Mr Shove - I would ask that you get the police policy book and prove your
contention that brutality is police policy. From your comments, it should
be very easy to prove as apparently police policy is rife with direction to
brutalize people. Just a couple of passages would be fine.
And while you are at it, could you also cite where Mayor Belton has given
direction to brutalize people, as from your comments she must be giving
clear direction that this is appropriate. Maybe something from a speech or
something? Because we know that being an African American woman, having
spent time registering voters in the deep south, she would be a big
proponent of police brutality. Never mind that she was one of the advocates
of the Minneapolis Police Civilian Review to help ensure strong oversight of
the police department. That must have been some kind of ruse to hide her
true beliefs?
The Highway 55 raid was done by the State using State officers going onto
State property. Of course, it would be easy to show that the State supports
these same policies of brutality by looking at the Highway Patrol manual.
If you could cite a few pages out of there also to support your assertions,
that would be great.
As you say, POLICY POLICY POLICY. If you could cite some policies to
support your assertions, that would be great.
Carol Becker
Longfellow
Who feels safer because crime is down 22% in my neighborhood, in part
through the efforts of the Police Department.
----- Original Message -----
From: David Shove <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Gary Bowman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 12:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Mpls] Park Police/David Shove post
> Mr Bowman
>
> You grossly (to put it mildly) misrepresent my comments, then proceed to
> knock down the straw man you have constructed.
>
> Principally, at no point did I say ALL police. I defy you to find it. You
> make it up, then slam me -- and most importantly my points -- as if you
> were the fair one and I the biassed unjust one.
>
> What I said was, more police, more brutality. If even some of the extra
> are brutal, that's true.
>
> But most importantly, it is NOT a question of INDIVIDUAL police - it is a
> question of POLICY.
>
> Policy set by the Police Dept, policy set by Mayor Sharon SAyles Belton,
> policy demanded by the ISAG corporations and the profiteers of Hwy 55,
> etc. The main blame belongs AT THE TOP -- by our so-called leaders and the
> over-rich families and corporations that CONTROL them. More police means
> more goon squads to enforce the will of the rich on all the rest of us.
> The main finger I point is at the rich masters of Mpls & MN, and their
> governmental puppets (eg Belton).
>
> The individual police will do pretty much what they think policy is -- and
> most of them KNOW it is to guard the rich and their assets against the
> non-rich, and to aid the rich in grabbing everything they can from the
> non-rich (that's us).
>
> So let's talk about Olson & Belton and ESPECIALLY the elite families that
> mastermind the policies and the police-state-ization of our society.
>
> You don't get 800 UNBADGED cops showing up for an action at 3am in the
> morning without massive direction from Belton & Co, as happened re Hwy
> 55. Ditto their $1 million dollar "defense" of ISAG corporations.
>
> POLICY. POLICY. POLICY. Top down. From Olson. From Belton. From elite
> profiteering families. POLICY.
> More cops nationally. More heavy police armor in all major cities. Many
> more jails. The rich are finding more places (jails) to put their enemies,
> and finding more puppets (cops) to put them there. A growing police state
> is just what the rich are ordering up for all the rest of us.
> For a lot more on this, see Lockdown America: police and prisons in the
> age of crisis, by Christian Parenti, Verso Press, 1999, paper 2000.
> I have come to feel SAFER when there are FEWER police. I support CUTTING
> BACK their number by a sizable amount, and taking away their pepper gas
> and rubber bullets and tank-like vehicles etc.
>
> --David Shove
>
>
>
> On 29 Jan 2001, Gary
> Bowman wrote:
>
> I am going to offer a much more serious response to David's post, even if
> Carol Becker offered a much more clever one.
>
> [Hers was clever? It was totally inaccurate - she speaks of park police
> finding me, when the whole point of my post had to do with their
> disappearance into the Mpls police.]
>
> Even if Carol hadn't brought forth her point that finding David is
> unlikely, it must be stated that David's comments and stereotyping of ALL
> police officers is unfair. I am not defending the actions of those
> officers who choose to act in illegal manners. Those individual police
> officers who engage in police brutality should be held accountable.
> However, to say that all police officers WILL act in a certain manner and
> not act in the manner of rightfully upholding the law is as improper as
> saying all African Americans are thieves or all Native Americans are
> drunkards. If one is going to call someone to task for stereotyping or
> "profiling" (and I would expect that David Shove may do this, looking at
> some of his posts), then one needs to practice what they preach.
>
> Finally, calling all police officers thugs does nothing towards furthering
> any hopeful dialogue with communities and Chief Olson.
>
> > Gary Bowman
> > Ward 1-Audubon Park
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