluth. It’s also common for other people of color that I have talked to who also live in Duluth. While DWB (driving while black) might be a myth to some people, it is very real to the people of color who live in areas like Duluth. If there is something being done to make sure others do not have to have a weekend like the one I did, I support it greatly.
In February of 2016, my abusive husband at the time called the police on me because I locked myself in a room to avoid him while he was high. A couple of DPD officers showed up to our home. The officers, invited into my home by my abuser, made me come out to talk to them. Standing about 10 feet away from where my abuser stood able to hear everything I said, one of the officers pressured me to tell them about anything abusive my husband had done that day or in the past. I relented and divulged some details about his abuse - that he would get high and clean his guns to threaten me, that he would get high and point his loaded rifle out the windows of our apartment towards a public park across the street to "test the scope," that he was getting high by abusing medications prescribed to him. The police told me (and my abuser since he was right there and could hear this conversation) they couldn't do anything because he was high on drugs prescribed to him (there were no illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia in the house), rifles are legal in this state without a permit, and he hadn't pointed a loaded gun directly at me. In that one response to my abuser’s 911 call on me for doing nothing but hiding from him, the Duluth police effectively solidified my abuser’s message to me that he was in complete control and could literally get the cops to help him terrorize me. The police left me with a half sheet of blue paper with some crisis hotlines printed on it that they said I could call if I “needed help.” As if I didn’t already need help. As if they didn’t just participate in terrorizing me. As if they didn’t just send my abuser the very clear message that he was getting away with abusing me and reinforce for him the exact rules that he could continue to follow to keep abusing me with impunity. Months later, I finally escaped. I fled my home on foot with a backpack of clothes and my dog. My abuser was, I think, experiencing some kind of drug-induced psychosis that day. He hadn’t slept in days and he was methodically moving all of our belongings into our bedroom - using a drill to screw the door closed every time he went into the room and every time he left the room to gather more stuff. When I made the decision to leave and quickly tried to pack bare necessities in a backpack, he cornered me and stared at me with his hollow, empty, drugged out eyes while he poured water into my backpack. I was able to flee, I did make it out alive. I called the police both because I feared for myself and for my abuser harming himself due to his drug abuse and state of mind at the time. I could tell the domestic violence officer that I was connected with was waiting for me to say some kind of magic phrase before taking action, without directly telling me what my options were, or what I needed to day. Essentially the conversation went - we knocked on the door and he’s not answering, we can’t go in the house to check on him unless “someone who lives there” let’s us in... It felt as though they were being careful to not make it seem as though I had to physically go back to the home and let them in, but that actually that was what I would have had to do to grant them access to the home. Their communication was far from direct and it left me feeling unsure and like this was a hopeless situation. In that same conversation, I told the officer that immediately after I left, my abuser began to list all of my belongings for sale on craigslist. To this, at least, they did give me a direct answer, which was, “we don’t get involved in domestic property disputes.” They said they could escort me into the home to ensure I was safe so I could collect my belongings, but if my husband disputed anything I wanted to take, they were not going to get involved, and they would not let me take it. My abuser continued to have all the power, supported by police officers and the laws. I had to abandon all of my belongings. For days, I knew he was still camped out in our home, blocks away from where I was staying on a friend’s couch, systematically destroying or selling EVERY SINGLE material possession I had that I didn’t manage to take with me in my one backpack of stuff. And I couldn’t do anything about it. I tried to get help by following the rules I had been raised to believe in. Someone is hurting me, so I’m supposed to call the police. I did. I was told that the way I was being hurt, the way the abuse was happening, wasn’t technically against the law. After I made the decision to leave, nearly every step I took, I was faced with a situation that seemed so crappy, it almost seemed better to go back to my crappy, but familiar abusive relationship. The Duluth police provided me with no help in navigating the system. Although they spoke to me directly during two separate incidents where I was in crisis and in danger, they offered nothing beyond sometimes vague answers in response to questions that I asked them. They gave me no guidance on how to navigate this beyond that blue piece of paper with some crisis hotlines. The Duluth police were complicit in my abuse and they emboldened my abuser.
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