Remington and the MPD

There were no threats

It is not every day you find yourself falsely accused of threatening the life of a member of the Minneapolis City Council, but that's what happened to me this week.

I was part of a delegation of board members from the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis who met with Minneapolis City Council Member Ralph Remington more than a month ago to discuss crime and public safety issues in his ward.

Since some members of the City Council feel free to criticize police officers and the department routinely, I thought that police officers serving as union representatives were also allowed to express a difference of opinion with council members, but Remington obviously views anything less than total agreement as a personal threat. That's unfortunate, because while Remington feels threatened by police officers, the residents of the 10th Ward overwhelmingly wish they had more police in their neighborhood.

The federation looked forward to meeting with Remington because it was increasingly concerned by his performance on the council. We endorsed him last year because he promised to work with us to put more officers on the street. But instead, he's devoted his energies to trying to remove members of the union and being the only vote against the new chief. We felt it was past time for a meeting when after a murder in Uptown, the councilman blamed it on a lack of street lighting and parking ramps. During the discussion, Remington was never threatened physically.

Residents of the 10th Ward don't need a member of the council who spends his time posturing and feeding his own paranoia. What they do need is a council member who will work with the federation -- as he promised to do -- and put more police officers on the streets.

LYALL DELANEY, MINNEAPOLIS;

TREASURER,

POLICE OFFICERS FEDERATION OF MINNEAPOLIS

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