Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Open letter


December 15, 2014


An open letter on law enforcement misconduct and practices in Minneapolis

To:      Minneapolis city council members, Mayor Betsy Hodges, Chief of Police Janeé Harteau and John Delmonico, President of the Police Officer’s Federation and Mike Freeman, Hennepin County Attorney. Copies to media, individuals and organizations listed below.


Dear all;

In an October 8, 2014 open letter to the Minneapolis community, Mayor Betsy Hodges said it was her mission to reform the police department and end “once and for all,” the type of conduct of those officers who “abuse the trust that is afforded to them, and take advantage of their roles to do harm rather than prevent it.”

I applaud her determination, something lacking in previous city administrations. However, I am reminded that we have heard talk of reforming police practices and relations for decades. The persistent abuse of authority, use of excessive force and disrespect for people’s rights continues.

Mayor Hodges has courageously put the issue of police misconduct on the front pages. This is a significant step and can become an opportunity for further change. This letter is intended to be supportive of the mayor, but at the same time raise the ante as to what our city should expect of the mayor’s plans for reform. Reforms that many people, myself included, consider modest.

This letter is an individual initiative in solidarity with the thousands of people marching, protesting and demanding change in policing practices and conduct, in our city, state and around the nation. My hope is this adds to the burgeoning movement for fair and just law enforcement.  

That goal cannot be reached if those law enforcement officers who commit homicide, brutalize people and systematically profile people of color have few or no consequences. Yet the problem is much deeper and systemic than just the conduct of individual officers. The legacy of racism in the United States permeates law enforcement practices and attitudes.

In this letter I use three recent examples of Minneapolis police officers’ brutality and violation of civil rights to suggest alternative approaches to what appears to be typical policing practices in our city and around the nation. These three examples alone should cause alarm to elected officials and citizens alike.

I wrote the first draft of this letter several weeks before KSTP aired what became known as “Pointergate.” The spurious allegations leveled against the mayor by some police officers have proven to be a crass attempt to make the mayor back off her initiative. Such an attack is not surprising as there is a long record of police push back to avoid criticism and reform.

The public outcry over Pointergate shows signs the long-standing culture of indifference common among white citizens toward the profiling of people of color is beginning to change. This is especially evident among white youth. I am white myself. For several decades I have participated in struggles to end discriminatory law enforcement and judicial practices. I have attended numerous protests. Yet, I could have done more. Been more determined and persistent.

Like so many millions of others I am outraged over the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August. Since then at least seven more unarmed black Americans have been killed by police officers. The injustice of the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson adds to the grief, indignation and justified anger of communities of color and all people of conscience. Brown’s death is inexcusable. The culture of racist impunity trumped justice once again.

An open, fair and public trial, not one held in grand jury secrecy, would have been a just way to proceed in Ferguson. The outcome was not unexpected. Even in our own state no officer has been indicted for killing an unarmed person of color. 

Our city’s list of victims includes 22-year old, African-American, Terence Franklin, killed by police officers, on May 10, 2013, just blocks from my neighborhood. At that time I made a renewed commitment, as did many others to challenge policing practices and attitudes that lead to brutality, profiling and killing of the unarmed. This includes insisting the city, the police department and police federation work to rid the department of those who cannot or will not change their attitudes and conduct.

I recognize police work is difficult, stressful and at times dangerous. I am not an expert in policing nor do I have law enforcement experience. However, I am an informed observer. Citizens need not be experts to know that the misconduct and attitudes of some officers is inexcusable, such as that illustrated by my examples. Such misconduct fosters distrust in the community; a distrust that all officers must face.

The number of officers prone to misconduct is widely disputed. The common assumption, and one implied in the mayor’s open letter, is that it is more than a few, but not pervasive. Those who have been victims of profiling for years tell me they feel it is the latter. If it were just a few officers, it seems the problem could have been solved long ago. Yet, police chief after police chief, mayor after mayor come and go and the problems persist.

There are no doubt many thoughtful officers in the department dedicated to their work and fair policing.  And there are many more of these officers since discrimination in hiring was ended in the 1960s. Women and officers of color and other national backgrounds and sexual preferences bring a perspective to policing that elevates the department’s image and professionalism. 

