Tomorrow's Stibune reports that RT Ryback has gottent he Minneapolis police union endorsement.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/727871.html I find this to be very bothersome since the police federation is usually the main force for defending police abuse and opposing reforms. There are some caveats in that they apparently oppose Olson and the Mayor in part because of their highly PR-oriented programs that have little substance except for disregard for civil rights (e.g. CODEFOR and all the huge mobilization against peaceful political protests). But the bottom line is that the Police Federation has always opposed any sort of civilian oversight, stronger police accountability, efforts to deal with racial profiling including those as rudimentary as data collection. The endorsement therefore seems to substantially contradict his commitments that he has made to more "progressive" about police issues. what I heard from him was concededly vague and left this sort of opening, but he acted like a friend. Those of us concerned about police abuse need to be asking what RT is providing in return for the police federation endorsement? How is this going to hinder him from taking any meaningful positions to usefully challenge or change police practices if elected? Jordan Kushner Ward 8 _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
