this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023
268 points (99.3% liked)

News

22528 readers
2253 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Small business owners say they're pressured to hire off-duty MPD cops for security - Minnesota Reformer

top 22 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 78 points 11 months ago (3 children)

That sounds like the Mafia

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

That sounds like the cops

same =same

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Same same, but diffffferent.... But still same

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Sup Dudders?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

That's because the mpd is a white nationalist gang

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

All of these fascists have romanticized the mob, Trump wishes so badly he was in the mob. He calls himself Teflon don, always crying about loyalty, delegating his crimes to lower peons and morons.

It’s fucking pathetic. These pigs are just following their leader, just like the republicans in the house are doing.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Wow. This is unbelievably rotten.

She started out paying the officers $40 to $45 an hour, always more than one officer per night. And they didn’t just work one or two hours; they charged a minimum of four hours no matter how many they actually worked, she said. The pay gradually increased to nearly $60 an hour.

The officer rates have skyrocketed, he said. He pays officers $150 to $160 an hour, and a “scheduler” also charges $15 to $20.

Awad said MPD later told him he’d have to pay off-duty officers $145 an hour to provide security.

Those officers are paid $107 an hour, but payroll is handled by the city.

Minneapolis police officers start out making about $73,000 annually, but many are working mega overtime hours due to short staffing, pushing their salaries sky-high; 70% of officers made six figures last year.

Prosecutors said Chauvin failed to pay taxes on $95,920 he earned doing security for El Nuevo Rodeo between 2014 and 2019. In addition to EME Antro Bar, where prosecutors said Chauvin was paid $250 cash for 3.5 hours, he also worked off-duty shifts at Cub Foods and Midtown Global Market.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

You're right, but the parts you've picked are misleading. Minimums are normal for a lot of gig work.

Those officers are paid $107 an hour, but payroll is handled by the city.

This is in reference to the "buyback" program, where neighborhoods or organizations can pay for extra on-duty patrols. The off-duty private security payroll isn't handled by the city.

The bigger issues that stood out to me:

MPD officers would usually sit in their squad cars, fully uniformed

Gordon said running a business using city resources — uniforms, guns, squad cars — without city management, should be considered a violation of the city ethics code, even though the city explicitly allows it, even paying insurance for off-duty work.

I don't have a problem with any public official doing any kind of side work, as long as it doesn't affect their job, and they aren't using government resources to do it. Every job I've had has said you can moonlight, but you can't use company resources or use the company name to imply any kind of endorsement. But clearly that's not what's happening here. This is absolutely a protection racket.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You’re right, but the parts you’ve picked are misleading. Minimums are normal for a lot of gig work.

I was primarily marveling how high the pay rates were, and that business owners essentially have to pay the cops whatever they want. The minimums don't seem particularly outrageous given that the cops reportedly don't really do anything when they are there.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yep. Upon reading the title, my first thought was, “Nice business you have here. Be a shame if anything happened to it.”

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The only difference is "It would be a shame if we didn't show up when something happens."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I agree but it’s already that they don’t.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The joys of defunding the police coupled with requiring minimum amounts of security for highly vulnerable businesses. This 'Small business owner' nightclub with over $1,000,000 in startup the article is in reference to lol. The writer is very measured and chooses their words carefully for a reason though. It's a decent writeup regarding the issue.

Here’s how the off-duty work program works: Some businesses — like large nightclubs — are required by the city to have security, which until 2020, sometimes had to be off-duty Minneapolis police officers.

In 2020, the Minneapolis City Council stopped requiring off-duty officers at licensed events, and let them hire private security instead. In August 2020, Velazquez told the City Council only four businesses were being required to hire off-duty MPD officers. But some businesses were voluntarily hiring them because they were under the impression they had no choice, he said. Others thought if they hired police officers they would get “some level of preferential treatment,” he said.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Hey look, it’s even MORE far right assholes larping as mobster losers. Fuckin pathetic

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

They’re not larping and they’re not losing. They’re running a successful protection racket, and probably more.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

They aren’t the mob because the mob would actually protect you

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago

hey, you got a nice place here. Nice family business. It would be awful if something were to happen to it. Maybe we could swing by and checkup on it from time to time to be sure it’s safe. Can you really put a price on your safety? Think about your kids.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

Eventually, another officer helped schedule off-duty work: Derek Chauvin. He worked security at her club for 17 years.

She sold the club in 2019. When Santamaria saw Chauvin pinning George Floyd on the pavement in the video that shocked the world, she recognized both, because Floyd worked as a bouncer inside the club in 2019.

El Nuevo Rodeo burned to the ground during the subsequent riots.

Santamaria’s allegations about MPD off-duty work are echoed by the experiences of other business owners, documented in government reports and even remarked upon by the city’s new police chief, Brian O’Hara. He said the system is “ripe for corruption,” citing a federal investigation in Jersey City, where a dozen cops were arrested due to widespread corruption of off-duty work.

hmmm

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

*protection wink wink

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

This is America, and regardless she absolutely has grounds to sue each and every one of them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

This is a thing in my town, too, at night for the bars in the more visited “touristy” area. I don’t love it but I think the local police have a shortage and there were some issues.