Strib seems to favor printing anti-referendum stuff. Most recently, the chief, chief, what about the chief? Here. This atop the online page today, with Smith's equally prominently featured item from Oct. 19. Re: Editorial choice and slants, bless MSM.
First, Smith item start and finish:
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said Tuesday she will vote no on the Minneapolis policing ballot measure dividing prominent Democrats more than a year after the police killing of George Floyd.
"After many conversations, I have concluded that Amendment #2 does not address the core public safety challenges we face, and may well move us in the wrong direction," Smith said in a statement.
If Minneapolis voters approve the measure in the city's Nov. 2 election, the city could replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new public safety agency. Fellow Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who, like Smith, lives in Minneapolis, opposes the ballot question along with DFL Gov. Tim Walz. But Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, two Democrats who both live in the city, are openly backing the measure.
"With the murder of George Floyd, Minneapolis became the epicenter of a global reckoning around racial justice and police brutality," Smith said Tuesday.
[...] While Smith said she didn't support defunding the police, she emphasized that policing needed to be reformed.
Smith's Tuesday announcement comes just two weeks before Election Day. Smith said she "wrestled" with her vote on the question.
"While there is much I agree with in the amendment, one component poses an insurmountable problem — the requirement that the new Department of Public Safety report to both the mayor and the City Council," Smith said.
She cited her own background in local government, working as chief of staff for then-Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. Smith said her City Hall experience "tells me that this change will exacerbate what is a deeply flawed city governance structure, where accountability, authority and lines of responsibility between the mayor and City Council are diffused and dysfunctional."
"I believe imposing this dysfunctional structure for public safety would likely have a negative effect on public safety and the operations of the police department," Smith said.
Readers are left to find on their own - was Smith's tenure with Rybak at the same time Klobuchar was County Attorney and never during years ever prosecuted police brutality? The status quo allows for too little public scrutiny and input into how police behave; while the union remains strong on defending good/bad/mediocre cops as its vision of duty to one another. Opinions can differ, but a multi-person council seems more responsive to community voices than a boss mayor. Diffusing authority and responsibility might allow more scrutiny, the more the better, since internal affairs investigations never seem to find dischargeable conduct, finding excuses and silence as a best alternative. Put otherwise, how many cops has internal affairs fired, if you know? If you don't know, then the problem seems bigger than if there were sunshine on police officer discipline decision making.
Tight organization leads to maintenance of a comfortable status quo, for the insiders. Tina Smith liked having Rybak to answer to, rather than having to answer to each councilmember - which might have been good for Smith but less good for a community facing police weight on the neck, so to speak.
Smith, Frey, Klobuchar, and Walz each stamp law and order AND CONTINUITY over innovation with a less certain outcome than continuity, their friend.
Smith, appointed to the Senate by Mark Dayton, the man elected on the mantra, "Tax the Rich," which proved to be a slogan and not a keen intent. Same old, with Smith chief of staff.
NEXT - Here is how Strib, online this morning, featured its hail to the chief -
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Freedom of the Press is great! Just ask Glen Taylor. He owns one. Loves it.
My trust is with the councilmembers, over Frey and a lifetime cop together saying the status quo is what's best for cops and community. The council is fresher, it will create reform of executive functions and organization, which will then be another bureau, but one with reformed and renewed public oversight; for the good of all, not solely for the good of the insiders wanting maximum leeway and minimum accountability.
Think Bob Kroll. Vote for reform. Think George Floyd; his neck and Chauvin's heavy badge.
________UPDATE______
https://readsludge.com posted a few years ago an item mentioning Tina Smith.
Manchin also gets mentioned in that item.
______FURTHER UPDATE_______
Sniff around OpenSecrets details about Tina Smith; e.g., starting here, where a number of variables can be altered; but this link shows a suggestion that Tina would come down as not rocking any big boats. Investments in Tina Smith suggest she would not embrace any change from a status quo favorable to those who invested their money in her. As a bet, those corporations having their people investing in her would not want policing as currently done monkeyed around with in any material way; and lo, what conclusion has she reached on policing reform?