Jim Graham writes: >The naked attempts to mix race into this issue by some such as Staten is far >more troubling. Such efforts are problematic because of their divisiveness >and the possible backlash they may spark. Giving opportunities to others to >also play the race card by pointing out assault rates of one race upon >another and other such crime statistics. EY: I'm curious about how many rank and file African Americans Staten really represents. It is totally predictable for him to play the race card here. For the same reason that I was offended by the Police Federations attempt to make political hay out of Melissa Schmidt's death, I'm offended by Staten's attempt to make his own political hay out of this.
Robert Schmid writes about a communication he received: Last night I received the following report on the shooting; <snip> >Further, a number of witnesses have > signed an affidavit stating that police officers told them, "you got > one of ours so now we got one of yours," alluding to the death of > police office Melissa Schmidt. > > While we were in the area, police were quite out of control, harassing > people, making racist comments and threatening that they "will be next" > if they tried to walk down the street, pick up their children from > daycare in the area, etc. EY: I'm curious where this communication came from, who authored it, and how widely it was distributed. My question is are these allegations true? As far as why would someone make up these allegations -- well there are those who want to score political points out of this situation. There is motivation enough there. That being said, if Minneapolis Police Officers did make the alleged statements, those officers should be held to account. I can remember no time or >situation when the white population attacked Sales-Belton for any comment or >action against a white person because she was Black and they were White. > >"Staten and others also criticized Rybak for his overall handling of the >shooting and fallout for not defending Johnson Lee's comments. The forum >crowd cheered Staten's statements and echoed his call for Delmonico's >resignation. Bill Dooley asked if it was covered that Delmonico didn't sign the Police Federation statement -- it wasn't mentioned specifically as I recall, but it was obvious that he did not -- and I think news outlets mentioned who did sign the statement. It doesn't matter. Delmonico is standing behind the statement. Jim Graham writes: >Martin Luther King said we need to look at the content of a man's character >rather than the color of his skin. We also need to look at the content of >the message, not the shading of color our own preconceptions might ascribe >to the meaning of each word in that message. WE, all of us, need to stop >this black-white, them-they stuff and start talking about "OUR" problems, >and how "WE" solve those problems. That's the real issue. Eva Eva Young Near North Minneapolis _______________________________________ 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
