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Tent City, Old Greenwich

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White neighbor of Minneapolis park refuse to call cops on homeless encampment

A Minneapolis neighborhood has been overrun by a homeless encampment that’s grown to as many as 300 people — amid an agreement among progressive white residents to not call the police, according to a new report.

The tent city has popped up in a park in Powderhorn Park — a diverse community of about 9,000 that’s blocks away from where George Floyd was killed last month.

In light of Floyd’s police-involved death, residents there have vowed to avoid calling the cops, feeling that doing so could put people of color in danger. But now with hundreds of outsiders flooding the park — drawing in more car traffic, including drug dealers, and resulting in at least two overdoses — the neighbors are facing a moral dilemma.

“I am afraid,” one of the residents, Shari Albers, told the New York Times. “I know my neighbors are around, but I’m not feeling grounded in my city at all. Anything could happen.”

… Carrie Nightshade was among a group of white women who promised to ignore any property damage, including to their own homes, and filed for a block party permit to limit cars in the neighborhood. The women also agreed to call the American Indian Movement, a group formed in Minneapolis in 1968 to address police brutality, instead of law enforcement if they witnessed physical violence.

But now, she feels uneasy about letting her two kids, ages 9 and 12, play alone in the park.

“I’m not being judgmental,” Nightshade said [while being judgmental]. “It’s not personal. It’s just not safe.”

Mitchell Erickson resorted to calling police last week when he was cornered outside his home by two youths, one of whom pointed a gun at his chest while demanding his car keys. After he unwittingly handed over a set of house keys, the boys became frustrated, then fled. They stole a different car down the street.

Initially, Erickson, who lives a block from the park, told the Times that dialing 911 was the right thing to do. But a couple days later, he regretted it.

“Been thinking more about it,” he texted the Times. “I regret calling the police. It was my instinct but I wish it hadn’t been. I put those boys in danger of death by calling the cops.

Asked about his life being put in danger, Erickson added, “Yeah I know and yeah it was scary but the cops didn’t really have much to add after I called them. I haven’t been forced to think like this before. So I would have lost my car. So what? At least no one would have been killed.”

Meanwhile, Albers’ daughter, Tobie Miller, said she doesn’t blame the illegal activity in the park on the displaced residents.

“My feeling around it is those are symptoms of systemic oppression,” said Miller, 34, who recently took a class on racial biases. “And that’s not on them.”

Reached for comment on Martha’s Vineyard where she has been quarantining with friend the pst four months, Greenwich State Senator Qlex Whateverhernameisnow told FWIW she was of two minds on whether to open a similar encampment for Stamford kindaresidents in our own parks: “I certainly don’t want to be judgmental or make this personal”, she said while clutching her pearls, “but some of our parks, like Binney, just can’t be expected to handle a large crowd of friends we just haven’t met yet. Perhaps the clambake area at Greenwich Point would be better, or the Babcock Property. I’ve never been up there, but I understand there’s lots of room for these sorts of people. And I’m told that Cos Cob folk are already using the place, so what, at this point, difference will it make?’