At 07:38 AM 4/8/01 -0700, Carol Becker wrote:
>Mr. Connally wrote arguing that the Mayor has not responded to the issue of
>racial profiling because she wasn't testifying on this issue at the Capital.
>This argument is incorrect. The Mayor can and has asked for improved
>training methods for our police.
The mayor is in a position to _require_ improved training methods for the
police.
In my more charitable moments, I can appreciate that the mayor is in a
difficult position. She has to maintain a working relationship with the
police federation (who I think include some very tough dudes indeed). At
the same time, she has to appease a variety of constituents, including some
who refuse to believe that the police can do anything wrong,
African-Americans who hope that a mayor of their own race will look out for
their well-being, and some who are generally concerned about civil liberties.
But she is the mayor, after all. She signed up for that job, and she
continues to reapply for it. She has a responsibility to be tough with the
tough dudes who work for her and look out for the interests of her
constituents at the same time.
She also has a responsibility to show _leadership_. As the top elected
official in Minneapolis, that's part of her job. Mr. Connolly complains
that she never showed up at the legislature while the racial profiling
bills were being debated. If she had been there, she would have been
showing leadership.
Rosalind Nelson
Bancroft
But this issue of racial profiling is much
>more complex that just changing the behavior of the police. Matthea Smith
>wrote some of the best words I have ever read on racial profiling and with
>her permission I am reposting them here as an example of what needs to
>happen to really address this issue in our community:
>
>
>Yes, the police do make terrible mistakes. But many, many times there are
>citizens that call for police intervention, for example, those kids (that
>happen to be Black) that must be dealing drugs on the corner, so I'll call
>the police to remove them.
>
>I also realize that it is difficult, if not impossible for a Black man to
>drive a new expensive car down any street in the city of Minneapolis without
>being stopped by the police. I have incidents that have happened in my
>family -- three to be exact. But I am not just talking about the incidents
>where the police are pulling folks over, nor am I minimizing it. This is a
>serious problem that absolutely has to be dealt with promptly and promise of
>a serious resolve.
>
>However, this is just a fraction of the incidents of police intervention.
>911 gets many, many calls for suspicious folks walking the streets, kids
>"fighting" [when they are playing] in the streets, etc., etc., etc. These
>calls are made by citizens that are doing their own racial profiling.
>
>I know of a case where a community activist, that was self-identified as
>working with the police, identified young black men that happened to be on
>Lake street, as dealing and using drugs. This proved to be untrue. But the
>call was made, the police were dispatched and the young men were harassed
>and one was arrested for an outstanding traffic warrant.
>
>Many times citizens are the ones that call the police and ask for police
>intervention. If the color of the participants on the streets were white
>would these same citizens assume the same need for police intervention? I
>think the statistics from police calls show otherwise.
>
>I am glad to hear that the stats shows that our crime is down. Because of
>this, I believe this is an excellent time to work with the police on ways to
>make sure their behavior is not that conducive of racial profiling. This is
>similar to the work we did with domestic violence and trying to get the
>police to identify battering. That work took time and a LOT of training.
>And even though, battering still goes on, and more training needs to be
>done, we have many sensitive police officers to battering and domestic
>violence.
>
>Unfortunately, we have not done as much training in the community, so there
>is much to be done on the issues of domestic violence and battering in
>neighborhoods and communities.
>
>This correlation, for me, holds true with racial profiling. I am talking
>about serious systems change...this doesn't happen by changing one person's
>attitude, it is a
>whole community.
>
>I think if the community is truly upset about racial profiling it will be on
>every Neighborhood
>organization's agenda, and they will work with the police, through their
>Community Policing
>programs, with their NRPs, and local foundations, to make sure it is
>eliminated in respective
>neighborhoods through training and different programs.
>
>In my opinion this is where one holds the taxpayers accountable for their
>behavior.
>Because basically, yes, we are paying for the racial profiling that we are,
>in part,
>responsible.
>
>Matthea
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
>Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
>http://e-democracy.org/mpls
>
>
_______________________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more:
http://e-democracy.org/mpls
