Minneapolis city officials should be learning from the extraordinary
agreement just reached in St. Paul to attack racial profiling:
www.pioneerplanet.com/news/mtc_docs/70933.htm
Two of the keys to this agreement are a. that it treated police and
communities of color as equals and with respect on both sides and
b. acknowledged that profiling exists and needs to be attacked.
At the Southwest Journal Candidates Forum, Mayor Sayles Belton and I
differed sharply on how St. Paul was handling profiling. I said Minneapolis
should be following St. Paul's lead, especially in openly acknowledging the
problem and focusing special attention on discretionary enforcement,
especially traffic searches. She said "St. Paul has it all messed up" and
defended Minneapolis' record.
I think yesterday's agreement showed, again, that Minneapolis needs to
follow St. Paul's lead. Considering the scope of this problem and what it
says about basic equality, it's really inexcusable for Minneapolis to be
defensively standing on the sidelines while real progress is being made
across the river.
R.T. Rybak
www.rtformayor.com
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