Does Senator Mark Koran have one standard of fairness for a Minnesota family whose members are facing felony charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol--and another standard for a veteran will no criminal record who was acquitted of shooting at Minneapolis Police Department members?
Let's take a look.
From the Minnesota Reformer's GOP state senator says Lindstrom men charged in Jan. 6 Capitol attack are ‘good family,’ need financial support to the United Kingdom's Guardian's report, Minnesota politician backs fundraiser for alleged Capitol attackers, North Branch Republican state senator Mark Koran has certainly gotten his share of the limelight in the last couple of days.
The Reformer's Ricardo Lopez reported:
A GOP state senator on Friday asked his Facebook followers to donate to the legal defense fund of a family facing felony charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
State Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch, shared the link to an online fundraiser organized by Rosemarie Westbury, whose husband and son, Robert Westbury and Isaac Westbury, were charged earlier this month with several counts of civil disorder and assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon, among other charges. Another family member, Jonah Westbury, was also charged in connection with the storming of the Capitol.
“Here’s a local family in Lindstrom who can use some help,” Koran wrote. “They attended the Jan 6th Rally and have been accused and charged with a variety of crimes. Some very serious and some which seem to be just to punish opposing views.”
He added: “They are a good family!”
Koran did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on his fundraising plea.
A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, also did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
Koran’s defense of the alleged Lindstrom rioters stands in stark contrast to Minnesota Republicans’ frequent law-and-order message, as well as their condemnations of people who destroyed property during the demonstrations and rioting that followed the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020. . . .
In the Star Tribune's story, GOP state Senator asks supporters to donate to Lindstrom family charged with participating in Jan. 6 riot, Stephen Montemayor:
Also Friday, Minnesota DFL Party Chair Ken Martin cited Koran's post among a list of recent examples of "dangerous extremism within the Minnesota Republican Party."
Martin was calling on Minnesota GOP Party Chair David Hann to remove Beltrami County Republican Party Chairman Rich Siegert after comments made to a ProPublica reporter who inquired about records linking former state senate candidate and GOP activist Steven Booth to the Oath Keepers extremist group.
Martin also urged Hann to "develop and implement a comprehensive plan to combat extremism within the Minnesota Republican Party, encompassing endorsed candidates, sitting elected officials, and local leaders." .
"For far too long, the Republican Party of Minnesota has welcomed dangerous political extremists into their midst," Martin said in a statement. "The January 6th assault on the United States Capitol should have been a wake-up call about the logical endpoint of violent, extremist rhetoric, yet Minnesota Republican officials continue to turn a blind eye to extremism at best and foster it at worst."
Hann told the Star Tribune on Friday that he spoke to both Siegert and Koran. He said that Siegert told him he did not know anything about the Oath Keepers.
Hann said that Koran, meanwhile, had confirmed to him that he was trying to help the Westbury family raise money for their defense.
"I think that's odd that Ken Martin would think it's an extreme position to allow people to have a day in court to defend themselves unless he thinks people are guilty when they're charged rather than when they've actually gone to trial and have been proven guilty," Hann said. "So if that's extremism, I think that's remarkable that the Democrats would believe that our system that's based on a presumption of innocence until convicted, that to try to help people have their day in court is extreme."
That's nice, Chair Hann. Perhaps he might want to talk to Senator Koran about his September 8 Facebook sharing of a May 14 Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus Facebook video objecting to the Minnesota Freedom Fund.
We've posted a screenshot of the first "violent criminal" featured in this video, Jaleel Stallings. Perhaps on May 14, including Stallings might have seemed like a good idea to the Caucus's media team. But on September 8?
If the name Stallings rings a bell, dear reader, you've been following the news of Stallings' acquittal. On September 1 at the Minnesota Reformer, Deena Winter reported in Jaleel Stallings shot at the MPD; a jury acquitted him of wrongdoing:
Before the white, unmarked cargo van of the Minneapolis Police Department drove down Lake Street, an officer gave Sgt. Andrew Bittell his orders: “Drive down Lake Street. You see a group, call it out. OK great! F*** ’em up, gas ’em, f*** ’em up.”
Bittell turned to his SWAT unit in the van and said, “Alright, we’re rolling down Lake Street. The first f***ers we see, we’re just hammering ’em with 40s,” according to body camera footage described in court documents. He was referring to “less lethal” plastic projectiles sometimes called rubber bullets or 40mm launchers or rounds.
It was nighttime, just five days after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. Protests and riots had raged for days and laid waste to businesses along Lake Street and the Third Precinct police station. By May 30, protests had ebbed but a curfew was in effect.
At 17th Avenue and Lake Street, around 10 p.m., the SWAT team saw a group of people outside the Stop-N-Shop gas station. Bittell told the driver to head toward the station and said, “Let ’em have it boys!”
“Right there, get ’em, get ’em, get ’em, hit ’em, hit ’em!” he ordered as the officers fired their plastic bullet launchers without warning. They later learned they were shooting at the gas station owner, neighbors and relatives guarding the station from more looting, as well as bystanders, including a Vice News reporter who had his hands up and was yelling, “Press!”
A SWAT team member pushed the reporter to the ground, and as he lay there, with his press card up, another officer pepper sprayed him in the face.
About an hour later, three blocks to the west, they opened the sliding door of the van and began firing plastic rounds at people in a parking lot.
