Dana Mathewson

I thought we had come to the end of reporting on the Noor Murder case. But, like a dogged detective who is never done reporting on a case, here we are again. And happy to be so, bringing in again Scott Johnson's latest thoughts on the case.

Arriving on the tenth floor of the Hennepin County Government Center for the sentencing of Mohamed Noor on Friday morning, one could see that Somali supporters of the defendant constituted the vast majority of those turning out. The line of Somali supporters going through tenth floor security for the hearing was so long at 8:30, a half hour before the hearing, that I was asked to go to another floor and return later. Friends, family, and supporters of Justine Ruszczyk were few and far between.

The previous evening nearly 200 Somali supporters of Noor had gathered outside the Government Center to protest his conviction and sentencing. "The event,” according to the Star Tribune, "held just hours before his sentencing for the killing of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, decried what community members called a racial double standard in the criminal justice system.”

Oh, sure! You could see that coming a mile away.

Attending the trial of the "Minnesota men” — the young Somali men who were convicted of providing material support to ISIS in 2016 — I found much the same thing. Somali supporter of the defendants filled the courtroom. Every Thursday afternoon they protested the charges outside the federal courthouse. According to them, federal law enforcement had entrapped the defendants. The men charged in the case, however, had burned to join ISIS, live under the ISIS caliphate, and wage jihad. The claim of entrapment was farcical.

From within Minnesota’s Somali community there is no apparent public support for enforcement of the law against Somali community members by the authorities. Extrapolating current political and demographic trends ten years into the future, I wonder whether a Hennepin County jury would convict a Somali defendant charged with a serious crime against a white victim, whether an old-school judge like Kathryn Quaintance will be on the bench, or whether the authorities will bother to try.

Good article indeed. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/06/at-the-noor-sentencing-4.php

Posted by: riyaqueen at June 15, 2019 04:58 AM (06XLW)

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