November 19, 2015
An open letter to Minnesota State Representative Yvonne Selcer, Minnesota State Senator David W. Hann, U.S. Congressman Erik Paulsen, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Senator Al Franken, Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, Minneapolis Police Chief JeneéHarteau, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, and President Barack Obama:
From the safety of my whiteness in my mostly white Minneapolis suburb, I’ve tracked the events from the killing of Jamar Clark to the subsequent protests and demonstrations with sinking feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. I lack the fortitude, certainty, and bravery of the protesters to physically join them, so in an attempt to do something with this despair, I’ll write to you, the would-be leaders and representatives, with my frustrations, questions, and suggestions.
1. Why and how would a firearm ever be a police officer’s first line of defense when they perceive a threatening situation? Are they not trained and required to avoid using a firearm when at all possible? Surely when a volatile situation arises with an unarmed person, they are trained and required to reach for a baton, pepper spray, taser, or other form of non-lethal defense? If police regulations do not currently require police officers to go first to a non-lethal form of defense when at all possible, that should be immediately changed. Fighting fire with fire is one thing, but in so many cases, the deceased is unarmed. Are police trained to assume civilians are armed? If so, that training should be reversed to assume persons are unarmed until there is reason to believe otherwise. Even in the extreme event of a civilian making an attempt for an officer’s gun, surely there are effective responses that won’t be expected to leave a person dead? And surely there is a moral imperative to hold officers accountable when they cross that line of reason and humaneness and shoot to kill?
2. My feeling is that in most cases, race is not a conscious factor in the over-use of force by police officers. But we do all carry unconscious or implicit biases that are undeniably working against people of color in horrific ways. At the very least, ensuring that all police are educated on the existence and harm of implicit biases is a starting point. From that starting point, I could see possibilities such as screening for implicit bias (see: http://bit.ly/1gHb61v) and actively working to limit its effects (see: http://bit.ly/1X9DFuy).
3. The Minneapolis police response to the demonstrations at the 4th precinct headquarters on November 18th and 19th has been troubling to watch unfold through the conflicting reports. I was not there, and I am aware that I am not seeing the full story from every angle, but the overall image being painted is one of frightening, criminal use of force by the police in response to peaceful protest. I’ve seen reports of protesters spraying mace and throwing rocks and bottles at officers, but I’m yet to see any photograph or footage of that. However, there is ample documentation of officers pointing guns directly at unarmed protestors (https://vine.co/v/iu1IjVTUpXr, http://bit.ly/1Mo9PQf), an officer punching a woman in the face (http://bit.ly/1MDd7Nr), and lots of spraying of mace (or the like) (http://bit.ly/1j8RsnN), all of which occurring without the officers being in any sort of danger that I can see. Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges wrote recently that, “…the expectation (is) that officers’ guiding question be, ‘Did my actions reflect how I would expect a family member to be treated?’” (http://bit.ly/1kGrWIl). I call for officers falling short of that expectation to be relieved of their jobs at the very least, whether it be in Minneapolis or anywhere else.
What are you seeing, thinking, and feeling about the killing of Jamar Clark and the subsequent demonstrations and police response? What can we do to make things better?
Standing on the side of love,
Aaron Stilley
Minnetonka, MN
