The Duluth police were complicit in my abuse...

The DPD actively stopped trained crisis responder neighbor from assisting with de-escalation. I used to have a neighbor two blocks away from me, they are no longer my neighbor, which is unfortunate. I am Indigenous, they are Indigenous. I was walking one hot summer day, and heard shouting and saw many police cars a couple blocks away from where I live. This was about a month or two after George Floyd's murder, so I ran over, as a concerned neighbor. There were 11 officers surrounding the outside of this man's house. He was yelling at them and seemed to be experiencing a mental health crisis. I was asked to identify myself, having been on a walk, didn't have my phone or ID, so I identified myself verbally. I even stated how I am a trained crisis response provider, trained by a local tribal agency (whom I identified to them). I said I was his neighbor and I was concerned that the police were escalating the situation by having all these men with guns staring back at and posturing threateningly to a man who is distraught. The officer interacting with me said that since he didn't know me and I couldn't identify myself, I did, he has a computer in one of the multitude of police cars on scene. And he said that the DPD's social workers would take over soon. Boy did they handle it poorly. I was told to stay away from the scene, I was not allowed to sit in any shade, as it was too close for their liking which seemed like a punishment to me for butting in. It's like mid 80's and glaring sun. Getting back to the social workers who showed up, they obviously had little to no training about Indigenous peoples. When they got to the stoop where he was, they did check to see if they could talk with him, but they grab his medicine pouch around his neck to say that it looks pretty? Strike one. They pick up his spirit plate full of food and ask him to eat some? Atrocious. He told them what it was and they still didn't put it down right away, still asked him to eat some. Turns out this man was grieving as he had just lost his parental rights for his children... I am now a mental health professional and was a mental health practitioner at the time. I offered to be of assistance, identified myself and my relevant experience/training/life as an Indigenous person/neighbor. And they had me sit on the sidelines to watch this all unfold. After the last insult by pushing spirit plate food at this man's face, he backs up into his door and the 11 officers swarm onto him. He pushed himself away and got into the house, shutting the door and locking it on them. He yelled at them from the window a bit, I guess since they didn't have a warrant they didn't break the door down. A similar situation unfolded again a couple of weeks later, and after that, he was no longer in that house. I should have recorded things, it was difficult to think because I thought I was going to see a neighbor get shot by the police. They only escalated things and made everything worse.

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.