In an earlier message today, I advocated that instead of eliminating the obviously ineffective Civilian Authority, the solution is to create an Authority with some real authority that can address the problems with police-community relations that obviously are present.
Eddie Felien posted a response that the solution is to have the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commmission handle complaints of police misconduct since it can award damages. The problem with this proposal is that the Civil Rights Commission is currently only empowered to enforce the civil rights ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, age, sexual preference (and some other categories). The Civil Rights Commission can therefore only find police misconduct if it is based on such a discriminatory motive. It cannot take action in response to most forms of police misconduct. For example, if a police officer beat a suspect for no reason while he/she was handcuffed, but there was no evidence that the brutality was because of race, sex, etc., there would be no violation that the Civil Rights Commission could enforce. Furthermore, the Civil Rights Commission can only award damages, and to a narrow extent, injunctive relief to prevent an ongoing discriminatory practice. It has no power to take any disciplinary action, or even recommend discliplinary action against police who break the rules. There could be a possibly creative solution of expanding the powers of the Civil Rights Commission to include 1) investigating all forms of police misconduct, and 2) being able to impose disclipline on police officers, and possibly 3) a new role of making independent policy recommendations to improve police practices. In order to do this, there would have to be additions and/or revisions to existing ordinances, and possibly charter amendments. Meanwhile, it is real cop out that the Mayor and city council members are so ready to eliminate the CRA without any replacement legislation to ensure better monitoring of police conduct and practices. 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
