By Tim Speier, Freelance Journalist
While community members mourned the loss of Daunte Wright last month, a nightcap of teargas and flashbangs shook the neighborhood around the Brooklyn Center Police Department, compelling Pastor Dan Haukos at Lutheran Church of the Master to keep the church doors open to all.
After a Brooklyn Center police officer shot Daunte Wright on April 11, protests erupted around the city’s police department. Protesters and medics found sanctuary at the nearby LCM as the congregation offered a place to warm up and grab snacks.
Even as police pressure escalated near the church, they held their doors open providing “hospitality ministry” to everyone from undercover police to wounded protestors.
By: J.D. Duggan, Freelance Journalist
A thriving camp of houseless people in Near North Minneapolis has faced repeated threats of eviction by the city, but residents said they hope they can remain in their location on an empty stretch of city-owned land.
In late January, houseless people in Near North Minneapolis braced for the worst.
It was a harsh 25 degrees Fahrenheit, and a supposed eviction was on the doorstep for the nearly 20 people who had pitched tents on an empty plot of city-owned land.
By midmorning, two city officials showed up: Minneapolis Police Department Lt. Grant Snyder and Ward 5 City Council member Jeremiah Ellison. Snyder told residents that there would be no eviction that day.