Jamal Osman, Minneapolis City Councilmember representing Ward 6, was car jacked last night in South Minneapolis. There have been few details released, but in a written statement Osman stated that at 8:30 pm he was carjacked while sitting in his car near Portland and East Lake Street which borders his Ward. Osman reported that he was “safe and unharmed.”
According to Osman and the Star Tribune, a woman and a child were victims of another carjacking earlier in the evening, believed to have been carried out by the same suspects. There has been no information provided about whether the suspects were armed or what cars they took in the robberies.
Furthermore, the reporting has simply described the suspects as “two youths,” a trend in metropolitan areas that avoids providing the race of suspects in an attempt to avoid “reinforcing negative stereotyping.”
The practice is completely unhelpful in the effort to reducing carjackings in a city that represents just 7% of the state’s population, but experiences about 80% of the state’s entire number of carjackings – nearly 80% of them carried out by African American offenders per the BCA Crime Data Explorer.
According to the Star Tribune, the Minneapolis Police reported that two vehicle pursuits last night resulted in the arrests of suspects believed to have been involved in the carjackings of Osman and the unrelated woman. No bookings in the Hennepin County Jail appear to relate to these arrests, indicating the offenders might be juveniles.
Osman won re-election last Tuesday for another four year term on the City Council. In his statement, Osman noted that “no one should have to experience this kind of trauma in our city,” and that the incident “…is another reminder of the work ahead to keep all of our communities safe.”
We couldn’t agree more, Council Member Osman. Our hope is you add your voice to those supporting the Minneapolis Police Department in it’s effort to rebuild following a 5 year staffing crisis largely brought on by an antagonistic City Council which had voted to dismantle the police department in 2020.
