The Monsters Among Us

Jacob Frey and MPD are the real devils to be afraid of this Halloween season.

By Maddie Roth

Ah, spooky season. Time for horror movies, candy of all varieties, and every creative juice flowing so you can find your perfect Halloween costume for this year. It is a time many of us look forward to all year round. Skeletons, vampires, and all the other scary creatures that come out for one night out of the year.

Some people, though, are not running from the same fake ghoulish monsters we pretend to be because they are running from a much scarier figure: the Minneapolis Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).

MnDOT and MPD have been responsible for clearing multiple encampments around Minneapolis for the past couple of years. This includes, but is not limited to, the Franklin Hiawatha encampment, the Wall of Forgotten Native encampment, and the House of Balls encampment. Encampments are places where unhoused individuals gather together and set up tents in an area. Many have popped up over the city, even after MnDOT and MPD have torn them down.

Last December, I went to the Franklin Hiawatha encampment the day it had been cleared by MPD. There were fences surrounding the green tents, boarding up the tales and tragedies of the place dozens of people called home. Stories of the past were whispered into the ears of those who chose to look the other way. It was eerily quiet for a place that had been previously filled with screams and cries only two hours before I had arrived. The ghosts of recently evicted inhabitants were haunting the scene, desperately trying to share their secrets with the reports who had scurried around the area to write their next story. But I stood there in pure shock at the sight before me, unaware of where to begin.

The silence was almost too much to bear. I could hear the wind hallowing as I eyed a pair of children’s boots two feet away from each other lying in the snow. I wondered who those had belonged to and what was currently keeping their feet warm if their boots were here and not with them.

Jay Nobles was working to salvage recovered supplies from people who had been evicted from their homes on the morning I had met him. He does not have a high school diploma, but he has blankets and duffel bags filled with clothes for the unhoused.

“This whole notion that these people deserve what they got, that they did something wrong –– they didn’t do anything wrong,” Nobles said. “They’re just victims.”

One of his main motivations for working with the unhoused is because he understands what it’s like to not have a place to call home. He struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues before getting back on his feet. He mentioned how he felt the public was never kind towards him or other unhoused individuals, but he hopes that can change in the future.

“One of the most important things about the unhoused is they feel forgotten and invisible,” Nobles said. “Just talk to them. Show them some humanity because we’ve done everything to these people, but show them compassion.”

In late September, I went to another encampment that had recently been cleared. The Wall of Forgotten Natives encampment was a site that had seen many residents come and go, once again remaining empty while memories of a place indigenous people used to call their own haunt the East Phillips neighborhood. Once the encampment was cleared, hundreds of people were without a home. After being almost completely cleared by MnDOT, the rusted fences and barricades hold the trauma and tears of a community torn apart. The area resembled a ghost town, a graveyard of destroyed dreams.

A “No Trespassing - MnDOT” sign was stapled to one of the fences with a smaller “Elder Approved, No Teachings” sticker barely noticeable compared to the more demanding statement above. Written in white marker on the “No” part of the sign was the phrase, “Where is the cactus flower?” In certain indigenous cultures, cactus flowers represent warmth and love.

Mayor Jacob Frey made a promise to end homelessness in Minneapolis as part of his mayoral campaign. Since then, many Minneapolis residents have become angry at the treatment Frey and MPD have given to the unhoused. Images and video of bulldozers tearing down tents and MPD throwing the belongings of those living in the encampments away surfaced moments after the clearings. Public outrage has led activists to come forward to express their testimonies in hopes of enacting change. Despite their efforts, Mayor Frey has repeatedly stated that “encampments shouldn’t exist,” according to his interview with MPR last November.

A defeated man walks into Hard Rock Cafe with bags under his bloodshot eyes and cuts on his dry hands, carrying a duffel bag and sleeping bag with white tape wrapped around broken shoes. Although he was unhoused, James said he had a home in the Franklin Hiawatha encampment and the Wall of Forgotten Natives encampment before MPD and MnDOT ripped it away from him. Now, after watching his home be demolished, James is one of many people looking for “anywhere that would take him.” He added he felt like he “didn’t matter” because of how he was treated by the MPD and was a burden to the city he had called home.

“I don’t really have anything in my life, but I had my home,” James said. “[The MPD] took my home away from me.”

The Wake sent out a survey to University of Minnesota students to ask how they felt about homelessness in Minneapolis. Responses ranged from “I think homelessness is a serious issue here in this city that must be addressed WITH THE WELFARE OF THE HOMELESS PRIORITIZED ABOVE ALL ELSE” to “Statistically speaking, Minneapolis' rate of homelessness is on par with the rest of the country and is often blown out of proportion by those who see "Murderapolis" as the bane of their existence.”

Encampments do not hurt anyone. They are a place where those who do not have anything can finally find a way to have something. People who are going through one of the worst experiences in their lives and are able to find a community with each other. Destroying encampments will not help anyone. If MPD and MnDOT are going to follow Mayor Frey’s monstrous demands, there should be a solution for where the unhoused can go. Most of the time when these encampments are cleared, there isn’t.

The Halloween season can be scary for many reasons: terrifying masks, horrific movies to be played deep into the night, and the occasional haunted tricks and thrills. These are the usual and typical scares we expected during this time. For some people, though, the Halloween season can be scary for other reasons: scrambling for a home, seeking anything they can consider their next meal, and wondering when the next time the little they have is taken from them by the real monsters of our city.

There are people in this world who act like monsters, but there are also monsters in this world who act like people. Sometimes, it’s hard to see the distinction between the two.