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innesota Star Tribune May 28 reported its “Fatal chain of events”
- Around 8 p.m. Monday, police were called to investigate a report of someone trying to pay with a counterfeit bill at Cup Foods, 3759 Chicago Av.
- Two rookie police officers found a man matching the suspect’s description parked in his car on E 38th St., across the street from Cup Foods, and arrested him. They are then joined by Officers Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao.
- Officers Chauvin and Thao take the suspect around the corner to their squad car parked on Chicago Av. where Chauvin restrains George Floyd with a knee to his neck. A short time later, paramedics arrive and put Floyd onto a gurney and into a waiting ambulance. Floyd was taken to HCMC, where he died at 9:25 p.m.
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mericans have habit of feigning “shock”
like “thoughts and prayers” as if what happened hadn’t background
Minneapolis Star Tribune reported the state’s governor saying “… he was ‘shocked and horrified’ by the video of George Floyd’s death;” and the US president “… calling it ‘a very, very sad event.’”
However, I always wonder about the
background, history, the prior or preexisting conditions leading up to a crisis
moment, or a compounding of crises.
I wondered about the Minneapolis case
as I did about the case (more than one case) of a US military veteran with known mental illness whose neighbors
called 911 instead of calling social services. In the current case, I wondered
why the complainant hadn’t called a banking institution if the problem was a
bad check.
At Cable News Network online was a brief note that seemed no more about
shirking responsibility and passing the buck:
“Cup Foods co-owner Mahmoud Abumayyaleh describes the moments that led to one of his employee’s calling the police on George Floyd for alleged fraud. Abumayyaleh states he saw no sign of Floyd resisting arrest in the shop’s surveillance video.”
This states the moment, not the prior moments. Some of the preexisting
conditions are these:
- The merchant has a documented history of conflict with the community in a troubled neighborhood.
- The merchant has connected with criminal justice in at least one instance of having convicted felon employee
- The merchant has tangled with police and courts about bringing down property values because of neighbor criminal actions and likely criminal actions observed by the grocer.
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UP Foods business’ license problem
An appellate court found that the problems
at CUP Foods illustrate the collision between two important principles of
United States jurisprudence:
- the reasonable public safety expectations of citizens and
- the preservation of private property rights, which, in this case, take the form of business licenses.
October 1998
- Police began surveillance of CUP Foods.
- Police observed loitering and hand-to-hand exchanges outside the store and in the store entryway.
- Using confidential informants, police made several ‘controlled buys’ of either crack cocaine or apparent crack cocaine inside CUP Foods.
November 18, 1998
Based on the results of the controlled buys, police obtained a search
warrant for CUP Foods, and in executing that warrant, police recovered
- stolen cell phones;
- a bullet-proof vest;
- live ammunition;
- a stolen bicycle;
- ephedrine, an ingredient in methamphetamine;
- glass tubing;
- baggies of what appeared to be crack cocaine (but later proved to lack cocaine base);
- postal scales; and
- three firearms.
Police also observed bullet holes in a door. The state charged Nabil Abumayyaleh with
unlawful possession of a firearm, a charge that was later dismissed. Despite the evidence, the store keeper was
not charged with a crime.
1999
- Police were making routine “controlled buys [of drugs] in CUP Foods.
- On one occasion, [they observed] “participants complet[ing] a [drug] transaction in plain view of Nabil Abumayyaleh as he worked as a cashier.”
November 9, 1999
- “A Minneapolis police officer recovered crack cocaine from a CUP Foods shelf during the course of answering a call reporting an armed man in the area.”
- Hennepin County Attorney’s Office began “a nuisance-abatement proceeding against CUP Foods.”
February 25, 2000, March 27, 2000
After stays because of wrangling over business license revocation, two
amended notices were filed against CUP Foods
March 28, 30, 31; May 5, May 15, 2000
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) conducted evidentiary hearings; though
the evidence was not ruled to warrant revocation of license, the court cited
findings from testimony presented in evidence by police officers and neighbors:
- chronic loitering at CUP Foods;
- numerous hand-to-hand exchanges, an indication of drug dealing, taking place in and outside the store; and
- controlled drug buys inside the store.
Moreover, the store’s internal organization and postings on windows were
reported frustrate law enforcement’s ability to monitor cited activity,
investigate products previously cited, or to otherwise conduct proper policing.
“The inability to see into the store’s windows encourages loitering and
criminal activity in general at CUP Foods.”
In 1989 the City of Minneapolis had first issued CUP Foods (Chicago
Unbeatable Prices) four licenses: (1) grocery store; (2) food manufacturer; (3)
tobacco dealer; and (4) off-sale 3.2 beer vendor; subject to annual renewal.
