Crime and Public Safety Questionnaire for State House 60A Candidates
By MN Crime Watch, January 18, 2020
For 10 years, the Minneapolis Crime Watch network has been exposing serious concerns about our criminal justice system that allow repeat and violent offenders to continue committing crimes and victimizing people.
We post daily about countless cases of egregious failures purposely built into our criminal justice system that endanger public safety, but two tragic cases of innocent victims being killed in less than three weeks [allegedly] by chronic, repeat, violent offenders highlight the urgent need for serious criminal justice system and sentencing reform in Minnesota.
On Feb. 4, 2020, a special election will be held for MN House of Representatives seat 60A, which covers Northeast Minneapolis. We’re in the process of sending a Crime and Public Safety questionnaire to the 12 registered candidates to find out whether they support criminal justice system reform that prioritizes the safety of the public, reduces future potential victims and holds criminals accountable for their crimes, and we want you to contact them, too.
THE TWO RECENT CASES — REPEAT OFFENDERS — TRAGIC OUTCOMES
On New Year’s Eve, Monique Baugh was kidnapped, her wrists taped, and she was killed by being shot in the face and torso at close range in north Minneapolis. One of the suspects charged in the case, Cedric Lamont Berry, is a violent felon with a lengthy criminal history with at least 18 prior Minnesota convictions, at least five felonies including aid/abet manslaughter, gang-related narcotics racketeering and aggravated robbery.
Cedric Berry was in custody twice in Hennepin County in the weeks prior to Baugh’s murder on a warrant for failure to appear at a hearing on a pending felony narcotics case, and for probable cause felon in possession of a firearm. Despite Berry’s lengthy and violent criminal history, as well as his failure to appear at a prior hearing, he was released without bail on the warrant, and without charges on the firearm hold.
A second tragic outcome occurred this week in Anoka County when an innocent victim was run over and killed in a hit and run crash. The suspect arrested, Pierre Jermel Anderson, has 33 prior convictions in Minnesota, at least nine felonies, including robbery, predatory offender, prohibited person in possession of a firearm, theft and burglary.
Pierre Anderson was reportedly in the Blaine Target parking lot on Wednesday night for a Facebook Marketplace meet up where he was meeting up to sell items he had put up for sale on FB Marketplace. The person he was meeting (the hit and run victim) owned a business that had been burglarized and saw his alleged stolen property on Marketplace and set up the meeting with Anderson to possibly retrieve his property that was stolen in the burglary. As the business owner and friends approached Anderson, he reportedly tried to flee in a vehicle running over and killing the business owner, Kenneth Alan Niesen.
NEEDED REFORMS
The Minneapolis Crime Watch network advocates from the position that several areas within our criminal justice system need reform in order to ensure that the system prioritizes the safety of the public, reduces potential future victims and holds criminals accountable for their crimes, which we believe is not the case presently, nor has it been for some time.
See our Daily Outrage series of posts for examples of lax sentencing and other factors that endanger public safety, like zero/low bail for repeat and violent offenders, plea bargains, stayed/reduced sentences, concurrent sentencing, etc.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/32976066
https://www.patreon.com/posts/daily-outrage-21-32551372
https://www.patreon.com/posts/daily-outrage-7-32201291
https://www.patreon.com/posts/daily-outrage-23-31793623
Legislators write/enact laws and penalties, propose funding (for courts, public safety and law enforcement purposes) and have a public platform to influence/support/oppose decisions by the Sentencing Guidelines Commission, like the commission’s recent vote to reduce probation periods for most offenders in Minnesota.
We are sending the following survey to all 60A candidates and will share with you any responses received, or refusals to submit responses, prior to the Feb. 4 election.
We encourage you to personally send these questions (and/or questions of your own) to the candidates along with your own comments and concerns about criminal justice reforms that prioritize public safety, reduce potential victims and hold criminals accountable. (See list of candidates and known contact info below survey).
QUESTIONNAIRE (online link: https://bit.ly/2syNTSQ )
CRIME AND PUBLIC SAFETY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STATE HOUSE SEAT 60A CANDIDATES
— For ten years, the Minneapolis Crime Watch network has been exposing serious concerns about our criminal justice system that allow repeat and violent offenders to continue committing crimes and victimizing people.
