Thread: MN-Metro Gang Strike Force scandal threatens police relation

Metro Gang Strike Force scandal threatens police relations with minority communities

Twin Cities Pioneer Press
By Mara H. Gottfried
mgottfried@pioneerpress.com
Saturday, 08/22/2009 01:15:58 AM CDT

Review found strike force members targeted minorities

Metro Gang Strike Force officers stopped two men in the Minneapolis impound lot last summer, frisked them and took $4,500 from one and $100 from the other. Neither was a gang member and neither had drugs on him.

The men didn't know each other, but they had something in common — both were Hispanic and they were illegal immigrants.

An independent review released Thursday found some strike force officers would stop people who were not suspected of gang activity and seize their money.

"These encounters almost always involved a person of color," the report said.

For some, the report gives credence to a perception of a police propensity to target minorities that those communities have tried to bring to light for years. A St. Paul community leader said he hopes the report leads to a wider discussion of race and law enforcement. But a sheriff expressed concern that the report's disclosures could further strain relations between law enforcement and communities of color.

The report by former federal prosecutor Andy Luger and retired FBI agent John Egelhof didn't mention racial profiling and Luger said the panel couldn't reach that conclusion, but some said they had little doubt about what was happening at the now-defunct strike force.

Three lawsuits filed in recent months detail gang unit officers seizing cash and property from people not engaged in criminal activity; most of the plaintiffs are Latino.

"Members of the MGSF engaged in a pattern and practice of using their apparent authority as police officers to extort cash and property from people coming into contact with the MGSF, particularly from those concerned about their immigration status who would naturally perceive that they had no ability to assert legal rights," says one suit in federal court in Minneapolis.

It was filed by six people who claim strike force officers took their property in illegal seizures; they were not charged with a crime and they did not get their property back. They claim civil rights violations.

One plaintiff in that lawsuit, Zelaido Rivera Garcia, was highlighted in the Luger-Egelhof report as the man who had $100 taken from him at the Minneapolis impound lot.

The man who had $4,500 taken him from, Dagoberto Rodriguez-Cardona, has filed a lawsuit against the strike force in Hennepin County District Court.

The Luger-Egelhof report — commissioned by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety after a state legislative auditor's report released in May found at least $18,126 in seized cash and at least 14 cars couldn't be accounted for — detailed the impound lot case.

"A minimally documented strike force case file indicates that officers received information that people of Hispanic descent would arrive at the Minneapolis impound lot to retrieve a car that had narcotics in the trunk," the report said. "There was no information in the file to suggest where this information came from, or whether the source was a reliable informant."

THE TARGETS

Two families — one of Honduran descent and the other of Mexican descent — arrived at the impound lot. They didn't know each other, the report said. Strike force officers lined up all the family members, frisked them and found no drugs, weapons or evidence of illegal activity.

Rodriguez-Cardona had $4,500 in his pocket from his position as foreman of a construction crew. Garcia had $100 in his wallet. Strike force officers took the money and called Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"The facts of this case are deeply troubling," the report said, and cited five reasons:

"(T)he case file does not make clear why the strike force officers took on this matter. The tip that they received makes no mention of gang activity and is both vague and of questionable reliability."

"(T)he stop itself is of questionable validity. Officers conducting a stop must have reasonable suspicion that individuals are engaged in criminal activity."

"(W)hen they stopped and frisked the two families, the strike force officers developed no information leading to the conclusion that they were engaged in illegal conduct. To the extent that this interaction had any validity, it should have ended there."

Rodriguez-Cardona said $4,500 was taken from him, but "the limited documentation in the file indicates that $4,014 was seized. There is no documentation regarding the $100 the second man claims was taken from him."

"(W)hile the men were undocumented aliens, the Minneapolis Police Department has a policy against contacting immigration authorities or asking suspects about their immigration status in situations like this. ... The two men now face deportation."
The federal lawsuit also says a "targeted, deliberate place (for officers) to conduct their thefts was the Minneapolis impound lot. ... MGSF officers would often call the impound lot and ask if there were any 'Mexicans' there attempting to pick up vehicles."

A response filed by a gang strike force attorney denied officers "acted contrary to law."

Phillip Fishman, a Minneapolis attorney who represents Rodriguez-Cardona and is one attorney representing plaintiffs in the case involving six people, said the Luger-Egelhof report validates the lawsuits.

"But what's tragic is the underpinning of all of these cases," he said. "Police know that these clients are vulnerable: They're undocumented and they're targeting them. What's tragic is these are sworn police officers. They take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. This is a community scandal of the first order."

'IT WILL SET US BACK'

Luger said Thursday that 10 to 12 of the strike force's officers, who came from departments from around the metro, were involved in misconduct or criminal acts, including taking seized property home for their own use.

"This is not condemning law enforcement," he said. "This is condemning the conduct of certain officers at a certain police agency."

Still, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said he believes some information in the report could put a damper on relationships between law enforcement and minority communities.

"In some cases, maybe rightfully so," he said. "Our job as law enforcement officers is to build relations with diverse communities, while at the same time policing them in an ethical, fair, just manner; not tearing them down as it appears may have happened with the Metro Gang Strike Force. It will set us back for quite some time as a law enforcement community."

Nathaniel Khaliq, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's St. Paul chapter, said his organization has received complaints over the years about vehicles, money and drugs taken and no charges filed. While the Luger-Egelhof report validates many concerns voiced for decades by minority communities, it's "just the tip of the iceberg," Khaliq said.

"This report certainly doesn't surprise me and shouldn't surprise anybody who's been involved in fighting for justice," he said. Khaliq said people the NAACP has heard from were mostly reluctant to file complaints because they didn't think anything would come of it or they were concerned about police retaliation.

And when someone did want to lodge a complaint against the strike force, there didn't seem to be a mechanism to do so, Khaliq said.

Khaliq said he hopes the Luger-Egelhof report is "a wakeup call to the whole criminal justice system that leads to an examination of the system from the top to the bottom."

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262.

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Riiight. These strike force guys took $50,000 from me, I'm gonna sue!

Pull out race card, have no proof, but what the hell I'm latino and illegal so I'll sue. PLEASE!