My last piece on this thread -- at least for
today.
It seems so very easy to blame issues on one
person as opposed to a society that has
sanctioned this kind of behavior.
Racial profiling has been an issue for people of
color for many decades BEFORE Chief Olson got
into office. The NAACP and the Urban League have
brought this issue to the public's attention to
no avail.
Now that racial profiling has received national
attention, and Kenneth White was arrested, rather
than take personal responsibility, it would
appear it feels more comfortable to blame it on
one person.
I DO believe that Chief Olson has a
responsibility in his role as police chief to
work to end racial profiling. But, we also need
a city-wide commitment to address this issue and
some serious sytems change work be done.
We also have racial profiling in grocery and
department stores, insurance companies, housing,
education, we just choose to call it something
else, then deny that it exists.
We live in a city that any candidate can run and
win on "eliminating crime" in the neighborhoods.
Part of the elimination of crime results in
racial profiling and police brutality in the poor
and people of color communities.
Statistics are presently being gathered on the
racial profile of those getting arrested for
different levels of crimes.
I think that the Star and Tribune article was
instrumental in the statistics they gave that
people of color don't make up the majority of the
criminals, but they do make up for the majority
of the arrests. It we look one step further,
those arrests, many times comes from complaints
from neighbors that have done the initial
targeting or racial profiling. Now who do we
target and hold accountable for their behavior?
Matthea Smith
Powderhorn Park
9-4
> � Racial profiling and harassment.
> There has been rampant racial profiling and
> harassment in Minneapolis
> under the CODEFOR program. Police have been
> quoted by media as referring
> to unjustified arrests and holding innocent
> people in jail over a weekend
> as "an inconvenience." Even Ken White,
> executive director of the
> Minneapolis civil rights department, was
> stopped and harassed by six white
> police officers for the "crime" of taking a
> grandchild to a park in the
> Phillips neighborhood.
>
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