{"id":1608,"date":"2024-09-29T14:10:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-29T14:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/?p=1608"},"modified":"2024-09-29T14:10:12","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T14:10:12","slug":"minneapolis-swears-in-first-non-citizen-police-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/2024\/09\/29\/minneapolis-swears-in-first-non-citizen-police-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"Minneapolis Swears in First Non-Citizen Police Officer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MPD adds 23 new officers, including first Somali woman and non-citizen\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cjYj1ZfrIjA?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Minneapolis Police Department has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/minneapolis-police-swear-in-first-somali-woman-non-citizen-in-joyful-graduation\/601153056\">sworn in<\/a> its first non-citizen officer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lesly Vera was one of over 20 new officers sworn in recently. She hails from Mexico, but has resided in the US since she was four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vera\u2019s appointment to Minneapolis PD was made possible by a recent change in the law, which allows permanent residents who are not citizens to become part of the police force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere may be people who question it, but that\u2019s completely ridiculous. There\u2019s like I mentioned, there is a history in this country of people immediately on arrival to the country, enlisting in the military and serving,\u201d said Police Chief Brian O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vera previously served as a Community Service Officer before the law change in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the new recruits with Vera was also the force\u2019s first female Somali officer, Ikran Mohamed, 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI want to be a role model for girls who look like me, so they can say \u2018I can do it, too,\u2019\u201d Mohamed, told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m just very excited to be here and represent my people and my community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The police department adopted a&nbsp;new policy&nbsp;on hijabs and headscarves last year, in the hope that it would attract applicants from a wider variety of backgrounds. The policy requires that any head covering must not interfere with the use of police equipment, such as helmets or gas masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minneapolis Police Department has sworn in its first non-citizen officer. Lesly Vera was one of over 20 new officers sworn in recently. She hails from Mexico, but has resided in the US since she was four. Vera\u2019s appointment to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1609,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608\/revisions\/1609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}