New documentary examines Minneapolis police reform efforts going back 150 years

NINA MOINI: The phrase "Minneapolis police reform" may bring to mind the events of 2020. The murder of George Floyd that year made the city the center of worldwide calls to change policing. It led the city to enter a process of court-ordered reforms that are still taking shape. A new documentary looks back much further. In Paradox, Echoes of Reform and Minneapolis Police, historian Yohuru Williams traces local politics, community activism, and police union organizing over 150 years of Minneapolis policing history. The film by Twin Cities PBS premieres tonight. Yohuru Williams joins me now to talk more about it, along with executive producer Daniel Bergin. Thanks, both of you, for joining us on the program.

DANIEL BERGIN: Thank you.

YOHURU WILLIAMS: Thanks for having us.

NINA MOINI: Yohuru, I'd love to start with you. The title, Paradox, the Minnesota paradox, it's a term that I think a lot of people can feel when they talk about Minnesota and think about Minnesota. It's talking about a metrics of quality life that are typically used versus these striking racial disparities. Tell us a little bit about that idea of the Minnesota paradox.

YOHURU WILLIAMS: We absolutely love that as a title, Nina, because it captures, I think, for many people, the inherent contradiction of Minnesota, a place that represents, for many, liberal ideas, progressive politics and policies, and yet at the core, when we think about what this looks like on the ground for communities of color, there are the stark disparities that you spoke of. And perhaps no place is that more evident than when we talk about the issue of public safety.

And so we thought it was an appropriate title to try to capture what, for many people, is this inherent contradiction in two questions that really animate this project for us. And those questions are central to the way that we think about policing and public safety. And they are, who is the public? And what counts as safety?

NINA MOINI: Yeah, and Daniel, and part of those questions and exploring them takes you all back 150 years, all the way back to the 19th century. Why did you feel that it was important to go all the way back that way?

DANIEL BERGIN: Yeah, thanks, Nina. It's a great question. And a lot of our work, our Minnesota experience history documentaries here at Twin Cities PBS, the idea is to look at the history behind the headlines, this important issue of the day. But you really can't fully understand it. And you certainly, I don't think, can really work to solve it, unless you understand that long history that presents both struggle and progress, best practices and, really, in all of what we see in the history. So to go back to the origin, it was really important. And learning a lot about the city charter then helps us understand how it's still the mechanism for managing public safety and the police. And so how did it all begin?

NINA MOINI: Yeah, described in the film as the constitution of the city, basically. And I wonder, too, Yohuru, so many times throughout the film, we're taken back to photos or images of other times, where there was a lot of energy behind police reform, basically from the beginning, according to the film and everything that you covered in it. What did you learn from looking back at those moments?

YOHURU WILLIAMS: I think the most powerful thing is that history doesn't repeat itself. It echoes. And those echoes are either invitations or indictments and looking back and recognizing other moments where there were reckoning and opportunities for us to reimagine public safety. For example, we talk about the beating of Willie Mae Demings in 1975, or even going back to 1899, in the case of Ophelia Rice, the fact that hasn't led to substantive, thoughtful engagement with the idea of reimagining public safety is the indictment.

But it's not a question of history repeating itself in a way that people like to talk about that and think about it. It's really the echoes and our opportunity in our contemporary moment to use this history as a compass to rethink public safety in a way that would be holistic and affirming, in the way that some of the reforming activists and officers that you encounter in the film talk about.

NINA MOINI: And you also have interviews with members of law enforcement, of reflecting. What did you learn, or what surprised you about interviews from the police officers, maybe, Yohuru?

YOHURU WILLIAMS: That you have people like William Mavity, who's featured prominently in the film, who is part of a young fraternity, a fraternity of young officers in the late 1960s. They were also very much interested in reform, people like Police Chief Jensen from the mid 1970s, Chief of Police in 1975, the youngest police chief, who were very much interested in reform as well and interested in a more holistic model of public safety.

And then you get someone like Tony Bouza, who we were fortunate to interview shortly before his death, who talked about the continuing challenges in terms of how this tension between bureaucratic reform, which is often what we get, as opposed to real reimagination, is really the problem in all of this that we were talking about a system whose origins are anchored in an anachronistic and problematic way of thinking about community that really would have to be upset if we were to reimagine public safety in a way that would really be helpful and in service to the greater community.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, and to your point, I mean, policing today is one of the most prominent issues in local political campaigns, maybe even national ones. And so how true was that, I wonder, throughout this 150-year span of history, Daniel? How important has policing been to political campaigns and the relationship there?

DANIEL BERGIN: I'm glad you asked that question because we're obviously in a moment, a political moment, and a moment in our republic and our democracy, where the call for law and order, the idea, in fact, the image of law and order, like tactics being used in our cities is on the front page and is the front of our minds. And so you're right. In that very early era of Minneapolis, trying to understand how a mayor and the police department can work with the city, how a growing diverse population is treated, and how the policing is becoming racialized. Those issues have always been with us.

And so I think that's why it's important to understand that backstory and sometimes look to see where there are some opportunities to learn from that, including-- and it was important for Yohuru and myself and our team to provide a strength-based narrative that looks at how diverse communities and others and activists were engaged in this work of mutual aid and self-help and reform all along. And so that's an important through line back in the day and today as well.

NINA MOINI: And, Yohuru, as you look at that through line-- and then I want to ask you to Daniel-- if you were telling folks a summary of this history and how it pertains to today, what do you think is the lesson that has been missing, or needs to be learned, or the thing that needs to not be repeated?

YOHURU WILLIAMS: It's such a great question. And I think it really pivots around this question of the paradox itself, that if we are confronting that history honestly, and we can do so in a way that boldly recognizes one of the quotes that we offer in the very beginning of the film, from Maya Angelou, that "history courageously faced need not be faced again," we can really appreciate what lessons we can take from this history in terms of thinking through some of these challenges with regard to Black, brown and Native people in the Twin Cities and beyond.

One of the great things, I think, about this documentary is that this isn't just a Minnesota story. We tell it through the lens of what happened here. But the reality is, this is a national concern and one which deserves the best of our attention and our energies to try to think about how we correct it.

DANIEL BERGIN: And doing-- I would just add quickly-- doing just this, thank you for having us, this idea of having a conversation, in relative safe space, in a way that history often provides, is really one of our major goals. And so this is important. It's just to be in-- and Yohuru has been in discussion for years now on this issue, and that's informed the film. But we hope we can continue to use this as a touchstone for conversation and community.

NINA MOINI: Yes. Thank you both. Thank you for joining us. Really appreciate your time.

DANIEL BERGIN: Thank you.

YOHURU WILLIAMS: Thanks for having us.

NINA MOINI: Daniel Bergen is executive producer of the new Twin Cities PBS film, Paradox, Echoes of Reform and the Minneapolis Police. And Yohuru Williams is featured in the film. He's the distinguished university chair and professor of history and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas.