Walker Church Tenants Say Fire Investigation Botched

Did someone intentionally torch the headquarters of several Minneapolis political and social action groups on Memorial Day? Tenants of the old Walker Community United Methodist Church say we may never know for sure because the city ordered the building demolished a few hours after the fire was put out.

According to a Minnesota Public Radio report, “city officials say the remains of the structure were demolished because they posed a safety hazard, adding that fire investigators were able to examine the rubble before the demolition.”

Three of the tenants of the building aren’t satisfied with that explanation, questioning why the building was torn down so quickly, particularly on a holiday. … Continue Reading

Police Brace For Violence, Instead End Up With A Song From Occupy MN

Minneapolis police were braced for a violent confrontation with Occupy Minnesota activists intent on reclaiming a home the police had seized. Instead, the police were peacefully serenaded while a pastor from across the street led the crowd in prayer.

Occupy Minnesota had announced earlier this week it intended to “reoccupy” the foreclosed and evicted Cruz home at 2pm on Friday. Just before 2pm, about 30 Minneapolis Police officers were deployed on the homes front lawn and the yard was closed off with yellow tape.

Officers on bicycles were the first line of defense. A second row of tape was wrapped around the property. A surveillance camera had been deployed at 41st and Cedar. The alley behind the home was blocked with a solid line of squad cars as was the alley south of 41st Street. Squad cars kept circling the area and a paddy wagon was reported close by. Occupy Minnesota activists said the police were acting as if they were being paid by Freddie Mac. … Continue Reading

Obama Calls on Congress to Act on Veterans Job Corps

President Obama brings his Congressional “to do” list to Golden Valley, Minnesota. One of the items on the list is passing the Veterans Job Corps legislation aimed at employing returning US military personnel from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The site of Obama’s visit, a Honeywell plant, has an aggressive veterans hiring program in place, hiring 900 vets there and elsewhere in the company since the start of 2011.

Transcript of President Obama’s speech on vets jobs: … Continue Reading

Occupy: Minneapolis Mayor’s Words Not Matching Actions On Foreclosure

Occupy Minnesota activists are convinced Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak is saying one thing and doing another when it comes to evicting homeowners.

David Cruz is the owner of the home in South Minneapolis that has been subjected to a series of police actions about foreclosure,

Cruz interprets the Mayor’s statement of the previous day that Minneapolis was not in the foreclosure business to mean that police actions at the home would be suspended. Yet the previous afternoon the property was raided by a substantial force of police and firemen.

The angry crowd went to the mayor’s office and asked if the mayor had lost control of the police force or was he not telling the truth. about 20 people moved in to the mayor’s outer office and demanded a meeting with Mayor Rybak and David Cruz. The request was denied, but later the group stopped the mayor in the hallway for an impromptu meeting.

The lender trying to evict the Cruz family is Freddie Mac. Occupy Minnesota activist Nick Espinosa says a protest is planned on Monday for outside Freddie Mac’s national headquarters in Washington, DC to demand it back off on trying to evict the Cruz family.

Occupy Temporarily Retakes Cruz Home, 14 Arrested

The see-saw battle between Occupy Minnesota activists and the city of Minneapolis will continue tomorrow (Friday) as activists plan to “reoccupy” a foreclosed South Minneapolis home .

After two unsuccessful tries earlier this week, Minneapolis police and Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies evicted the protesters on Tuesday from the Cruz home, 4044 Cedar Ave. South. Wednesday after unsatisfactory discussions with Minneapolis Mayor, R. T. Rybak, Occupy Homes recaptured the house and opened the front and back doors which had been boarded up. But late in the evening Minneapolis police showed up, ended the occupation and arrested 14 people

New players in the drama: private security guards hired by the lender. … Continue Reading

Occupy Activist Jackhammered Out Of House

His head covered by a shroud, an Occupy Minnesota activist could only hear the sounds of jackhammers and saws as Sheriff’s deputies attempted to extract him from his self-imposed imprisonment. TK was one of many people trying to prevent the eviction of the Cruz family from their South Minneapolis home on Tuesday. He had chained his arms inside two 55-gallon drums filled with concrete to make it difficult to remove him from the home.

TK suffered burns and cuts on his hands as deputies hacked and hammered away at the concrete, but he said the injuries were minor compared to the injury the community was suffering from the eviction.

Freddie Mac got a court order to evict the Cruz family. Despite evidence that the family was working with PNC Bank which services the mortgage, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office tried to raid the house twice in the last week. A third raid by mostly Minneapolis police and a few sheriff’s deputies on Tuesday finally evicted the Occupy Minnesota protesters who were trying to defend the home for the Cruz family.

