After community members disrupted a St. Paul City Council meeting Wednesday over a fatal officer-involved shooting, council member Dai Thao wrote in a Facebook post, “I alone cannot change police policies, but if we work together, we can end systemic and institutional racism.”

Police Chief Todd Axtell responded on the police department’s Facebook page Friday: “While I agree that community involvement is critically important to democracy and that everyone has a voice, I cannot begin to express how disappointed I am in some of Councilmember Thao’s words. His sweeping generalizations about our police department are untrue. They are also an insult to all SPPD employees — sworn and civilian — who work hard on behalf of the city.”

Thao is the most vocal voice on the city council about police reform and is running for St. Paul mayor this year. He said his comments had been “mischaracterized.”

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“I want to respond to Chief Axtell’s comments on a post I made on my personal Facebook account,” he wrote in a statement released Saturday. “While I appreciate that Chief Axtell is engaging in the conversations happening in our community, I do not appreciate the mischaracterizations of my words. Pointing out systemic and institutional racism is not an attack on the brave men and women who serve our city, but rather a historically and factually based recognition of the experiences of too many St. Paul residents face.”

“We can be appreciative of the individual officers and simultaneously be critical about changing systems that disenfranchise communities of color,” the statement continued. “We cannot repair the trust between our police officers and the community except by having open and honest conversations with all engaged parties. I look forward to continuing the work of building police-community relations as a public official with St. Paul residents and police officers.”

Axtell, who rose through the St. Paul Police Department’s ranks, became chief in June. It’s unprecedented, in recent memory, for a St. Paul police chief to take such a public stand against an elected official.

Thao’s post, which appeared on his personal Facebook page Wednesday night and is not publicly visible, thanked Black Lives Matter organizers “for bringing our youth to city hall” for the council meeting. People who came to City Hall said they were looking for answers about what happened to Cordale Handy. Related Articles Minneapolis and St. Paul to add 70 electric car charging stations

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Two St. Paul officers shot Handy, who was 29 years old and African-American, in the Dayton’s Bluff area on March 15 after officers repeatedly commanded him to drop a handgun and he pointed the weapon twice at officers, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which is part of DPS, is investigating the case.

Handy’s mother’s attorney has said they have accounts from eyewitnesses that are “contradictory to the information” from the BCA.

After hearing from community members Wednesday, council President Russ Stark said he would convene a community discussion within the next few weeks.

Thao wrote in his Facebook post: “Just like how we pushed to remove police officers off the civilian review board, count on me to arrange a meeting with you all, my council colleagues, the mayor, and the chief of police to talk about police accountability and restorative justice to the community.”

In response, Axtell wrote in the statement on the police department’s Facebook page: “It’s also a fact that I don’t need Councilmember Thao to arrange my meetings. I meet regularly with community leaders, activists and people who have concerns about how we do our job. I respect their right to have opinions, concerns and ideas about law enforcement and their police department. That’s why most of these meetings take place out of the view of cameras and cell phones and aren’t something we publicize — because to me it’s not about publicity.”

Axtell concluded his message by writing, “At the end of the day, I believe that Councilmember Thao wants what we all want — a city that is safe for everyone. I just hope he can join the rest of us in working towards that goal in a respectful manner.”

Corydon Nilsson, Black Lives Matter St. Paul communications chair, said Friday that he didn’t see anything in Thao’s post that seemed to attack police or was a “sweeping generalization.” He said he thinks the level of trust between St. Paul police and residents “seems to be at an all-time low. I’m sure many would take Dai up on his offer to facilitate a meeting.”

“Overly defensive responses like Axtell’s are things we have come to expect,” Nilsson said. “But it’s still disappointing.” Related Articles Protesters of police shooting disrupt St. Paul city council meeting

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Dave Titus, St. Paul Police Federation president, said he and other officers appreciated Axtell’s strong words.

“The chief is very aware of the good work our cops do every day and so is Thao, but he’s out there, trying to stump,” Titus said. “This is just politics for him. … I’m glad that others are recognizing how dangerous and insulting Thao’s words are. His words and actions are not constructive for making better relations in our community.”

Thao, who’s been a city council member for more than three years representing the Frogtown and Summit-University neighborhoods, is a former recruiter for the progressive political action group TakeAction Minnesota. When he announced in January that he was running for mayor, Thao noted he had fought to restructure the Police-Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission by removing officers as voting members and secure a new training facility for the St. Paul Police Department.