Chris Beckwith wrote: "...'suicide by cop'..." Zack (last name?) 8th ward (neighborhood?) wrote: "...open season..." Earlier Andrea Jenkins wrote: "...terrorism..."
I still don't see where this kind of inflamed rhetoric gets us. There is no "open season", there is not "terrorism", there is not "suicide by cop" in the death of Abu Kassim Jeilani ". Those words can only be used to increase the level of emotion surrounding this incident. There is tragedy, there is a reasonable supposition that police procedures are wrong, and there is a failure to take proper care of a disturbed individual. It is an incident that brings these many failures to light. I can understand the anger surrounding this issue and the frustration in feeling that we've been here before and it hasn't gotten better. Once we acknowledge all of these problems, we get to the place where we need to decide what to do about it. A citizen review board will, in my opinion, get bogged down in placing blame after a problem already occurs. I doubt if it will do much to prevent incidents from occurring. More weapons training for cops will not help either, I think. People want to think that life is like a movie. Shoot him in the leg! Shoot him in the shoulder! When a lethal weapon is discharged at a human being with the intention of stopping a perceived attack, it is a very real possibility that the human being will die, whether that is the intention of the person firing the weapon or not. Which big city police forces have good records in respecting their citizens? Which forces do we want the MPD to emulate? What characterizes the best police departments in this country, or in large cities in the rest of the world? My guess is that the culture in a hierarchical, military-like organization is defined in large part by the top brass. The Chief and Deputy Chiefs have to be accountable for the policies, procedures and attitudes that lead to these incidents. I could be wrong. Maybe it *is* the existence of a citizen review board with teeth. Maybe it is high pay. My point is that there must be something that is common in police forces where these incidents are more rare. If that is not the case then we are in real trouble, because not only do we have these incidents occurring, there would be no clear way to proactively make it better. Has the city itself or any other local organization ever done a review of best police practices? Walt Cygan Keewaydin _______________________________________ 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