In the video, TK described the ordeal. He was arrested for trespass and held under $80,000 bail, which was later reduced to $50.

He was not seriously injured. He also confirmed the use of pepper spray by one of the Minneapolis Police officers.

Minneapolis Mayor Implies City Stepping Away From Helping Banks With Evictions

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak issued a statement implying the city is getting out of the foreclosure/eviction business, but it’s unclear what that means to families fighting to keep their homes from banks.

Mayor Rybak and Minneapolis Council Member Elizabeth Glidden issued a joint statement saying, “We call on all housing lenders, both public and private, to accept full responsibility for managing foreclosed properties and for preventing foreclosures through broader and more aggressive actions.”

Glidden had come to the steps of City Hall about a half hour earlier to meet with the Occupy Homes activists. She said that she and the mayor had held almost continual meetings with the lenders and others involved and that the Mayor was on the phone at that time with Freddie Mac, the agency involved with the Cruz family eviction and sheriff sale. She was credited by insiders to be responsible for pressuring the Mayor to contact Freddie Mac.

There had been three sheriff and police actions at the home culminating with boarding up the Cruz home late on May 28.At that time Police Chief Dolan said, “We’re done with this job.” It wasn’t clear if he meant just the Cruz home or the job of other foreclosures. In any event, the police monitored the house over night and then this morning (May 30) arrested an Occupy person who was in the house. When Gliden was asked if she knew about this raid in advance she said no.

The release went on to say, “It has become sadly too common for us to see our neighbors losing their homes. This human tragedy is made worse when we forget the effect on families who feel lost in a sea of confusing red tape and bureaucratic hurdles.

“Cities do not have the resources to provide private security for landlords, whether it’s Freddie Mac or any other mortgage holder. These lending institutions, public or private, cannot foreclose numerous properties and then just expect local police departments to manage the consequences.”

Full text of joint statement: … Continue Reading

How Much Did Police Raid on Occupy-Backed Cruz Home Cost Mineapolis?

“We want to know how much this cost,” said Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and Occupy Homes activist Anthony Newby following the Minneapolis Police and Hennepin County Sheriffs raid on the Cruz house Tuesday.

“We’re looking around at home many police officers they have, the fire department, rescue squad. The fire department boarding up the home, they’ve blocked off traffic from both ways. The question is how much does this cost the taxpayer. When you have a family that’s begging to make payments, and a bank that’s actively in negotiations with the family. It just doesn’t make any sense. This is costing tens of thousands of dollars on this single day alone to forcibly remove a family that wants to be in the community, that’s made their payments on time, that wants to continue to pay.”

Legal Challenge To MN Voter Photo ID Amendment

]Minnesota’s Supreme Court is being asked to stop a voter photo ID constitutional amendment from appearing on the fall ballot because the ballot question is misleading. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, along with League of Women Voters Minnesota, Jewish Community Action and Common Cause Minnesota are petitioning the court to review the ballot question.

“This ballot proposal is incredibly troubling because it asks voters to put an amendment in the constitution in a manner that is misleading, confusing and unclear,” said Charles Samuelson, Executive Director of the ACLU-MN.

The petition says there are three serious omissions and three misleading statements in the ballot question, including saying it would apply to all voters when it only applies to people who vote in person and not even mentioning a provisional ballot system that will significantly change how Minnesota elections are conducted.

Lawsuit should be no surprise to amendment authors. … Continue Reading

Minneapolis Police Chief on Seizing Occupy-Backed Home: We’re Done With This Job

Dozens of Minneapolis police officers (and representatives from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office) stormed the Cruz family house in South Minneapolis yesterday and, in their third attempt, successfully took the foreclosed house from Occupy Homes protestors and boarded it up. Police held nearly 100 protestors at bay, despite a tense standoff that involved pushing and shoving.

Following the action, Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan confirmed that the mortgage lender (he cited Fannie Mae, but meant Freddie Mac) and not PNC Bank (which originally serviced the loan) had called for the raid. Occupy Homes activists claim that Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank has shown a willingness to negotiate with the Cruz family, which is now effectively homeless.

Chief Dolan also implied that the City’s work was finished, and that Minneapolis would no longer expend resources to protect the Cruz home on behalf of Freddie Mac. Activists interpreted this to mean that the police was effectively adopting a moratorium on forced home evictions.

City statement on raid … Continue Reading