Your correspondent was there this evening at a packed City Hall “community conversation’ on “gun violence.” The meeting was held in the wake of a number of “disturbances” occurring in Edina and in the neighboring city of Eden Prairie.
The entire 2-hour event can be seen here on YouTube. The video begins at the 7-minuite mark.
Invited speakers take up the first 42 minutes of the meeting and included the following:
- Edina Mayor Jim Hovland (mayor since 2004)
- Edina Police Chief Todd Milburn
- Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt
- Superintendent of the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) Drew Evans
- Hennepin County Attorney’s Office Morgan Kunz
- FBI Agent Chris Dotson
- Eden Prairie Police Chief Matt Sackett
The audience included a number of elected officials representing the city at the city, county, and state levels, all Democrats. As it happened, the Mayor of Eden Prairie, Ron Case, was seated in the row in front of me.
The remainder of the program (beginning at the 49-minute mark) was taken up by public comments/questions. Some 25 members of the public were heard from, most of whom self-identified as Edina residents. By my count, seven (7) of the 25 public speakers were Somali.
You can review my Twitter (X) live thread of the event, recapping each speaker here.
The best comment of the night was from my seatmate, who asked about about a half-dozen public comment in, “Are they (the authorities at the front of the room) ever going to start answering these questions?” The short answer was “no,” as the object was to accomodate as many public commenters as could be squeezed into the time allotted.
I’ll have more to say in the coming days.