Over the years, CUP Foods had exceeded his licensure requirements. Over the years, the crime problem in the area of 38th and Chicago” had worsened;
and neighborhood residents had formed a task force aimed at improving safety and reducing
drug-dealing activity in the neighborhood.
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n the case of CUP Foods, Inc., a Minnesota Corporation, and its
President Samir Hamaden Abumayyaleh, Relators, vs. City of Minneapolis, Respondent.
Filed September 11, 2001 Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded G.
Barry Anderson, Judge City of Minneapolis Docket No. 9-2110-12612-3
Findings in the affirmative
- City of Minneapolis’ concluded that “… supported by substantial evidence…, there [was] good cause to take adverse license action against CUP Foods Inc.
- The ALJ [administrative law judge] did not abuse her discretion by denying CUP Foods’ motion to strike testimony concerning controlled drug buys.”
The area of CUP Foods is “a high-crime area of Minneapolis” long known
for drug and gang activities, and loitering. It seems CUP Foods was more in the problem
than in the solution.
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hy call 911, police, over a bad
check?
Perhaps, being an “enabler” of local crime—certainly not a neighborly helper
in preventing local crime—CUP Foods reached for a distraction, blinding force to
hide its hand. So —
- A hired hand causes one man’s death
- A hired hand upsets an already troubled community; and
- A hired hand’s actions further fuel the fears and chaos of a nation in massive crisis, struggling through a pandemic.
There was indeed a chain of
events. But the Star Tribute’s “chain” didn’t even scratch the surface.
All the feigned shock, the
thoughts and prayers, the weeping and moaning, the looting and burning, the “in-your-face”
anger, the daytime and nightline outraged talkers, the pros, the anti’s or indifference
will neither address nor change what needs to be addressed and changed.
No “war on” this or that (on drugs
or pandemics) is going to heal what needs to be healed. Wars hurt. They seed
and worsen resentments. War creates more wars.
A community hurting needs to be
healed. Healing takes work. Healing can only be accomplished by people working together
(offline, up close, face to face, masked or, in time, unmasked), in community
and communication, for the long term.
In the meantime, a little sober reflection goes a long, long
way toward living another day.
Sources
Star Tribune “What we know about Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao, two of the
officers caught on tape in the death of George Floyd: Four officers on scene
have been fired. They have not yet been officially identified by department
officials” Andy Mannix Star Tribune
May 26, 2020 https://www.startribune.com/what-we-know-about-derek-chauvin-and-tou-thao-two-of-the-officers-caught-on-tape-in-the-death-of-george-floyd/570777632/
Minnesota Government Library
STATE OF MINNESOTA IN COURT OF APPEALS C2-01-399: CUP Foods, Inc., a
Minnesota Corporation, and its President Samir Hamaden Abumayyaleh, Relators, vs.
City of Minneapolis, Respondent. Filed September 11, 2001 Affirmed in part,
reversed in part, and remanded G. Barry Anderson, Judge City of Minneapolis Docket
No. 9-2110-12612-3
Ronald I. Meshbesher, Jonathan M. Peck, Meshbesher & Spence, Ltd.,
1616 Park Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404
(for relators)
Jay M. Heffern, Minneapolis City Attorney, Scott Reeves, Assistant
Minneapolis City Attorney, 300 Metropolitan Centre, 333 South Seventh Street,
Minneapolis, MN 55402 (for respondent)
Considered and decided by G. Barry Anderson, Presiding Judge, R.A.
Randall, Judge, and Robert H. Schumacher, Judge.
https://mn.gov/law-library-stat/archive/ctappub/0109/c201399.htm
Star Tribune “George Floyd showed no signs of life from time EMS
arrived, fire department report says: Hennepin Healthcare EMS chief says he
believes that paramedics did everything right after getting the medical
distress call.” Liz Sawyer Star Tribune May 28, 2020
https://www.startribune.com/first-responders-worked-nearly-an-hour-to-save-floyd-before-he-was-pronounced-dead/570806682/
Star Tribune “Frey: Arrest, charge officer who knelt on George Floyd’s
neck before death: The four fired officers have been identified” Liz Navratil
and Libor Jany Star Tribune May 27, 2020 https://www.startribune.com/frey-arrest-charge-officer-who-knelt-on-floyd-s-neck-before-death/570804062/
CNN “Store owner explains why police were called on George Floyd” May
28, 2020 https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/05/28/george-floyd-store-owner-staff-call-police-ctn-sot-vpx.cnn
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