But they too must abide by policing practices they may not condone. They may be torn between loyalty to the department and their moral conscience. We hear that some fear speaking out against the conduct of other officers for fear of reprisal or being ostracized.

I hope this letter might encourage police officers troubled by the conduct they witness to speak out. A key role the mayor, police chief and city leaders must play is to assure officers who choose to speak out publicly or confidentially are protected from recrimination. Such internal criticism and reflection is one of the most important ingredients needed to stop the systematic infringement of people’s civil rights by those who should be most willing to uphold such rights.

ACLU report
Critics of the American legal and law enforcement system are in agreement that our nation’s legacy of institutional racism and bias are built into many policing protocols and practices. As such, reform is not just about monitoring officers behavior or better training; it requires questioning established policing assumptions, methods and strategies. It means reigning in the overly elastic boundaries of authority accorded law enforcement.

The context of reform is starkly revealed in a recent investigation conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union. Among other findings, they found that Minneapolis police officers were 11 times more likely on average to arrest African Americans for marijuana use than whites, even though studies show whites and African Americans use marijuana at comparable rates.

Given that usage rates are similar, it is obvious discriminatory policing practices account for the more than 10 to one disparity. It is not too strong a statement to call this a crime perpetrated by law enforcement on an entire community. Yet the department expects cooperation from the same community it targets.

The ACLU report shows more evidence of gross discrimination in arrests rates for other offenses like vagrancy, disorderly conduct and a nearly unbelievable disparity of 16 times the rate for black juveniles being arrested for curfew violations or loitering compared with whites.

Police departments around the nation claim arresting people for “low level” offenses deters crime and helps find and convict more serious criminals. Numerous studies, however, show the claim to be spurious. Despite this evidence, law enforcement officials, including those in Minneapolis, continue to cite such a strategy’s effectiveness. 

The outcome for African American families of such discriminatory policing cannot be overstated.  These include legal expenses, lost wages, jail time/imprisonment and criminal records leading to discrimination in hiring.

What the ACLU report does not raise is what should be done to compensate individuals affected by these systematic discriminatory practices. At the very least the following remedies are warranted. (1) Review and expunge arrest records. (2) Reimburse costs born by individuals or families for legal expenses. (3) Compensate for jail time served. (4) Apologize for the injustices inflicted.

The onus to earn the trust and respect of the community lies with the city, the police department and its officers. In light of the most recent incidents, let alone the decades of profiling and racism, it is unreasonable for law enforcement to expect unquestioned respect. The wounds are too deep. The day-to-day relationship with the public must change for mutual respect to become the norm.


Visualizing change: from police misconduct to respectful policing
In this section, using three actual events, I pose alternative policing practices and protocols in order to visualize the type of outcomes we might expect from the mayor’s initiative. I have enclosed background information on two of these cases as indicated.

Recently, an African-American friend of mine was profiled and assaulted by Minneapolis police officers. When leaving his apartment he noticed an argument between two individuals in the parking lot was about to turn physical.  He dutifully sought help from a security guard, but the guard was not in the office.

When he arrived back at the scene just a few minutes later one of the two men had been knocked to the ground. The other man had fled. A police vehicle had arrived. My friend kept his distance from the downed man, as the officers were on the scene.

Within minutes one of the officers approached him. My friend expected the officer was going to ask what he witnessed or question him. Instead the officer, without a word, threw him on the sidewalk face down and handcuffed him.

My friend is a law abiding, college-educated retiree, who deplores violence. After nearly 70 years of being a black man in America he was not afforded even a modicum of respect. He is considered guilty before he is questioned; he is brutality manhandled. I know with near certainty that a white person would not have been mistreated and assaulted in the same situation.

The officers put him in a patrol car, took his identification and searched their databases for possible outstanding warrants or convictions.  Apparently they just assumed he had a criminal background. When nothing came up they realized they made a mistake. They needed to cover their tracks.

