[Mpls] Racial Profiling

[Jhpalmerjp]

>>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.<<

Yesterday I had an opportunity to discuss Sunday's Strib article about racial
profiling with a very very conservative co-worker.  The article reported on
the data released this month and the concerns of law enforcement groups as
well as those of communities of color leaders as to what this might mean.  My
co-worker didn't have a problem with profiling.  He said, "If I'm a police
officer and it's 12:30 am and I see a skinhead with swastika tatoos and a
bulging coat circling a house, I ought to be able to give a second look."  
Good point, I said, except that's not racial profiling.

Racial profiling, I went on to explain, is a practice of singling out people
based upon race to be questioned, stopped, investigated, etc.  It isn't
stopping people that look suspicious, it's stopping people because of their
race and saying or thinking that that's the reason they look suspicious.  The
discussion, in a nutshell, is part of the problem.  Many people don't know
what racial profiling is, and as such assume it's not a big deal or that
people raising concerns about it are simply "crying wolf".  Which is why it
makes so much sense to actually go ahead and collect the necessary data to
provide evidence for either argument (i.e. racial profiling does or does not
occur) in my mind.  Yet some law enforcement groups have a problem with it.

Dennis Flaherty, executive director of the Minnesota Peace and Police
Officers Association, a professional organization that lobbies for officers
says in the article that releasing the information the way that it was done
unfairly accuses the officer's of being racist when they know they are not.  
Adding "when the community no longer has confidence in the police department,
it's over".

Well, the first problem with this statement is that a community doesn't have
confidence in the police department when they are raising the concern of
profiling, and this confidence is further eroded when they don't see this
concern actually and actively being addressed.  The second problem deals with
the racism that is institutionalized within the systems that surround us
everyday.  You don't have to feel you are a racist to perpetuate a racist
stereotype or act from a racist point of view.  Within our society, racism is
not just calling someone "nigger", burning a cross on their lawn, or dragging
someone to death behind a truck, it's also getting off the elevator, crossing
the street, or pulling someone over because they "look" suspicious.  And it's
not necessarily because you're a racist individual that you may think these
things, but rather because that is what is "taught" within our society
through media, personal practices, ignorance, etc.  

The only way to "eracism" is to identify the problem and redevelop the system
to correct it.  To bring to people's minds the impropriety in treatment and
consideration, and actively work to redress this.  And for this reason I
believe that it is imperative to collect the data necessary.  I work with
many police officer's in my community capacity and by no means think that the
police department as a whole is guilty or should be crucified for the actions
of a part of the whole.  And if racial profiling isn't happening, then the
data and interpretation will show it, thus vindicating law enforcement
officials who deny the practice exist.

Jonathan Palmer
Stevens Square
Ward 6

Leadership Does Matter!
www.jonathanpalmer.org