Student's Corner: Keeping guns off the streets, bettering police community relationships, top priorities

By Darinta Clark, North Community High School 

One issue that is leading to a lot of violence on the Northside is that kids have access to guns. 

So, how are these guns getting in the hands of youth in North Minneapolis? 

Mike Friestleben, a retired police officer in Minneapolis who worked during the protest after the 2015 police killing of Jamar Clark, believes a reason kids are getting guns is because when their grandfather or somebody in their family dies they will have guns in the closet and the kids will go get them. 

Another theory is people are making legal purchases of guns and are selling them illegally to people in Minneapolis in what is called a straw purchase.

Getting guns off the streets is made difficult because of a distrust between the police and the community. Part of this distrust is from people getting harassed, assaulted and killed by police in a series of negative interactions with citizens.  

Efforts have been ongoing to improve police/community relations. When Friestleben was an officer, his unit would do community outreach to build trust between the community and police officers. 

“It’s all about how you interact with the community when you are policing,” said Friestleben. “Some police communicate disrespectfully, raising their voices, and talking down to people, people in the community see this and it affects their view of the police.”

The principal of North High School, Mauri Friestleben, who is married to Mike Friestleben, has also noticed the lack of community involvement on the part of police. 

“The way I feel right now is that our police department isn’t really here. You don’t see them around like you used to,” said Mauri Friestleben. “ And it feels less safe than it used to.” 

North’s principal said while police need to be held accountable, she is not in favor of defunding police. 

“I do think that our city’s residents don’t feel protected by our police right now. And that’s making people ask questions like ‘why are we paying you to protect us when it doesn’t feel like you are protecting us,” said Mauri Feistlaben. ¨I would like to see the officers who act like we are the enemy and that we are who they need to fight every day leave. And I’d like to see the officers who see us and with them and worthy of us fighting for stay. And the rest (new hires) get made up by strong men and women from our communities who have already proven themselves to be protectors.¨