On Feb. 20, Ward 7 Council Member Katie Cashman sent an email to members of the Uptown community indicating that the We Push for Peace violence interrupter group would be working in Uptown starting the next day, Feb. 21.
The problem? They are nowhere to be seen.
Cashman stated they would start at 4 p.m. in the evenings and would have an end time that would “depend on what they see and what is going on.” And the violence interrupters would be in Uptown until March 31 or “until they run out of funding, whatever occurs first.”
Cashman stated that she directed We Push for Peace to work on Hennepin Avenue from Lake Street to 28th Street and surrounding side streets and said she would be “curious to hear… feedback on how this violence interrupter contract contributes to both real and perceived safety challenges in Uptown.”
It is unclear what precipitated this event, since there was not a recent uptick in crime in the area, and the winter months are typically lower in crime.
Residents and business owners are right to be frustrated at the lack of communication about the arrival of the violence interrupters.
Had there been planning efforts, the community could have clarified that a start time of 4 p.m. during winter months is the wrong time of day and year for any meaningful change concerning safety in Uptown. Furthermore, with planning, there could have been a coordinated effort between violence interrupters, the police, and the community to determine relevant areas to address, as opposed to having their location mandated by a City Council member.
Several recipients took issue with the Katie Cashman’s language of “real and perceived safety challenges in Uptown.”
From 2019 to 2024, crime decreased in North Minneapolis and Downtown, but it increased by 45% in the Fifth Precinct, which includes Uptown. The safety challenges Uptown faces are real, full stop.
Business owners I have spoken with describe having to spend up to a third of their time focusing on safety and cleanliness issues, and many have described the cost of private security as prohibitive.
From the email, several things were unclear: how was this last-minute appropriation made, and where are the funds coming from? How does We Push for Peace determine when a shift is over? Will We Push for Peace be in the area every day? How could residents contact the group if needed?
So where are they?
Cashman invited email recipients to say hello to We Push for Peace, so in a good-faith effort, I attempted to catch up with them four times: on Friday, Feb. 21, at 10 p.m., I drove around the area. On Saturday, Feb. 22, at 5:30 pm, I biked around the area for 20 minutes. On Monday, Feb. 24, I walked along Hennepin from 27th Street to 31st Street at 6 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. On Tuesday, Feb. 25 I biked around the area for 20 minutes, from 5:40 –6:00 p.m. At no time did I see them.
I don’t know what the issue is, but given the language of Cashman’s email (“evenings”), it seems as if the violence interrupters were supposed to be there during at least some of these times.
Were the times wrong? It is unclear, but given the many recent issues around unarmed safety initiatives in the city, including a lack of financial accountability, residents are right to ask how their taxpayer dollars are being spent and if the plans to keep them safe are meaningful or simply a veneer.
Let's set them up for success.
When violence interrupters were introduced in Minneapolis as an effective complement to police officers, I was excited and looking forward to this new chapter of public safety in the city. But violence interrupters are effective because they build trust with the community.
This cannot happen in one month, and it cannot happen with poorly planned efforts such as this, which do not give these initiatives the chance to succeed. We need more oversight of violence interrupter programs and cogent efforts with community input as to their deployment.
