Sorry Jordan I couldn't post yesterday again because I was over my
limit...and I'm going off to campaign right now...but quick answers to your
issues and more offline later if you want:
1. Racial profiling and the police:
I said to them the same thing I've said elsewhere:
When I go around Minneapolis people in different parts of the city have had
remarkably similar views on most issues...except the police. This is the
one issue in which citizens' views change sharply along racial, economic and
political lines. The less white, and less affluent the neighborhood deeper
the divides with the police.
Part of this involves serious issues about how race is playing a role in
enforcement, especially discretionary enforcement. Chief Fenney in St. Paul
did a good job of using data to illustrate this, and I feel Minneapolis
should, too.
I understand this is not an issue that's unique to Minneapolis but it
has been handled more aggressively in other cities, notably St. Paul, which
openly acknowledged the problem and brought in communities of color to
develop ways to attack this.
The Federation supports the use of cameras in cars, which I thought was
one positive step. We have to take many more.
I also told the chief this is a key issue for me, as well as the Black
Officers Association. Each gave me some ideas, as did the many community
groups I've talked to about it.
I'm not going to solve racial profiling in this campaign but I'm making
it clear to everyone involved that this is a key issue for healing
relationships with the police department and it's going to be a priority for
how I judge performance of the department.
2. Most of my time walking through Harlem was great but it got dangerous at
about 125 St. and Lennox when 12 men surrounded a guy who had apparently
messed up a drug sale. They were pretty violently kicking his head and
body, and when the noticed us, yes, I did get scared.
You can make value judgments about the way I was raised, and it's your
choice about how that effects whether you will vote for me.
Please also include the fact that a good share of the time growing up
included five nights a week at my mom's store at Chicago and Franklin and,
before that, at my parents store on 26th and 4th.
You stated that I place a big emphasis on my racial sensitivity. I
don't think that's the case. I have said that as a white man who wants to
lead an increasingly diverse city, I have to reconignize that I have to take
extra steps to cross over racial divides.
3. You said you haven't seen me in your neighborhood. Actually I
doorknocked your street the week before the primary but you weren't home. I
have also spent many, many days in Powerhorn Park, a few blocks from your
house....and think that is one of the reasons why the many people I met in
your neighborhood helped me carry your precinct.
R.T. Rybak
www.rtformayor.com
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