----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Atherton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 9:56 PM
Subject: RE: [Mpls] Grow on Black History exhibit


> Jordan Kushner wrote:
>
> > I have one question that I cannot resist asking:  How did we get a
> > narrow-minded jailer in the most powerful political position in Hennepin
> > County?
>
> I have one question for Mr. Kushner:  If it is indeed true
> that this exhibit was visible to jurors

JSK - I disagree that the exhibit is in a position to unduly influence
jurors.   The exhibit is in the tunnel between city hall and the government
center.  The juror assembly room is about thirty yards away, on the other
side of the elevators and escalators.  Jurors can easily come and go without
ever seeing the exhibit.  It would take a special effort.  This argument is
a red herring - a convenient excuse for Opat to avoid dealing with his
apparent own discomfort about being confronted with racism.

What is also disturbing is that the exhibit was positioned in the basement,
instead of in the atrium on the skyway level where many many more people
pass through and would notice it.  Whereas a large cross section of the
public passes through the atrium, it is mostly city and county employees
that go to the basement of the government center and back and forth between
City Hall . There has been an exhibit about baseball history in Minnesota
located in the atrium for months.  Why wasn't the Black History exhibit
placed in this spot?  Is not considered important enought to the county
bureaucrats?  Or are they concerned about the public being "incited" or
provoked from too much meaningful education?

> and you were a defense
> attorney or a judge presiding over the criminal prosecution
> of a White segregationist would think that the oversized
> version of the photograph might bias jurors?

This is a rather unrealistic hypothetical.  A more likely scenario is that
jurors hearing a case of a Black criminal defendant (probably a majority of
the defendants in Hennepin County) might actually be more sensitive about
racism   God forbid!

Jordan Kushner
Golden Valley

>
> Michael Atherton
> Prospect Park
>
>

Jordan S. Kushner
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