Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, aka Gestapo Bob, is flaunting election laws. He is placing lawn signs throughout Ramsey County on vacant properties. Reports have been trickling in, but now the evidence is mounting. If you see a Fletcher lawn sign on an foreclosed, abandoned or vacant property, please take a picture and email me the picture along with the address at eric at mnprogressiveproject dot com.
This photo was taken by a reader at W. 7th St. and Dousman (400 block of W. 7th).
[please see end of diary for Bob Fletcher's response]
[and now, see also link to a flickr page with some pictures I just snapped]
St. Paul's East Side has been plastered with obnoxious colored yardsigns for everyone's favorite sheriff, Bob Fletcher.
I happened to be driving down East 3rd St. (which becomes Kellogg Blvd. once one crosses the bridge out of Dayton's Bluff and into Lowertown) on the day that the Sheriff's goons, I mean, campaign volunteers, were putting up signs.
I noticed later that signs had appeared in the yards of many registered vacant houses. For those who aren't familiar with this term, registered vacant houses are houses which are empty and registered as such with the city (presumably to keep out squatters). Many of them are foreclosures. In order to legally place a sign on one of these properties, one would have to contact the owner of the property (in many cases, a bank) and get permission.
When you see 6 or 7 such houses in a single block, all of which have Fletcher signs, you start to wonder. Especially when the signs were all put up systematically on the same day. Did they really get permission from all of those owners? It seems unlikely.
In today's Minnesota legislative hearing, Hennepin County Sheriff Richard W. Stanek said that special drug task forces in his county followed the established procedures and practices of the fiscal agent. For three of the Hennepin county special drug task forces, the fiscal agent is Sheriff Stanek's office. Sheriff Stanek carefully emphasized that his office used best practices, and also promoted arrests and convictions, instead of seizures and forfeitures. The big white elephant that no one was talking about is that Sheriff Bob Fletcher was the fiscal agent of Metro Gang Strike Force, which means that Sheriff Fletcher's agency practices should have been followed by the Metro Gang Strike Force.
Illegal seizure of personal property is just one part of the investigation into the Metro Gang Strike Force. At Minnesota hearing of joint legislative committees together for an extended hearing, one victim, Mr. Ramiraz testifies:
Dave Pinto received an endorsement from St. Paul Democrats for Civil Rights for the Ramsey County attorney's race to be decided next November. St. Paul Democrats for Civil Rights formed in response to civil rights violations that happened at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St Paul last year. The group hopes to prevent future civil rights abuse and hold elected officials accountable for all types of civil rights in St. Paul and Ramsey County.
All four candidates interviewed for endorsement: John Choi, Dave Pinto, Tammy Pust and David Schultz. Tammy Pust withdrew after interviewing. Surprizingly, all three candidates were perceived positively by the Civil Rights group. Dave Pinto was impressive because of his eloquent defense of civil rights and his actual willingness to pledge and to form citizen advisory groups. John Choi has actually implemented effective programs that improve economic injustice. He has also led in restorative justice. David Schultz was recognized for his strong courtroom experience in civil rights cases. While Dave Pinto has the prized endorsement, both John Choi and David Shultz received "acceptable" ratings. The acceptable ratings indicate a strong positive group support for Choi or Schultz, if they win the DFL endorsement.
Of all four candidates, only John Choi was the only candidate active in Republican National Convention, the other candidates were not involved and did not speak out. In the discussions of endorsement, it was clear that the members of the St. Paul Democrats for Civil Rights, thought that John Choi had not released people from consideration of charges fast enough, especially journalists. Eventually over 80% cases were released over 6 months.
Do note that all of the high profile felony cases are being processed at a different office, by the Ramsey County attorney Susan Gaertner. Susan Gaertner has chosen to run for governor instead of re-election as Ramsey county attorney.
Dave Pinto stood out for his recognition of the injustice of too many people charged on too little evidence at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Pinto believes we could have learned from previous National Special Security Events in other cities so as to proactively set up processes which better-protected civil rights.
