A Special election next week will elect a new Minnesota senator. A recent incident at a public library in South Minneapolis sparks questions about security. And, another death at a private detention center is fueling demands for justice.
Transcript
[sound element: NSS intro theme]
HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.
ANCHOR: Today, a special election next week will elect a new Minnesota senator. A recent incident at a public library in South Minneapolis sparks questions about security. And, another death at a private detention center is fueling demands for justice. I'm Gracie J.
Residents of Crow Wing, Itasca, and Cass Counties will be sending our newest State Senator to the Capitol.
A special election will take place next Tuesday to decide who will replace former Senator Justin Eichorn. Eichorn resigned last month after being arrested for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Polls will be open from 7am to 8pm on Tuesday, April 29th. To find out where and how to vote, go to the Secretary of State's website which is sos dot mn dot gov.
Coming up, tensions are up in South Minneapolis over how private security handles vulnerable residents. As Xan Holston explains, a recent incident at a public library has sparked calls for accountability.
Xan Holston: After an altercation at the Franklin library in South Minneapolis, local activists are calling upon Hennepin County to end its contract with a local security company.
Brandon Henry: What we're here for today is there was an incident on March 25 this year at the Franklin library.
Xan Holston: Speaking outside of the Hennepin County Government Center, activist Brandon Henry said security guards from the Black Knight Protection Agency roughed up an unhoused Indigenous man named Erik as they attempted a citizen's arrest.
Brandon Henry: Grab him, slam him to the ground, bang his head on the ground, pepper spray him in the face, and then they handcuffed him to the fence.
Xan Holston: Henry said Erik had previously been banned from the library and wasn't allowed on the property. A video posted to social media shows the aftermath. The man is thrashing with one handcuffed to a fence as someone in the crowd pours liquid in his eyes to flush out the pepper spray. Henry said it didn't have to be this way.
Brandon Henry: The number one component in security training and security work as a profession is de-escalation. Now there was no violence committed against these men, but they went to violence first.
Xan Holston: Henry and a small group of Indigenous activists spoke with reporters before meeting with Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conely at a Commissioner's meeting earlier this month. Conely is also expressing concerns.
Angela Conely: I feel like this is a situation that could have been de-escalated way before it reached the point of someone being tackled and handcuffed to a fence. That's inhumane.
Xan Holston: Conely said it's not the first time she's heard complaints about Black Knight and that she's pushing to have the agency replaced with Hennepin County's in-house security. She said there were resources security could have called in before things got out of hand.
Angela Conely: This is the whole reason why we have the behavioral crisis response team at the city. We could have called the BCR. There's a number of different things that could have been done to de-escalate the situation.
Xan Holston: Black Knight CEO David Junior said his security officers followed protocol laid out by the county. He also said security footage from the library tells a different story. That it was the crowd who ramped up the incident.
David Junior: If we didn't de-escalate to her liking, right? How would anyone deal with that situation at that point in time?
Xan Holston: According to Junior, the crowd yelled, threw things and attacked his guards while they tried to arrest Erik. He said one of the guards sprayed into the crowd, but claimed it was actually a bystander who hit Erik with pepper spray while aiming for the guard.
The county has contracted with Black Knight since 2021 and the current contract runs until August of this year. Junior said that while the decision rests with the county, he's willing to step back.
David Junior: I mean, we're at the mercy of a contract. So, you know, all we can do is abide by the contract. If, if Hennepin County feels as though it's better to not have us at that location at Franklin library, then I, I'll stand behind it.
Xan Holston: For community activist Brandon Henry, that would be a start, but he'd like to see security at the library that better reflects the demographics of the community it serves.
Brandon Henry: Until we can get our own licensed, locally-based, community-based security company in there, we're going to deal with Hennepin County security, and right now, we're very hopeful for that, and we're coming out here.
Xan Holston: For North Star Stories, I'm Xan Holston.
ANCHOR: You are listening to North Star Stories.
Another death at the Red Lake Detention Center is fueling demands for justice and oversight.
Fifty-two-year-old Robin Hanson died in custody earlier this month. His family believes he was denied medical care, a claim that echoes concerns raised in other deaths at the facility.
Hanson is the third person to die at the jail in the past three years.
The Red Lake facility is the only jail in Minnesota not overseen by the state. It's federally managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has not yet commented.
The FBI is also investigating Hanson's death.
[sound element: NSS outro theme]
HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.