Steven Froemming introduced himself and asked the question of the list members whether or not we think there is "racial profiling" in Minneapolis. Short answer: Undoubtedly! We just don't know for sure how extensive it is. I spent the better part of three hours at the State Capitol last Friday and then again today and will be there again on Friday morning to watch and listen to the Senate Crime prevention Committee hold hearings on racial profiling. This is nothing new. African Americans have known their entire lives that racial profiling exists; we just used different terminology. We just called it Racism. There is no end of anecdotal evidence to suggest it exists. All one need do is listen to African Americans, young and old, male and female, to know it exists. Listen to the mother of three sons talk of how she has to sit down with each one of her boys when they come of age and start to drive a car about how they will have to conduct themselves. Then listen to hear testify to the fact that she does not go to sleep until her children are home. Or listen to a young man who works in southern suburbs and lives in northern suburbs talk of being repeatedly stopped for no other reason than he is black. Questions like "Where are you going?", "where are you coming from?", or "Is this your car?" should clue one into the fact of profiling. Listened to the written testimony of former State Rep Richard Jefferson read by his wife Alice Johnson relate three incidents that were without a doubt cases of profiling. Listen to an elder from the Red Lake Indian Reservation speak of being repeatedly stopped by Sheriff's deputies up north or police in the city and questioned about his reservation plates on the pretext of finding out if he has been drinking or some such evil. We all know the stereotypes we carry of drunken Indians. It's pretty compelling evidence. Then listen to the police apologists who love to raise red herrings about time wasted, cost, inaccurate or confusing data, problems with collecting data,etc. My favorites are the gung-ho typess like Sen Randy Kelly and Sen Neuville who want to admit we have this problem and want to get right into solving the problem with training and public awareness campaigns about how to file complaints. Steven F. mentioned the story in todays Strib about traffic tickets. I hope he and everyone else on this list reads the op-ed page of the Strib and tries to figure out what Olson is saying and tell me. And read Katharine Kerston from the Center for the American Experience talk about profiling and the new wave of policing philosophy. We need mandatory data collection, we need better training of police, we need better recruitment of police officers, we need anything that will alleviate this problem in our police forces but especially we need consequences more than a slap on the wrist and reassignment before things will change. Robert Olson is correct in saying that this goes beyond the police and is a problem for society as a whole but he always seems to be ducking behind that convenient excuse to buy time or pray that the storm will blow over and he won't have to do anything just as he dragged his feet for over a year and is still dragging them when it comes to addressing issues of how police treat the mentally ill. Yes this goes beyond police. Yes it goes beyond racial profiling. This goes to the very core of who we are and how we see ourselves. We are rascist and we want to see ourselves as forward thinking and liberal. We're Minnesotans. we can't be racist. Tell that to my friends of color! Tim Connolly Ward 7 P.S. I wish I could tell you all the misinformation I heard spread around the committee hearing. One person actually said "We've been debating this for nine hours now" referring to three different bills. I turned to my buddy and said "How long you been thinking about this?" He said, "Thank you for asking" and then opening his mouth in a wide smile he added, "All my life and I'm 62 years old". __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices. http://auctions.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
