Dear Chief O’Hara:
You seem determined to comment on and insert yourself into the defamation lawsuit that Assistant Chief of Police Katie Blackwell brought against my clients—Liz Collin, Alpha News, and JC Chaix. Since you apparently can’t help yourself, here are the facts.
In the criminal trial against Derek Chauvin, Blackwell testified that the Minneapolis Police Department did not train officers to use a knee-on-neck restraint. Blackwell testified that she didn’t recognize Chauvin’s knee-on-neck restraint and that it was an “improvised position.”
Liz’s book, They’re Lying, and her follow-up documentary, The Fall of Minneapolis, showed that the MPD did train officers to use a knee-on-neck restraint, including as part of the maximal restraint technique (MRT) process. We provided numerous pictures of this training to the Court, and more importantly, we provided sworn declarations from 34 MPD officers stating that the MPD trained officers to use knee-on-neck restraints, including as part of the MRT process. Of those, 14 officers declared that Blackwell committed perjury. Nevertheless, Blackwell sued for defamation.
Your latest op-ed not only fails to mention these dozens of MPD officers, but claims Alpha News and Liz are attacking Blackwell. Let’s remember who sued whom here. In the immortal words of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo, Blackwell drew “first blood.”
You would know this if Blackwell or you showed up for court. You would also know that I told Judge Wahl that the lawsuit has nothing to do with the Chauvin trial and everything to do with the First Amendment. But why let a few facts get in the way of some self-serving opinion piece, right? If I close my eyes, I can see you running your latest disingenuous nonsense over to the Minneapolis City Council’s chambers breathlessly seeking their approval.
Which brings me to my main point. Your choice to ignore the facts relating to the defamation lawsuit is one thing, but when you juxtapose your decision to write that puerile op-ed against Minneapolis’ current conditions, your decision to spend your time writing it is astonishing—and appalling.
While murders plummet nationwide, they are rising in Minneapolis. Businesses and workers are fleeing the city. Real estate is selling for pennies on the dollar. Just this past Tuesday, a crime spree across the city resulted in multiple burglaries, a carjacking, and an armed robbery.
But gee, let’s see … what did you do on Tuesday, the same day your op-ed came out in the Star Tribune? While rank-and-file police officers were searching for the crime spree suspects and trying to protect us, you enjoyed a long lunch at the Minneapolis Club. (Yes “Chief,” I know where you eat, and I know who you talk to.) Even worse, your misguided op-ed supporting Blackwell was—and this is incredible—your second op-ed of the week.
Here’s some advice: close your laptop. Do your job. Work on earning the loyalty of your officers—believe me, you need to. Fight crime, not Liz Collin. Spend more time actually working with the officers keeping us safe instead of the Minneapolis institutional players that you repeatedly bend over backwards to please. Engage with Minneapolis residents and business owners, like me, concerned about line cops and crime instead of hiding behind your personal lawyer.
Call me crazy, but I would hope that a police chief who manages a department that is down nearly 40% of rank-and-file cops would spend less time writing op-eds and more time recruiting officers and policing the city. But hey, I’m just a lawyer, right?
Because I’ve heard that you want to find another job, please direct your attention to updating your resume. Stop harassing my clients. It’d also be terrific if you stopped trying to reinvent history while you’re at it. In the meantime, the rest of us will pray some other hapless city cares more about your op-eds than your dismal performance.
Chris Madel
Chris Madel is a prominent Minnesota attorney. He currently represents Trooper Ryan Londregan, Liz Collin, Alpha News, and the MPPOA.
