Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara is pushing back against recent remarks from the city's mayoral candidates who indicated they would discipline him for his presence at a federal raid on the city’s south side.
During a forum hosted by members of the city’s Native community on Wednesday, the city's six mayoral candidates were asked if they would support "holding chief of police O’Hara accountable" for working with ICE on the raid on June 3.
Asked to hold up placards answering “yes” or “no,” five of the candidates raised “yes” signs. Current Mayor Jacob Frey did not hold up his placard. The other candidates present were Brenda Short, Jazz Hampton, Omar Fateh, Rev. DeWayne Davis and Kevin Dwire.
The raid too place near Bloomington Ave. and Lakes Street when federal agents and armored vehicles descended on a Mexican restaurant to execute a search warrant. Initial reaction was that it was an immigration raid, which turned out not to be true. A significant crowd gathered protesting actions and information spread that ICE was performing an immigration raid in a neighborhood that is highly populated by immigrants.
Officials with the city, county and FBI said it was part of an investigation into what was called a “transnational criminal organization." Mayor Jacob Frey confirmed it was suspected of drug and human trafficking, and money laundering.
The chief emphasizes that the operation, which resulted in no arrests at the scene, was a drug bust not an immigration raid. He says that MPD's involvement was limited to crowd control after it began telling WCCO's Adam and Jordana that the "irresponsible misinformation" is disappointing.
"Some folks actually had the expectation that I could stop federal law enforcement from enforcing federal law," says O'Hara. "I don't even know what to say to that."
O'Hara says the recent back-and-forth has heated up the conversation about police leadership and accountability, setting up a major debate point as the city inches closer to choosing its next mayor.
But an emotional, clearly agitated O'Hara says that he wasn't even made aware of the situation before it happened, adding to the confusion.
"They weren't even prepared for crowd control, quite frankly," says the chief. "They were totally not anticipating what that scene would cause as far as problems for them. And so I'm hopeful that in the future we can avoid some of these things."
He says ultimately the misinformation around the situation has further damaged the trust between the public and Minneapolis Police Department. O'Hara also reiterated that his department is not responsible for any immigration enforcement.
"Everyone knows we don't work with ICE, we do not work with any federal law enforcement, for the purpose of conducting civil immigration enforcement," O'Hara told WCCO. "We don't do that. We have relationships with all of federal law enforcement for the purpose of holding people accountable for bringing fentanyl into the city, gang violence, selling switches, killing people on our streets. We're working with them all the time."
Earlier in June, Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt also voiced frustration at some on the City Council who claimed incorrectly it was a deportation effort.