After conferring with a superior they charged my friend with resisting arrest! The crime committed by the officers, became my friend’s crime. The indignities mounted. Ask a black person or another person of color and they will tell you this type of incident happens to one degree or another in Minneapolis as well as in surrounding suburbs everyday.    

In instances like this offending officers know that even if their conduct gets media attention, a rarity, they need not fear consequences. They know those who actively protest police misconduct have been unsuccessful in making change. And officers know that communities of color have little political clout. Not for a lack of effort to organize, protest and demand change, but because of the inertia created by white citizens’ indifference.

The mistreatment of my friend raises the importance of reviewing police conduct, protocols and practices. Using his case and the two that follow, I paint alternative scenarios as to what we should expect of police conduct and practices from the mayor’s initiative. It is time to set the bar of expectations high.

The respectful alternative approach to my friend that also honors his constitutional rights would have been to simply say: Excuse me sir, did you see what happened here? Cooperation would have been duly given and the police would have been better informed about the situation. Yet, such common courtesy was not accorded.

Instead, an officer walked up to him without saying a word and assaulted him by throwing him on the sidewalk. As a community we need to ask: How did law enforcement officers acquire such a right, one that trumps everyone else’s rights? What puts them above the law of common decency? Why can they ignore what most people would agree are universal rights to privacy, freedom of movement and to be considered an innocent bystander, unless you are seen committing a crime? 

The freedom to take a late night walk
The next example recently in the public media exemplifies the type of police conduct similar to that endured by my friend (see enclosed article marked ‘A’). In it the father of the 19-year old youth profiled by police officers describes what took place. His account is something one can only imagine taking place in a totalitarian state. It would not be an overstatement to say his son was abducted, not by ransom seekers, but by law enforcement officers.

In brief, his son was walking on a pedestrian path alongside Minnehaha Parkway around midnight, listening to music on his headphones. Suddenly, a squad car leaped the curb in front of him blocking his path. Two officers jumped out, grabbed and handcuffed him. The young man did not resist and was cooperative. 

The officers deemed him a suspect in a house burglary a few blocks away. Without a shred of suspicious behavior for them to act on they put him in the car and took him to the address of the burglary. When they arrived another squad had already found a better suspect. They returned his backpack and without a word of apology let him go. The son’s account should make everyone alarmed. I say again, if this type of policing is legal, it should be characterized as legalized abduction.

Let’s consider, as my intent is here, how officers should engage the young man while respecting his civil liberties, his personal freedom and his safety. All three of which they trampled on.  The following alternative policing practices are in keeping with the mission inscribed on squad cars: to serve and protect.

In the first place, the officers would assume the young man is simply out for a walk, innocent of wrong doing as well as someone who might have seen something that would help them in their search. They might have flashed their lights to get his attention, pulled up alongside the curb and ask him some questions, moving on if nothing indicated suspicion. Clearly, this was not their approach.

Law enforcement personnel might consider such an approach naïve and one that could potentially endanger the officers, but what other approach respects the rights of citizens?  To think people should give up their civil liberties to allow such conduct by officers is an affront to the spirit of the Bill of Rights, in particular the amendment against unlawful searches.

When the officers demanded the young man take off his backpack so they could search it, are they not abrogating his rights? That he happened to be nearby a possible burglary should not make him or anyone an automatic suspect. Could it be because this young man was brown-skinned?

The entire account begs the question: How many young men would the police have falsely accused and apprehended that night had 10 youth been out for a walk?  Would they have apprehended all of them in a dragnet?  How absurd this would be; yet this is the logical extension of the attitude and the policing practice.

The killing of Terence Franklin, May 10, 2013 
My attached commentary on the killing of Franklin was published in the weekly Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder on September 19, 2013, the same day it was announced a grand jury chose not to indict the officer(s) who shot and killed Franklin. (See enclosed article ‘B’).