They hit Jaleel K. Stallings, 29, a St. Paul truck driver, who says he didn’t know they were cops because they were inside an unmarked white cargo van with the police lights off. He thought they were real bullets. And, he says he was mindful of warnings earlier that day from no less than Gov. Tim Walz that white supremacists were roaming the city looking for trouble.
Stallings, an Army veteran, returned fire with his mini Draco pistol, for which he had a permit. He aimed low, toward the front of the van, and didn’t hit anyone. When the SWAT team jumped out of the van yelling, “Shots fired!” Stallings realized they were police. So he dropped his weapon and lay face down on the pavement, according to court documents.
His eye socket was fractured in the beating that followed, with officers later claiming he resisted arrest.
A Hennepin County jury recently acquitted Stallings of all charges after he was allowed by a judge to claim self-defense.
Court documents and transcripts reveal a far different story than the one officers told investigators, as well as the tales police and prosecutors offered up to the media. The documents and other court records also reveal what until now has remained largely obscure: How was the Minneapolis Police Department reacting to the protests, civil unrest, looting and rioting in the days after Floyd’s murder?
The answer: Fiercely — and at times indiscriminately.
In a pre-trial order, Hennepin County District Judge William Koch (who did not preside over the trial) was critical, if judiciously so, of MPD leadership:
“While the court recognizes there can be appropriate bravado to support colleagues ‘going into battle’ or to address concerns about personal safety, it is not too much to expect those in leadership positions to know the proper way to motivate and support their officers without inciting them to inappropriate behavior toward the public they serve,” he wrote in a February order. “How a superior expresses himself can help cool heads, or heat them up.”
MPD spokesman John Elder referred all questions to the city attorney’s office, which did not return a call seeking comment.
As Minneapolis voters consider a November ballot initiative that would create a new public safety agency, they are sure to examine the actions of officers like the ones who shot Stallings with plastic rounds and beat him up, as well as the frayed relationship between the department and the people it purports to protect and serve.
The police version
Here’s what police and prosecutors said happened in a press release: SWAT officers were patrolling Lake Street in an unmarked white van to “control the crowds that were causing severe property damage” when they came upon a group near 14th Avenue.
While several people dispersed, Stallings stepped out from behind a pickup, walked toward the officers and crouched by the driver’s side door as if to pick up something.
The officers, concerned that he was planning to throw debris or rocks at them, fired a 40-mm marking round at Stallings, who fired “three to four shots in the direction of the officers, narrowly missing them,” according to the criminal complaint. (The complaint said officers “deployed one 40-mm round at Stallings” even though officers fired two rounds before Stallings returned fire.)
Stallings “quickly ran away” and was handcuffed “after a struggle,” according to a press release issued by Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, who said Stallings was charged for “shooting at police officers amidst riots and protests” and “firing multiple shots at SWAT officers during riots.”
“None of the officers, nor Stallings, were injured,” the release said, even though Stallings’ bruised, scraped face on his mugshot clearly indicates otherwise, and he was taken to a hospital after his arrest.
The criminal complaint said that during police questioning, Stallings asked if anyone had been killed, and after being told no, he “said he wanted to speak with a lawyer and the statement was ended.” But Stallings’ lawyer said a recording of the interview shows Stallings twice asked whether the officers were OK — not whether he had killed anyone — saying his main concern was making sure everybody was OK. When an officer said no one had been seriously hurt, the officer noted Stallings appeared relieved. “During the interview, the officer even expressed appreciation for Stallings’ concern for the well-being of the officers involved,” Stallings’ lawyer wrote in a legal memo.
He was charged with two counts of attempted second-degree intentional, non-premeditated murder, two counts of first-degree assault, deadly force against police officers, two counts of second-degree assault, use of a dangerous weapon, one count of second-degree rioting and one count of intentional discharge of a firearm.
The case made headlines, with outlets such as the Washington Post reporting on criminal charges that said the SWAT team was wearing uniforms, SWAT vests and helmets, though not mentioning they were in an unmarked van in the dark, with the lights off.
The case made headlines again a few days later, when the Minnesota Freedom Fund paid $75,000 cash to get Stallings — who had no criminal record — out of jail.
It even became fodder for presidential campaign fundraising, with then-President Donald Trump’s War Room tweeting that “Jaleel Stallings is a would-be cop killer who was in jail for firing at police during ‘peaceful protests.’ Now he’s free thanks in part to Biden campaign officials who donated to pay bail fees” after Biden campaign officials donated to the Freedom Fund. . . .
The Winter article--and her subsequent coverage--led to outrage, and the tale was widely picked up. Even Fox News had the story out by September 7, sharing the New York Post version. Key pieces published before Koran reintroduced the video? Bodycam video: MPD beat Jaleel Stallings after he fired on officers in self defense and Mayor: SWAT team’s tactics were ‘incredibly disturbing.'
Perhaps the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus will edit this gem to remove Stallings, a veteran and man who has no criminal record. We've downloaded the YouTube version, just in case.
Here's an embed of the original Caucus Facebook post:
Screengrab: Mark Koran's September 8 use on Facebook of a May 14 Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus video using Jaleel Stallings as an example of a "violent criminal." Stallings had been acquitted of all charges a week before Koran used the video.
Related posts
- Is the contest for Republican Party of Minnesota state chair a cheesy Law and Order fanzine?
- News brief: Senator Mark Koran selected as Chair of Legislative Audit Commission
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