I am glad to see that your paper is again printing articles on racial issues. I feel that with some 200 attendees present at the three meetings, it shows strong local interest in this problem.
However, there were issues discussed at the BSU meeting which I attended and took notes that I feel are important and not covered in your article. The presenter and ACLU advocates clearly articulated an erosion and reversal of Minnesota's civil rights past performances. In Bemidji, Native Americans have endured excessive traffic stops, automobile searches and property seizures. In addition, it was shown that there was strong likelihood of racial and ethnic bias, where the study's "data" was more likely to understate than overstate the problem. The presenter related that sometimes there is "overt, clear, malignant behavior," and that a pattern was present in every jurisdiction that was part of the study. He further mentioned that no one disputed the "data."
Audrey Thayer (ACLU local representative) was also at that meeting and provided that her office received approximately 23 phone calls a day, and, therefore, the ACLU knows that they are not off base with this problem.
Furthermore, Mr. Samuelson (Minnesota ACLU executive director) remarked that there is "no silver bullet to fix the problem," though the Minnesota ACLU is not against a federal lawsuit. Audrey stated that those who make complaints would likely be targeted for reprisal. This is a monumental problem that must be immediately resolved, as "reprisal threat" ensures that those actually harmed will remain silent, allowing further wrongful patterns of behavior, by the offenders, preventing accurate assessment and root cause analysis of the problem.
Attendees raised important issues including: police need to defuse situations rather than escalate them (verbal judo); law enforcement is not entirely to blame, but issues also reside with prosecutors and the judicial system where discretion is left with district court judges; all anyone needs to do is scan the Bemidji courtrooms for the amount of Native Americans.
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In conclusion, there seemed to be frustration among some attendees that no real solutions were provided. As described above, how will a solution be defined when complainants can be targeted with reprisal for seeking to address mistreatment?
Patricia Gould
Bemidji
