The Wake

A man walks out of the Brian J. Coyle center and is shot to death in broad daylight. His body sits in the unseasonable heat with nary a sheet to cover it for hours. It sits long enough for his mother to come and see it. The police start suspecting “gang violence” before the blood has even dried on the pavement. Finding a suspect is out of the question as this becomes the third mysterious shooting of a young male in the last six months.

This is the story of 20-year-old Ahmed Nur Ali. An enthusiastic, dedicated young student, public servant and athlete; this is the story of his tragic death and what it means. Death can often shake up the living and remind them of the work that still needs to done. As peers of Ahmed Nur, it is up to us to figure out what we can learn from this mess.

First and foremost, we need to recognize that there is a problem. Last summer, I wrote an article about the challenges that Cedar-Riverside and its surrounding student communities are facing. The responses I received were mostly on the axis of “yr crazy.” Although you may disagree with my analysis, it is now impossible to deny that there is a problem. As the death toll increases, it becomes increasingly ridiculous for people living within blocks of the crime scene to sit on their hands and pretend that nothing is wrong. These problems are our problems and it is simply shameful to dismiss them as black problems, Somali problems, Muslim problems, etc.

Unfortunately, that is the stance that local universities are taking. Ahmed Nur Ali was a student at Augsburg College and lived a stones’ throw away from our fair campus, yet neither institution has taken significant action to probe deeper into why this tragedy occurred. Where is the U of M with its prestigious counseling credentials and specialists in multicultural counseling? Or how about its army of sociologists, psychologists, analysts and money managers? Where is Augsburg with its resources that it has taken to flashing around lately by building strip malls and study centers? Where is our sense of community? If these institutions are to pretend that they are a part of the Minneapolis community, then they have to back it up with community action.

The police response has also been troubling. While I applaud their efforts to find a suspect and reach out to the community, I am troubled by reports of uncooperative cops on the scene. When cops do things like assume that the shooting was gangrelated, leave the body out in the open and refuse citizens’ requests to pray by the body, they only spread anger and fear. It is not enough to refuse to engage the people you are supposed to protect on a daily basis and yet belligerently ask, “Why aren’t you helping your community?” when someone dies. How do the police expect to receive help from a community that they repeatedly belittle and marginalize?

And now it’s our turn. As young people, are we going to just ignore this or assume that it’s someone else’s problem? I say we demand action - meaningful, well-reasoned and constructive action – from the local governments that populate this area. I say it’s time that we put aside the rhetoric and P.R.
junk, and demand that universities, politicians and police either start acting like our community matters or get out of it. The stakes are now too high to hide in the bubble of academia and pretend that we aren’t a part of this city. In this day and age, our involvement truly is a matter of life or death.