Officers of the Minneapolis Police Department were involved in the another tragic death yesterday. I'm trying not to jump to any conclusions, but I must say it doesn't look good. Here are a few observations I've taken from the news reports I've seen and read:
1) According to police spokeswoman Cyndi Montgomery, the officers chasing the woman in the SUV backed off quite a bit. However, it seems the SUV came into contact with one of the police vehicles somehow. Both eyewitness reports and photographs of the damage to the police car suggest that the police were alongside the SUV when the contact took place. I do not consider this having "backed off." 2) Also according to Ms. Montgomery, the police vehicles chasing the SUV had deactivated their emergency lights and sirens, at the request of the officer who had been trained to deal with crises involving mentally ill individuals. However, in the same Strib article, the woman in whose lawn the SUV ended up states that "the sirens caught her attention and made her look towards the sidewalk" where she witnessed the elderly man being struck and killed. The evident disagreement between the facts of the case and the statements of the MPD spokesperson are disconcerting at best. A few other observations: This is the second instance I'm aware of in the last two years in which officers of the MPD have been involved in someone's death outside the city of Minneapolis. This is the second time in two months that "erratic," possibly mentally ill behavior by an individual in our city has become deadly after officers of the Minneapolis Police Department have gotten involved. A few questions: What are the state laws and local ordinances regarding the legality of police chases in motorized vehicles? Did the officers involved in the incident yesterday really, as Ms. Montgomery asserts, "follow departmental procedures for when people flee officers?" What are these procedures? Is it possible that they need to change--possibly as drastically as stating that no police chases in automobiles are acceptable? The conclusion I come to again and again is that the people of Minneapolis need an active, well-funded, representative, autonomous civilian review board of some kind, with the power to subpoena officers and others, the power to examine and change police policies rather than being limited to narrowly investigating specific incidents, and the power to suspend, reprimand, and fire employees at all levels of the Minneapolis Police Department. My deepest hope is that with unrelenting public pressure, the City Council will salvage something positive from the tragic losses of life we continue to see in our city. Robin Garwood Seward Elected Member, Minneapolis/5th District Green Party Steering Committee _______________________________________ 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