— We believe that several areas within our criminal justice system need reform in order to ensure that the system prioritizes the safety of the public, reduces potential future victims and holds criminals accountable for their crimes.
— The Minneapolis Crime Watch network has grown to over 130,000 social media followers (including over 28,000 who follow the page covering Northeast Minneapolis crime) who are concerned about public safety and who want to know where the candidates stand on the issue of criminal justice system reform that would prioritize public safety and hold criminals accountable.
Candidate name * _______________________________________________
Do you support or oppose the following criminal justice reforms and/or would you work to enact significant reforms that would prioritize public safety:
Eliminate low- or zero-dollar bail for repeat offenders.
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Mandate uniform bail standards throughout the state that require significant bail amounts for repeat and violent offenders.
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Reduce stayed sentencing, especially for repeat offenders, including narcotics offenders.
*Reference: MN Sentencing Guidelines Grid: http://mn.gov/msgc-stat/documents/Guidelines/2019/StandardGrid.pdf
*Reference: MN Drug Offender Sentencing Grid: https://mn.gov/msgc-stat/documents/2016%20Guidelines/2016%20Drug%20Offender%20Grid.pdf
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Eliminate stayed sentencing for all convictions on sex offenses.
*Reference: MN Sex Offender Sentencing Grid http://mn.gov/msgc-stat/documents/Guidelines/2019/SexOffenderGrid.pdf
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Revise criminal history score calculation to increase the point value of crimes committed, meaning repeat offenders would receive fewer stayed sentences for subsequent crimes.
*Reference: MN Criminal History Score Calculator https://mn.gov/sentencing-guidelines/assistance/criminal-history-calculation/
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Mandate consecutive sentencing for convictions involving separate crime incidents. i.e. eliminate concurrent sentences for multiple separate convictions.
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Enact 3-strikes legislation for repeat felony and violent offenders.
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Enact legislation to add more prison space to hold criminals accountable.
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Mandate counties to post online jail rosters, booking photos and criminal complaints for free and easy access to the public.
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Support legislation to reverse and eliminate police radio encryption for main dispatch channels, increasing law enforcement agency transparency and public access to critical safety information.
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Support legislation to increase/enhance penalties for those convicted two or more times on Driving after Revocation.
⬜Support
⬜Oppose
Minnesota has the third-shortest average incarceration length in the US. Would you work to eliminate or revise the two-thirds rule that releases offenders from custody after two-thirds of their sentence has been served?
*Reference: MN has 3rd shortest average incarceration length: Minnpost, Oct. 2019 https://bit.ly/2uOuFcD
⬜Yes
⬜No
Minnesota has made a deliberate choice to send fewer people to prison even for crimes like robbery, aggravated assault and rape. Would you work to reverse this dangerous policy that is counter to public safety?
*Reference: MN deliberate choice to send fewer people to prison: Star Tribune, Dec. 2018 http://strib.mn/2FX5CXh
⬜Yes
⬜No
Do you think Minneapolis is in need of more police officers and law enforcement resources?
⬜Yes
⬜No
If elected, what actions would you take in the legislature and with your public platform to ensure that public safety is prioritized and that sentencing reform is achieved that would hold criminals accountable and reduce potential future victims?
Your answer:____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
.
THE CANDIDATES
Piyali Nath Dalal DFL pjlove@live.com
Mohamed Issa Barre DFL junlay99@gmail.com
Sydney Jordan DFL info@sydneyjordan.org
Saciido Shaie DFL saciido.shaie@gmail.com
Zachary Wefel DFL wefelformnhouse@gmail.com
Susan Whitaker DFL susan@whitakerforhouse.com
Aaron Neumann DFL info@fornortheast.org
Jessica Intermill DFL jessica@jessicaforeastside.com
Marty Super Legal Marijuana Now .. No contact info available, but he’s on Facebook
Aswar Rahman DFL mail@aswar.us
Amal Ibrahim DFL amalformn@gmail.com
Sonia Neculescu DFL info@sonianeculescu.com
Feel free to message us or post on our Facebook page with any responses you get from candidates. You can also submit these questions and your comments to your other representatives to let them know you are concerned and that you expect them to act in the interest of public safety. Find your representatives here: https://www.gis.leg.mn/iMaps/districts/
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