In the wake of more shootings and violence in Minneapolis, one of the leaders in Minneapolis' African-America community is speaking out. Jerry McAfee of New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis, spoke with Henry Lake on WCCO’s “Lake Night” on Wednesday.
McAfee is one of the people involved in an initiative called 21 Days of Peace that includes safety patrols across what he describes as “hot spots” across the city. McAfee said the goal is to stop the violence and connect those struggling with homelessness and unemployment with resources.
Lake, a native of North Minneapolis, started by asking McAfee if this the worst period of violence that he has seen in the city.
“Well, it certainly is at the point to where it will transcend when it was called Murderapolis,” McAfee told WCCO.
Murderapolis was a name given colloquially to the city after a dramatic increase in violent crime in 1995, a year that saw over 90 murders.
“We're at a pace right now we will certainly go over that,” McAfee predicts. “We’re over about 30 some homicides already. And this time last year we only had about 12. Two weeks ago with the shot spotters in Minneapolis, they had spotted over 8,000 shots that had been fired.”
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According to Minneapolis Police Department data, homicides have more than doubled compared to this point last year.
McAfee explained that 21 Days of Peace is an attempt to take back the city from violent criminals.
“Well, 21 days of peace will be an initiative by all of the churches, mosques, synagogues, and people of faith, agencies, fraternities and sororities, that we're asking for 21 straight days to take our city back. But what we do know is when light shows up, darkness will leave, for instance, in North Minneapolis.”
Reverend McAfee is also attempting to coordinate the effort with law enforcement, which he says is crucial to the success. They’re working with the MPD, Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department, and even the State Patrol.
“It is idiotic to think that we can solve this with less police and no police. And while, you know me and I've certainly fought against the police force when their people were wrong, but you've never heard me say we don't need police and the insanity that's going on. To talk about defunding the police and trying to reimagine it at this point is ludicrous.”
McAfee says it’s about stopping violent crime, but also helping people across the community in other areas of need.
“And while we're there, there will be resources. We’ve got jobs. We can help get you in. If you need treatment, we can help you get treated. If you need counseling, we can hook you up with counseling. Housing might be difficult, but we'll give it our best shot. But what we will not allow to happen in broad daylight is these drug sales, which leads to a lot of this shooting.”
There have been several shootings across Minneapolis in the last month, including a few involving children. Aniya Allen was one of three children 10 and younger who were shot between April 30th and May 17th. No arrests have been made in any of the cases.
The group is also looking for volunteers and McAfee gave this phone number for those looking to assist: 612-522-2951.
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McAfee says this is one more example of the need for more and better policing.
“It's crazy that our kids can't be on a trampoline outside and not catch a bullet in the head. When our babies can be in the car eating a happy meal and it turns insane. When the little boys in the back seat of a car just sleeping and the bullet goes through the trunk and lodged in his head. And then you're hearing from these people who was doing a lot of this crying about defunding the police.”
Lake also chimed in on the calls to defund police.
“The thought, in the opinion of these people that are talking about abolish the police to defund the police, all this stuff they can get out my face,” Lake told WCCO listeners. “I've been vocal about that. It doesn't work. Look, are there problems with law enforcement? You're damn right. There are problems with law enforcement across the country, and we've got issues here. But whenever we talk about law enforcement and a lot of times people say, well, hold on, like, you know, you come across as anti-police. You're trying to claim that I'm anti-police because I'm a black man and I have problems with corruption or when people get killed when they should not get killed. I have no issue with good police officers and good policing.”
McAfee added that having less officers has have negative effect on the community.
“You've got about 200 less police officers. And then you got the group basically trying to hamstring the good ones and the ones that left. But does that make all the police officers bad? Of course not. That's insane to even think that. And then for the groups who was crying all of this stuff, you started fires and now you don't know what to do with it.”
Reverend McAfee also said that the calls for defunding the police are from a small group of people in the African-American community and does not reflect the broader opinion of the people he talks to.
“I was talking with Senator (Paul) Gazelka a couple of months ago and for whatever reason, he was under the impression that the majority of the African-American community in the city did not want the police. I said, well, I don't know where you got that from. I passed it to quite a few people and I had other pastors and stuff there and there was the same way, well I don't know where you're getting that from?”
McAfee was also very critical of how some organizations have used money given in the name of George Floyd and especially groups that want to defund police. McAfee says that money isn’t being used to better the community and that any real progress for the African American community comes from policy change.
“No, you all empowering them to help decimate a community that need good, positive law enforcement. For the first time that I can remember you've got a conscientious police chief. The mayor looks like he wants to do some stuff. Okay. I think the city council, at this point the way the community is right now, might want to do some stuff as well. But to try to keep taking money from the police? Insane.”