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In June 2024, Unicorn Riot released the finale in a 12-part series by contributor Marjaan Sirdar detailing how the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, and multinational retail giant Target Corporation engaged in a decades-long racialized policing/surveillance operation.

The final report Target, ‘Junk Science’ and Unreliable Testimonies: The Contentious Conviction of 15-Year-Old Mahdi Ali, spotlights overlooked details of the arrest and conviction of Mahdi Ali for a 2010 triple murder at Seward Market in Minneapolis and how a Target forensics team testified against the teen at trial.

The investigation digs into 27 issues found throughout the case and reveals that Ali’s conviction that was largely based on the unreliable testimonies of two people implicated in the crimes — one of whom later recanted his testimony and said Ali was innocent and took “the fall for something he didn’t end up doing.” Ali is currently serving a life sentence and is housed in MCF-Rush City.

Released in February 2024, Part 11 in the series, How Target Funded a ‘Tough On Crime’ Prosecutor’s Office, Driving Black Youth Incarceration in Minneapolis, reported on how Target pioneered the Community Prosecution Program in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office as part of a broad anti-crime campaign that employed new advanced technology and reshaped the criminal justice system in Minneapolis with particularly devastating effects on Black residents.

Catch up on all 12 reports, including a short film Unscathed: How the Press Helps Hide Target’s Harm on the series landing page and the links below.

[Read each part here 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 or by clicking the link provided on the below titles or clicking the images below.]

About the author of this series: Marjaan Sirdar is a freelance writer in South Minneapolis’ Bryant neighborhood, where George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis Police. He is the host of the People Power Podcast.

Part 1 – Policing and Punishment in Minneapolis’ ‘SafeZone’ provides critical coverage of the public/private surveillance partnership launched in downtown Minneapolis in 2004.

Part 2 – Minneapolis Faces Facial Recognition provides evidence of how Minneapolis was a model city for massive surveillance in America after 9/11 at a time when residents are drawing the line on invasive technology.

Part 3 – Minneapolis’ Downtown Dark Alliance places Target Corp. at the center of a profit-driven public-private partnership that rolled back civil rights on its Black population.

Part 4 – Targeted: Young, Black and Harassed in Downtown Minneapolis focuses on the voices of youths telling their stories of harassment and brutality by downtown police at the behest of Target Corporation’s racialized surveillance dragnet.

Part 5 – Activists Target Target’s Cop Collaboration details the voices of those who began blowing the whistle on Target Corporation’s decades of funding racialized surveillance and draconian law enforcement after George Floyd’s death.

Part 6 – Target Supremacy: What You Should Know About the 2013 Security Breach presents evidence that further suggests Target Corp. is a major hidden hand of power in Minneapolis which has acquired troves of data on the general public.

Part 7 – Unscathed: How the Press Helps Hide Target’s Harm is a short film examining the role of corporate media in denying the voices of Black youths and adults in Minneapolis

Part 8 – Clearing the Way for a Whiter, Wealthier Tax Base: How the City of Minneapolis Uses Racist Policies and Data to Target ‘Undesirable’ Populations explores various ways in which authorities transformed the city into a playground for “young corporate professionals,” including some programs that preceded Target’s SafeZone surveillance juggernaut.

Part 9 – #NoKidsInPrison Art Installation Highlights Youth Incarceration Driven By Target, gives readers a video tour of the showroom led by a youth leader with the End Youth Prisons MN campaign as well as interviews with the young people and lead staff behind the project.

Part 10 – Target Corp’s Critics Call Out Chicanery: New Report Contradicts Official Reason Behind Closings, documents the ongoing deception, this time about why it’s shuttering nine stores.

Part 11 – How Target Funded A ‘Tough On Crime’ Prosecutor’s Office, Driving Black Youth Incarceration in Minneapolis retraces the history of the Target-funded Community Prosecution Program, that still exists today, and how the retail giant funded the county attorney’s office for several years to prosecute its self-proclaimed enemies: Black people.

Part 12 – Target, ‘Junk Science’ and Unreliable Testimonies: The Contentious Conviction of 15-Year-Old Mahdi Ali reveals the remarkable story of the young refugee prosecuted for a brutal 2010 triple murder in Seward, with the crucial assistance of Target forensics investigators.

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