A legendary Minneapolis city rights leader is upset that the chief of police apologized for what was said at a recent officer training session.
It was reported that Chief Brian O’Hara said Spike Moss, a long time civil rights activist in Minneapolis, was inappropriate when telling recruits about violent actions in the past by Minneapolis Police Department.
Those comments stem from a long ago murder of a Minneapolis Police Officer, Jerry Haaf, in 1992 by gang members.
Moss says when building relationships, both the community and police have to be honest about the past. He adds that O’Hara didn’t live through many of those incidents.
"You please got to understand, I'm a walk-in the library of what I have witnessed," said Moss. "And so, me, this is God's blessing to me. Because they're all younger than me. To know that our children are gonna be in safe in God's hands, that matters to me."
Moss says he wants O’Hara to apologize to him in public. Other community leaders said at Friday's event that O’Hara should be replaced.
Earlier this week, the Minnesota Star Tribune had reported O’Hara called Moss’ comments “deeply offensive and inappropriate.” O'Hara also said he met with the police union president to talk about their “mutual concerns."
According to reports, O'Hara thought the sessions were mostly constructive, but expressed disappointment in some of Moss' comments.