Minneapolis police chief won’t show at listening session

Published 9:49 am Friday, September 19, 2014

MINNEAPOLIS — The police chief of Minneapolis canceled her scheduled appearance at a community listening session Thursday, citing threats of disruptions.

Police Chief Janee Harteau was set to appear Thursday evening at the Sabathani Community Center in south Minneapolis. But Harteau announced late in the afternoon that she had canceled her appearance “in the best interest of community public safety.”

In a statement, Harteau said police had received “credible information from a long-standing community member,” as well as other sources, about “planned physical disruptions” at the session. She said the warnings appeared on social media forums.

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“There were some other things planned,” the chief told reporters. “People had discussed agitators set inside the meeting, those whose goal was to get arrested, that regardless of what was said or done, they were to be disruptive and that was further confirmed by some Facebook posts about direct action.”

The group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change last week accused the city’s police of “purposefully creating a culture of harassment and intimidation of African-Americans” after an officer cited two of its members for trespassing at a Cub Foods store. Another group, calling itself the Coalition for Critical Change, said on Facebook it was planning an “action” at the event.