When John Harrington moved to St. Paul in 1977, he remembered the most dominant foreign language spoken in St. Paul as German.
This is no longer the case: new immigrant groups have settled in the city, and Spanish, Hmong, Karen and Somali are now at the top of the list of dozens of non-English languages ​​that are spoken here. And as St. Paul has grown, one constant has been the winter carnival.
Harrington, the former St. Paul Police Chief and co-founder of the non-profit Ujamaa Place, was crowned on January 24 as the 88th King Boreas in the Royal Coronation of St. Paul Winter Carnival.
In front of him is the winter carnival and it has always been central to make people feel at home in St. Paul, no matter how long they have lived here.
Like Boreas, he said, his goal is that the winter carnival continues to build relationships between the winter carnival and communities that are new in the city or have traditionally not been so involved in carnival events, and to use the carnival as’ a vehicle for welcoming them in St. Paul. “
“What one of us finds directly influence on all of us,” he said. “If you believe that, what I do, then every member of the community – the new Karen, the new Ethiopian, Eritrean, the old Irish, the old Italian, Scandinavian, German and everyone in between – we all have to connect with each other. To make this a great St. Paul. It is the only way it will work. “
‘I had heard about St. Paul’
Before landing in St. Paul, Harrington, a resident of Chicago, graduated from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
His dream was to become a member of the New York City police, he said. But the almost-Fanse crisis of the city in the mid-seventies meant that the NYPD is shrinking, not grew, so he should start somewhere else. He had relatives in Stacy, Minn., So he thought he would call the police of Minneapolis. They didn’t hold, they said; Ask St. Paul.
“I am sure I had heard about St. Paul on a kind of geographical test,” Harrington recalls. But he applied and eventually got a job at the St. Paul Police Department in 1977.
He was selected as a chef in 2004 and served until 2010, when he was chosen in the Staatshuis of Minnesota. After one term, he left to become head of the Metro transit police and from 2019 to 2023 served as Commissioner of the Ministry of Public Security of the State, a position at the level of cabinet under Gov. Tim Walz.
At the top of both St. Paul and Metro Transit Police, Harrington was credited with a significant increase in bilingual officers and officers whose ethnic backgrounds represent the communities they served, according to earlier Pioneer Press report.
In 2010 he was also co-founder of Ujamaa Place, who connects young black men with means to build stable families, careers and lives outside the criminal justice system. While nationally, almost 70 percent of those convicted of re -insulting crimes, that number is around 4 percent for participants in the Ujamaa Place, the organization says.
“Children like to become children, but they need those walls to bounce against, softly, and I don’t think the police are always the right wall for children to bounce,” Harrington said. “So how do we find other walls, whether they are ministers or coaches or other ambassadors, who can help to lead? We don’t lock you up; We push you back into the game. We are going to do well, and with good grace, in a way that says, “We want you to be successful.” ‘
Light on
During Harrington’s term of office as the police chief of Metro Transit, Philando Castile was killed in 2016 by a police officer in St. Anthony after being persuaded for a broken rear light.
‘What would have happened during that traffic stop if, instead of being about what he had in his pocket, the officer had said:’ Hey, your rear lights are out and we want you to drive safely, so here is a coupon To have them repaired. “And had run back to his car,” Harrington said. “The world would be another place.”
This is the concept of the National Lights on Program, which Harrington now supervises CEO of Microgrants, the local non -profit it supports. Instead of traffic tickets for broken twist signals or rear lights, officers in departments that are affiliated with lights can specify vouchers for free replacements. Almost 180 departments in 22 states have adopted lights and according to the organization more than 10,000 vouchers have been exchanged.
Or what if police services and social organizations would keep neighborhood events so that people who can get free coupons without having to be persuaded at all? Lights On has organized a few of such events in the Twin Cities and Harrington said he believes they have been successful in helping members of the community of all ages to think more deeply about their role in public safety.
“I don’t want them to have the only time they ever see the police when something bad happened in their neighborhood, because that doesn’t give them a good reason to call the police when they need us,” Harrington said. “And there are times when you need the police. I would like to live in a world where that was not the case. I’ve been trying to work out of a job for about 50 years. It has not happened yet, but I am still hopeful. “
‘The Lore of St. Paul’
Admittedly, Harrington said, he was afraid when he first approached about serving as Boreas, but he soon came to realize how the winter carnival fits in his life to build safer, stronger communities.
“This has been a city that welcomes people that other cities would not have welcomed, and I think this is part of the tradition of St. Paul,” Harrington said.
“I hope that, as (the winter carnival) extends to other communities, they will bring their traditions and we will be able to find where that common ground is. I think there is room for growth, and I think it should be fun to find it. “
Fast facts: King Boreas Rex lxxxviii
Who: John Harrington
Age: 69
Place of residence: Chicago; Now lives on the east side of St. Paul
Activeness: CEO of Microgrants, a non -profit cities Twin Cities. In the past, St. Paul Police Chief, Minnesota State Senator, Metro Transit Police Chief and State Public Safety Commissioner
Boreas Motto: Chief, who stands for “Community History Inspiring Equity and Family Fun”
Boreas Charity: Lights On, a program that works together with local law enforcement to offer vouchers for rear light or to run signal replacement instead of publishing a ticket
First Carnival -Memory: Traffic Directing around Winter Carnival -Events such as a St. Paul -Politie Agent
