It's significant to me that the recently released study was about
traffic stops. One of the first things I noticed after moving to this
neighborhood was that when I got stuck behind a slow, overly-cautious
driver on Chicago Avenue, the driver was generally not an elderly female
but an African-American male. "Oh," I said to myself, "they must get
pulled over a lot." If the data had been related to streetcorner stuff
(fights, petty drug dealing), I'd be tempted to conclude, "That's just
how life is on Chicago and Lake." But since the data is about traffic
stops, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that there is some kind of bias
at work.
The Strib had an article on Sunday, "Data deepens racial-profiling
divide." The director of the Minnesota Peace and Police Officers
Association was quoted as saying, "When the community no longer has
confidence in the police department, it's over." It's encouraging that
someone in such a position _wants_ the community to have confidence in
the police. Unfortunately, he was arguing against releasing the
statistics. The statistics _could_ be a great opportunity for change
and for the police to regain confidence, particularly of minority
communities.
Rosalind Nelson
Bancroft
timothy connolly wrote:
> I was riding the bus this morning looking at the faces
> thinking how many people might really care about wine
> sales in grocery stores. I didn't think I would get
> much response one way or the other.
>
> On the other hand I thought there might be a great
> conversation to be had were we,"on the bus", to talk
> about say ,affordable housing and the alleged lack
> thereof, racial profiling, existent or just
> perception, as the Chief might have us white folk
> think, and other matters of importance.
>
> It worries me that this forum has barely touched on
> the recent articles in the Strib & PiPress about
> statistics from police stops and what they might mean.
>
> Did anyone read Ruben Rosario in the PiPress this past
> weekend when he told of the resignation of the head
> man from the Mpls. based group that will help analyze
> Mpls Police statistics. After only five months on the
> job, he felt tokenized and without the authority to
> operate the organization in the manner he believed
> necessary to achieve its desired goals. Does it bother
> anyone but me that this is the organization that has
> been contracted to analyze Mpls. police stats?
> Or how about his column yesterday?
>
> Tim Connolly
> Ward 7
>
>
>
>
>
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