Wizard makes an excellent point about changing police chiefs. Although I support the buyout of Olson's contract it's important to remember that this won't make much of a difference in terms of the avarage rank-and-file cop being rude to, beating, or even killing the Black/Somali/Hispanic/long haired/spiked haired (etc.) resident.
A problem exists with the biased and often racist attitude of the MPD. Some people have suggested that Chief Finney might be a good model here, but Finney's department still has not addresed the killing by St. Paul police of Artis Graham, Charles Craighead, or the beating of a teenager during the Rhondo Days celebration that was witnessed by a Pioneer Press reporter. Finney also has officers that are out of control and just like Minneapolis, he doesn't have the power to remove those problem officers. My own belief is that the true block to police community trust lies with the courts and the faulty arbitration system, (made famous by the Mike Sauro incident) and well as the POST board which lisences police officers state wide. One helpful thing would be to know which judges are "law and order" types. As it is an election year, I could always vote for the opponent. On a smaller level, addressing the police policies such as use of force and shoot to kill would be more useful along with an elected commision on police accountability that could agage in criminal proceedings. As police misconduct is really a larger issue than just one city (the police chief/arsonist of Lanesboro MN being the latest incident) I repeat my call for all state candidates (legislature/governor/even US senate and Congressional) to address this issue and tell us, the residents of a city truamatized by an out of control police force, how you're going to deal with this problem in the context of your office. I have only heard from two legiglative candidates, we all need to hear from more. Tamir Nolley Still in W6 SD 61 (I'm not sure if I'm in a or b) --- WizardMarks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Terrel Brown wrote: > > >>The members of the City Council need to realize > the need to do the > >>right thing. The cost will quickly pay for itself > in saving money that > >>the current lack of leadership is costing. > >> > >I don't think changing chiefs will solve the > problem. We've changed chiefs a lot and the problem > remains. We need to have a chief who understands how > to change the culture of the police department. > Maybe we could deconstruct the police department and > contract out to Corky Finney for police services? > > > WizardMarks, Central > > > > > > > > >_______________________________________ > >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 > > > > > _______________________________________ > 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 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ 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