I could find no compelling evidence in the police report or statements of officials detracting from the conclusion I drew that the killing of Franklin is inexcusable. Had officers followed a more tolerant, patient, policing approach, it is likely Franklin would be alive today. In the attached article I suggest some alternative tactics and ways of thinking about the events that stand in sharp contrast to the response, practices and aims officers followed. As I say in the commentary:

“In addition to the many unanswered questions on what happened that day, we should ask why the police pursued Franklin in the first place. What began with a police report that a person was acting suspiciously should not have escalated to the point where Franklin is dead, police officers are injured and a police vehicle kills an innocent bystander…. Instead of pursuing Franklin, officers could have backed off and deescalated the situation.” 

Civil lawsuits against the city are likely still in process, but lawsuits do not erase the loss, grief and suffering of the families. The city, however, should feel the financial pain many times more than previous settlements. Perhaps financial pressure will move our political leaders to act with greater determination.

Taxpayers pay for racism and police brutality
Nearly every year the city pays settlements for lawsuits as a consequence of police misconduct, discrimination and brutality. Since 2006 taxpayers paid $17 million for wrongful death and brutality lawsuits. No officers involved were indicted. How much more must citizens’ pay? How many more victims of profiling and brutality represented by this ever-growing amount will we tolerate?

Across the nation, city officials, police departments, city and county attorney’s offices and on up the law enforcement and legal system seem to assume these financial costs are just part of doing business in a big city.

There is little incentive to change behaviors and policing protocols when no one is ever indicted for even the most egregious act–killing an unarmed person. Offending officers keep their jobs and they know that the next time will be no different. Taxpayers will continue to pay costs for what is often excused by the legal fine line of “acting in the line of duty.” 

Law enforcement officers here and elsewhere should know they would be vigorously prosecuted for misconduct and brutality. The question of whether or not to indict an officer for shooting or killing an unarmed suspect should be determined by an open, publicly accountable process.


Internal reviews by police departments and/or investigations led by county attorney offices before a grand jury or by the department itself will always be suspect as there is no public scrutiny. We need to find alternatives to these mechanisms, as both parties are branches of law enforcement. The public cannot have confidence in a process when law enforcement investigates its own.

Given repeated behavior and conduct of some officers it appears little will change until an officer finally faces prison time, looses his or her job or suffers appropriate punishment. Years of officer training, coaching and counseling, items the mayor and Chief Harteau have on their action plan, appear to have had little effect. I am hopeful, but equally skeptical, that their plans will be effective now.

Police and their defenders will say officers must have the right to shoot first or someone that appears to have gun might shoot them. This should not be considered an acceptable guideline for taking the life of an unarmed person. Yet it is often the sole excuse. And all too often in these cases, like the police assault on my friend, what actually occurred is altered by officers in order to cover their own misconduct or crime.

Again I wish to raise the ante and suggest that communities should have a voice in deciding which officers are assigned to patrol their neighborhoods and have veto power over those they do not trust or are known to be discriminatory. Perhaps some consultation already takes place, but creating a formal, fair process offers a possibility of improving policing and community relations with law enforcement.

In light of the public outcry over the most recent killing of unarmed African Americans and other people of color around the nation, it is difficult to imagine any other route to building more trusting relationships. Such an initiative is what an apology should look like.

I wish to restate my assumption that many, perhaps most Minneapolis police officers are well meaning and trying to do the best job they can.  They do serve and do care. Whatever portion of the department they are, I encourage them to stand up and support the mayor’s efforts. And furthermore, I encourage them to stand with the African-American community’s long-standing quest for fair and impartial policing and an end to harassment and profiling. 

Each official listed above is obligated as well. And all citizens must say loudly and persistently, enough is enough. We will be indifferent no more.

Sincerely,



Wayne Nealis


cc: Senator Scott Dibble, Rep. Frank Hornstein, city reporters at local major media, KFAI, MinnPost and the Daily Planet

bcc: Several dozen social justice activists and advocacy groups, colleagues and friends.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Freedom to take late night walk



Police on my kid's back, Southwest Journal, October 8, 2014


http://www.southwestjournal.com/voices/voices/police-on-my-kids-back

Monday, January 12, 2015

Spokesman-Recorder commentary September 19, 2013



Link to: Spokesman-Recorder commentary on the killing of Franklin. Published September 19, 2013

http://spokesman-recorder.com/what-happened-to-terence-franklin-is-inexcusable/