News — Minnesota

A former St. Paul police officer who assaulted a Black grandfather and allowed a service dog to also maul him during a 2016 arrest was on Friday sentenced to six years in prison after he was found guilty of using excessive force. Colleagues of former officer Brett Palkowitsch took the stand to testify against him during his 2019 trial.

According to MPR News, the brutal incident Palkowitsch has been convicted for, left the victim, Frank Baker, with several broken ribs as well as collapsed lungs. During the arrest, Palkowitsch, who had responded to a 911 report of a fight and robbery, allegedly kicked Baker and set the police dog on him. Baker was perceived to be a suspect but it later turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.

During the sentencing hearing, a reportedly tearful Palkowitsch rendered an apology to Baker and his former colleagues. “I hope that today gives you a little bit of closure, but I know for the rest of your life it’s something you’re going to have to deal with. For the rest of my life, it’s something that I’m going to have to live with as well. But from the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry,” he told the victim.

But though Baker said he has forgiven him, he cast doubts over Palkowitsch’s apology, saying it wasn’t genuine. “His family and friends, his mother, his wife, his kids, got to see that he has a dark side to him. He made my life a living hell,” Baker said.

The 2016 incident occurred when Baker had arrived home and was making a phone call in his car. While in his vehicle, he was confronted by officers who established he fit the description of a Black suspect a dispatcher had told them was allegedly involved in a fight. During his arrest, Baker said he obeyed orders from the officers but that did not help his case, MPR News reported.

“When the officer said ‘get out of the car and put your hands up,’ I put my hands up,” Baker  recollected. “I didn’t even have time to take two steps. He let the dog out. I’m looking like it’s in slow motion. No you didn’t!”

In the aftermath of the incident, Palkowitsch was terminated from the force and the city reached a $2 million settlement with Baker. Palkowitsch was later reinstated after the St. Paul Police Federation appealed his dismissal. He was, however, fired once again after he was found guilty in 2019. Though his prison sentence was expected to be between four and five years after striking an agreement with prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright dismissed it. Per the agreement, Palkowitsch wouldn’t have been able to appeal his conviction. But the judge handing him a longer sentence means he can now appeal. And his lawyer told the news outlet they’ll pursue that.

“You get more good policemen than bad policemen”

Though Baker is still reeling from the effects of the attack, he said he harbors no ill will towards law enforcement officers and he even wanted to become a detective during his teenage years. “One thing I want people to know is that I love the law. I really do. You get more good policemen than bad policemen,” he said.

Minnesota is one of the most cosmopolitan states in the United States and this is certainly a case of this one not being like the others because Midwestern America is not the place you are most likely to see global cultural and ethnic variety. You stand a better chance in the east coast, particularly New York, and west coat or specifically California.

It is estimated that about 100,000 Minnesotans are African immigrants, most of them, of Somali ancestry. The next largest group of African immigrants are the 30,000 or so Liberians. Like the Somalis, the Liberians also started settling in Minnesota during the 1990s when America maintained a temporary protected status option for many African refugees. One of the Liberian refugees, Mike Elliott, became a mayor in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

Elliott came under national scrutiny after a young Black man, Daunte Wright, was gunned down by a city police officer. Elliott described the shooting as “heartbreaking and just unfathomable.” He has promised a full investigation and said his “position is that we cannot afford to make mistakes that lead to the loss of life of other people in our profession”.

But one would guess that these are not the conditions within which Elliott would love to receive national attention. He is actually the first Black mayor of Brooklyn Center and when he came into power in 2018, that barely arrested the national focus. Now, he has to maintain both the pride people have with him in power as well as navigate the unforgivable slopes of political decision-making.

Elliot went to the United States from Liberia with his family at age 11. Liberians had been going to the States from about 1991. He went to the Brooklyn Center High School and after that, Hamline University. Elliott has since made life himself an entrepreneur, starting Fastforward Education, a mentoring program designed with students at Brooklyn Center schools in mind. The city’s public schools take in many students from low-income homes. One estimate says about eight out of ten students at Brooklyn Center High School, for instance, are eligible for assisted feeding at school.

Brooklyn Center’s mayoral position allows its occupant to be a part-time mayor. When he is not to be found at City Hall, Elliott is a full-stack software engineer who dedicates his time to personal and professional projects.

Each shooting of an unarmed Black man by a police officer brings with it its own burdens and implications for political power and for the people. Elliott realizes this and thus decried how Wright’s life was taken away while “[w]e are all collectively devastated…by the killing of George Floyd and…continue to be distressed as we go through the Derek Chauvin trial“.

Minnesota is one of the most cosmopolitan states in the United States and this is certainly a case of this one not being like the others because Midwestern America is not the place you are most likely to see global cultural and ethnic variety. You stand a better chance in the east coast, particularly New York, and west coat or specifically California.

It is estimated that about 100,000 Minnesotans are African immigrants, most of them, of Somali ancestry. The next largest group of African immigrants are the 30,000 or so Liberians. Like the Somalis, the Liberians also started settling in Minnesota during the 1990s when America maintained a temporary protected status option for many African refugees. One of the Liberian refugees, Mike Elliott, became a mayor in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

Elliott came under national scrutiny after a Black teenager, Daunte Wright, was gunned down by a city police officer. Elliott described the shooting as “heartbreaking and just unfathomable.” He has promised a full investigation and said his “position is that we cannot afford to make mistakes that lead to the loss of life of other people in our profession”.

But one would guess that these are not the conditions within which Elliott would love to receive national attention. He is actually the first Black mayor of Brooklyn Center and when he came into power in 2018, that barely arrested the national focus. Now, he has to maintain both the pride people have with him in power as well as navigate the unforgivable slopes of political decision-making.

Elliot went to the United States from Liberia with his family at age 11. Liberians had been going to the States from about 1991. He went to the Brooklyn Center High School and after that, Hamline University. Elliott has since made life himself an entrepreneur, starting Fastforward Education, a mentoring program designed with students at Brooklyn Center schools in mind. The city’s public schools take in many students from low-income homes. One estimate says about eight out of ten students at Brooklyn Center High School, for instance, are eligible for assisted feeding at school.

Brooklyn Center’s mayoral position allows its occupant to be a part-time mayor. When he is not to be found at City Hall, Elliott is a full-stack software engineer who dedicates his time to personal and professional projects.

Each shooting of an unarmed Black man by a police officer brings with it its own burdens and implications for political power and for the people. Elliott realizes this and thus decried how Wright’s life was taken away while “[w]e are all collectively devastated…by the killing of George Floyd and…continue to be distressed as we go through the Derek Chauvin trial“.