18-year-old Tania Harris was shot twice in the abdomen by a Robbinsdale police officer
When I found out about the Robbinsdale police-involved shooting of 18 year old
Tania Harris, a local high school student in the Minneapolis suburb that borders North Minneapolis (one of the high poverty areas of our city), I held my head in my hands.
Minneapolis and Minnesota as a whole have been making headlines lately as an example to aspire to. I live in the healthiest city in the U.S. It also happens to be the most literate city in the U.S. It's one of the top 5 best cities for young people to live in the U.S. By more than one metric, the entire Minneapolis St. Paul metro area is a great place to be. Around here we seem to agree that Minnesota is a model of progressive policies that contribute to our high standard of living. I have a great job, low living costs, and access to a lot of opportunities as a young, college-educated person.
But one glaring disparity persists here. (Please continue below the squiggle).
Racial inequity in Minnesota is the ugly problem that we have not ever successfully managed to address in a cohesive and permanent way. Rates of home ownership and segregation in housing, the racial achievement gap in our schools, and tension between minority groups and multiple local police forces in the metro have contributed to a very different set of outcomes for people of color in our cities. People are speaking out about this now in a way that wasn't so visible before.
This week was a particularly dispiriting week. On Wednesday morning, an entire block of businesses burned down on the North Side, including the offices of Neighborhoods Organizing For Change, which you may recognize from its link to the Pointergate Scandal referenced above. This organization has come to greater prominence as the Black Lives Matter protests have gained traction here, especially after Pointergate. The Mall of America recently dropped its restitution claims against protesters.
The family of Tania Harris reports she is recovering in the hospital from two gunshot wounds. They have already issued a statement through Black Lives Matter disputing the version of events offered by the Robbinsdale Police Department that resulted in Tania being shot by an officer. The Department says officers responded to an "unwanted persons" call at a residential property and that Tania was armed with a knife. Her family's pastor says Tania was "not waving the knife or lunging with it, just standing and holding it," and had originally grabbed the kitchen knife to protect herself from other teenage girls in the area who had threatened to show up and attack her. Tania's mother was the person who made the initial call to police out of concern for her daughter's safety. It is worth noting that while Minneapolis police are now rolling out the department-wide use of body cameras, Robbinsdale police apparently do not use them at this point.
The investigation has been taken over by Hennepin county. This county includes Minneapolis and its western suburbs. It does not include St. Paul, the state capital.
Black Lives Matter has also sent out a tweet to organize a march tonight to demand that Tania's parents be allowed to see her.
U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison, whose district includes Minneapolis and Robbinsdale, supports the groups advocating for more equitable access to resources in the area. He frequently posts about civil rights issues on his Facebook page. U.S. Senators from Minnesota Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar have also been spotted at events organized with Black Lives Matter. The movement is garnering political support that may finally give Minnesota what it takes to enact real changes for our residents so everyone can be part of the "Miracle of Minneapolis". But we have a long way to go, and our culture of police and minority relations is still resulting in people being shot by police officers.
4:05 PM PT: Update for 6:00 PM - Charges have been filed against Tania Harris. The Robbinsdale Police have said she is under arrest for threatening another young woman with the knife she was holding and not complying with police instructions. The exact charge is second-degree assault. Tania will be booked into the Hennepin County jail when she is released from the hospital. People have already started to show up at the meeting organized by Black Lives Matter.
Sat Apr 18, 2015 at 8:48 AM PT: I feel the need to make a second update this morning to mention that social media commentary on the shooting of Tania Harris has already shown a predictable and frankly disgusting attempt to justify Tania being shot by disparaging her character. One of the points I specifically wish to address is the description of Tania being a student at an "alternative" school. People are implying that Tania is somehow a troublesome individual for being placed in an alternative learning environment. What these people apparently haven't bothered to connect the dots on is that Tania Harris has an 8-month-old baby girl. Not only is Tania Harris still determined to finish high school, but she is a high school senior. At age 18, that means that her alternative high school setting would have allowed her to graduate on time compared to her peers. Rather than denigrating Ms. Harris for needing alternative arrangements, we should be applauding her determination to finish high school on time while raising an infant. It is mind-boggling that anyone could fault a teenager for doing her best to make sure her life stays on track in the midst of adversity. Many teenage parents never graduate from high school.
Graduating from high school will now be an even greater challenge for Tania as she misses the rest of her semester recovering from her gunshot wounds and now being arrested and charged with assault. This is a felony charge that could result in a prison sentence of up to 7 years. Let us hope that Tania keeps the resolve that led her to go back to school while raising her daughter. I am thinking about ways to support Tania in this, because her education is clearly important to her. If anyone has ideas, please post in the comments.
I also have a more positive update. The pressure of community protests has led to Tania's parents being allowed to see her. This tweet shows the confrontation between police and protesters at the entrance of the E.R. at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale, where Tania is recovering from her injuries. Police initially blockaded the entrance when hundreds of protesters showed up before eventually allowing Tania's parents in. The parents were allowed to see Tania and called the protesters from inside the hospital to thank them: