An analysis of the racial profiling bills, forwarded with permission of the author. I believe these bills are very much Minneapolis-related. MN State Bills on Racial Profiling: A Brief Analysis by Michelle Gross, Communities United Against Police Brutality ------------------------------------------------------------- The MN state legislature is finally willing to admit that racial profiling is a problem in our state. Three bills are currently under consideration. All call for training of police to reduce profiling but there are key differences in the bills. One bill only calls for voluntary collection of statistics. This is the one the guv and police unions want. A second bill calls for mandatory collection of statistics. This one is supported by Minneapolis police chief Olson. The third bill, the Gray/Berglin bill, calls for mandatory collection of statistics by badge number. Amazingly, St. Paul Police chief Finney supports this third bill. For a more detailed rundown of who supports these different bills and why, see Lydia Howell's article on racial profiling in this week's Pulse. Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB) is supporting the Gray/Berglin bill. Three are three reasons this bill is important: a) Statistics have only been gathered by Minneapolis and St. Paul so far and the method of collecting statistics is not even consistent between the two cities. However, folks of color don't turn their cars around when they reach the edge of the Twin Cities. They drive in the suburbs and in outstate, too. Stats need to be kept by all police forces so that we know the extent of the problem outside of the Twin Cities and the method of collection needs to be consistent across the board. What the stats showed in the two cities was bad enough (despite protests to the contrary from the cops). Anecdotally, we get constant stories about profiling in Roseville and other suburbs and this needs to be quantified and documented. Are more Native Americans stopped in Redwing? Are Asian-Pacific folks targeted in St. Cloud? We will never know if the cops there aren't forced to report. b) The training program they propose has not been done in this area before. How will we know if the program works if we don't know what the stats look like before, during and after? c) Police are fond of saying that police brutality and misconduct is being done by only "a few bad apples." CUAPB doesn't buy that. We believe that racial profiling, along with other forms of police brutality and misconduct are widespread, systemic problems. However, if this behavior is being done by just "a few bad apples" then we say: show us the apples! Personally, I think we will find that the problem is systemic, with lots more stops of people of color by all of the cops in a given area, but that some cops will stand out in their racism. Chief Finney supports data by badge number so these cops can get retrained or reassigned. Now, I should explain that I am under no illusions that the Gray/Berglin bill will solve all of our police brutality problems or even necessarily the racial profiling problem. Racial profiling is a form of police misconduct that gives police access to people who can then be brutalized or subjected to other forms of misconduct. However, a bill like this can open up some avenues to show what most of us have known all along but that the cops have tried their best to deny--racial profiling, and the racism it springs from, is widespread among cops and has a serious impact on our community. It infuses the way policing is done in a very fundamental way. We don't need the cops to ride around in white hoods to show us the deal--but we do need the numbers to prove our point. Further, by having the numbers, this bill may even give us a way to challenge and get rid of some of the programs which are predicated on profiling and that have made life miserable in communities of color, i.e. CODEFOR and HEAT. The bottom line is this: the legislature rarely throws us a bone. They are saying they want to do something about profiling. If we don't demand the strongest bill, we will end up with a watered-down bill that is worthless and, worse, the legislators will be running around telling everyone they have solved the problem. We've got to at least fight for what they will give us. Forwarded by Rosalind Nelson, Bancroft _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
