In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by the separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime, and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. And any fan of the old series knows, there's also the judges.
A few items that have crossed our social media feed about the Republican Party of Minnesota state chair contest have us feeling we're trapped in a bad Law and Order fanzine.
Item:
NEW: Former Minneapolis Police Union Chief Lt. Bob Kroll endorses @MNGOP Chair Jennifer Carnahan for re-election. @MarkkoranMN is running against Carnahan. #mngop pic.twitter.com/Knojf2fbUx
— Michael Brodkorb (@mbrodkorb) March 8, 2021
Lovely. But he's no Lenny Briscoe. As Strib columnist Jennifer Brooks wrote in Minneapolis police union chief Bob Kroll goes out with a whimper:
The cop who made Minneapolis less safe is walking away from the job.
Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Minneapolis police union, plans to retire at the end of the month, after 32 years on the force.
He leaves behind a disciplinary file crammed with lawsuits and allegations of excessive force, wrongful arrests and racism; several consecutive mayors and police chiefs who describe him as a disgrace to the badge; and a pile of Cops for Trump shirts.
"Good riddance," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey tweeted, as news spread.
Kroll devoted his 25 years on the board of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis to blocking every effort at reform and any effort to discipline or weed out the unfit, the corrupt, the violent, the bigoted from the force. . . .
So how will residents most remember his tenure as union boss? The charred rubble of the Third Police Precinct station. A Christmas tree in a north Minneapolis precinct, covered in racist garbage. Graves and grieving families and a police force and a community terrified of each other.
Bob Kroll is walking away from the job.
Good riddance, Bob Kroll.
Heckova endorsement as jury selection is happening for the Devek Chavin murder trial for the killing of George Floyd.
Mark Koran has his own schtick. At the Mark Koran for MNGOP Chair, Facebook page, we watched this upbeat video:
Mark talks about recruiting and equipping Republican candidates at all levels, concluding on the Facebook video above with county prosecutors and judges. This ambition makes us wonder whether activists in the Republican Party are hoping for the heyday of partisan judicial endorsements in the last decade.
You know, the halycon days of the Republican Party when Michelle MacDonald was actually endorsed by the state party in her bid for the state's Supreme Court. We did note in a late September 2020 post, Rocks and Cows of MN supports MacDonald for state Supreme Court because tyranny,that a version of Rocks and Cows, a hard right wing conservative group, was pushing for her failed bid against Justice Paul Thissen.
Readers might want to review some old BSP posts from 2014 Embattled judicial candidate to attend Bemidji GOP Banquet Sept 18; trial begins Sept.15 and She'll be back: Michelle MacDonald emails supporters that she's running for Justice again.
We're told that while the MNGOP endorsed judicial candidates in those days, the state party chair did not recruit them. We do not know of any instance of the DFL state recruiting judicial candidates. The state DFL does not endorse judicial candidates.
Image: Jennifer Carnahan and Mark Koran, candidates seeking to chair the Republican Party of Minnesota. Via KTTC.
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