I, Grace Kelly, am fully endorsing John Choi for Ramsey County Attorney. In the process of doing research in making the decision about endorsement for this critical local race, I personally tested John Choi's major focus, restorative justice, in my own life and it profoundly changed my life. In reviewing John Choi's work as St Paul city attorney, I find him to be a politically courageous leader who is actively
improving justice for the economically disadvantaged
improving justice disparity in racial and in cultural areas
putting pressure on corporations to act better in foreclosures
holding to the same standards of justice in processing all cases despite political pressure
using foresight to improve our St Paul budget problems
being open to the public and the press, including citizen journalists like me
willing to meet with citizen groups in a dialog that was openly critical instead of staying inside of a comfortable shell of communication
using restorative justice actively to improve our community
Indeed John Choi's work is now a model for other cities. International Municipal Lawyers Association is giving John Choi a major Joseph I. Mulligan Jr. Distinguished Public Service Award in October. This is a story where you will want to follow the details, below the fold.
A joint legislative public safety hearing questioned the Department of Public Safety Commissioner Campion on resolution of resolving all issues on the Metro Gang Strike Force. Metro Gang Strike Force (hereafter MGSF) was the pet project of Ramsey Sheriff Fletcher, who had multiple roles including being the fiscal agent. Although Commissioner Campion's department had been poor on oversight, once problems had been found, Commissioner Campion had acted quickly and forcefully. Which was why today's hearing was a surprise.
Legislative question: Does the Metro Strike Gang Force still exist? Did you shut it down or not?
It sounded like Campion could not stop the MGSF board from meeting and was unsure if he could stop the MGSF fiscal agent ( Pssst that is Sheriff Fletcher) from distributing money. The legislature, specifically Representative Paymar pushed back, said that they believed that Commissioner Campion did have that authority. Commissioner Campion basically wussed out, saying only that he would exert what influence that he had. The implicit question really was who was in charge: Commissioner Campion or Sheriff Fletcher?
What is amazing about the "Chicken Little" title being assigned to Ramsey County Sheriff Fletcher is that this title is coming from a undercover cop, who should normally be one of the Sheriff's strongest supporters. In "Cop Book" a retired 27-year veteran of the Bloomington Police Department, Richard Greelis writes about a honcho cop he calls "Chicken Little". Ruben Rosario quotes Richard Greelis in his column:
"He wanted the credit for saving St. Paul from the sky that was, according to him, falling fast," Greelis writes. "In addition to airing his concerns, he tended not to play well with other cop-types who did not work for him - like our intel unit."
According to Greelis, this official was so adamant that his unit remove an informant who infiltrated a reputed anarchist group that he actually followed Greelis from a Minneapolis surveillance spot and pulled him over as if he was executing a routine pull-over traffic stop.
(This is a first hand experience with the city attorney's office! - promoted by Grace Kelly)
As a progressive DFL'er I have serious issues with John Choi being our endorsed candidate. As others have said more eloquently than I, while Mayor Coleman has admitted mistakes were made during the RNC. Choi has yet to say that the police did anything wrong during the RNC and still stands by the mass arrests and detentions.
My story illustrates how misguided the policies of the Saint Paul City Attorneys Office are under John Choi. During the RNC I was a legal observer before, during and after the convention. I witnessed 3 of the 5 raids conducted by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office and the Saint Paul Police at the Convergence Center, Mike Whalen's house on Iglehart Avenue and one of the three homes raided Saturday morning in Minneapolis.
Instead taking complaints and observed instances, basically the sheriff and maybe the St Paul police have been actively searching tapes and looking for more crimes that happened during the RNC. When the worst crime that happened during the RNC was broken windows, aren't there better places to spend our money?
Ramsey county has a Sheriff budget line of $44 million and County Attorney has a budget line of $33 million. In these difficult budget times, I can understand prosecuting people where we have a preponderance of evidence for high priority dangerous crimes. It seems we have one alleged case of planning to use Molotov cocktails against two people from Texas. Yet all of the rest of cases seem to revolve around broken windows or less. And what really bugs me, is that the Sheriff department says that it is still looking, even holding press releases with only a suspicious internet photo as evidence. Basically, aren't there meth labs or real crime that our resources should be better spent on? Aren't we always told about priorities? If the Sheriff Fletcher has the resources to still be searching for RNC crimes, then shouldn't this be the first place to cut budgets?
Dave Pinto received an endorsement from St. Paul Democrats for Civil Rights for the Ramsey County attorney's race to be decided next November. St. Paul Democrats for Civil Rights formed in response to civil rights violations that happened at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St Paul last year. The group hopes to prevent future civil rights abuse and hold elected officials accountable for all types of civil rights in St. Paul and Ramsey County.
I, Grace Kelly, am fully endorsing 
