Just read an editorial in the Trib that talked about the state requiring licensing for police officers. It's required for barbers, nurses and engineers, so why not cops? Make it a licensed profession and you'd see more accountability. I like it.
Minnesota licenses their police officers. Derek Chauvin was a licensed peace officer when he killed George Floyd. So was the killer of Philando Castille, and so are a host of cops who have been convicted of DWI, battery, domestic violence crimes, and the like.
However, to say that the Peace Officer Standard Test Board is toothless is an insult to toothless. I know of more engineers who have faced fines and suspensions from our board than cops who have had problems with the POST board.
Star Tribune: Convicted, but Still Policing (paywall)
There's a lot of really unpleasant stuff in that article. Among them:
Gove, a retired Golden Valley police commander, reports to a 15-member board of directors appointed by the governor. State law requires just two public members, and the board is dominated by law enforcement officers. After the outcry over recent shootings of black men in the Twin Cities, Gov. Mark Dayton recently appointed the uncle of Philando Castile, Clarence Castile, to one of the public seats.
Potential discipline cases are reviewed by a three-person complaints committee, two of whom must be sworn officers. Its meetings are closed to the public; its decisions are not published except for a mention in the regular minutes of the board.
“It’s really easy to see when doctors and lawyers and nurses do bad things,” said Rich Neumeister, an activist for open government. “Why can’t we see the bad things cops are doing?”
Melton, the retired Bloomington officer who ran the POST Board for 16 years, said there has long been discussion about expanding the board’s discipline authority. But, he said, there’s never been a consensus or any urgency at the state Legislature.
I guarantee you that the Legislature will be very interested when they convene for a special session on Friday.
Unfortunately, the Twin Cities has a long and sordid racial history
long and sordid racial history.
Minneapolis was writing racial covenants into property deeds long before there was a substantial African-American population in the TC. Lotus Coffman was strictly enforcing racial and anti-Semitic segregation
strictly enforcing racial and anti-Semitic segregation at the U of M in the 20s and 30s despite it being illegal in both state and federal codes. One gem was
this letter from Coffman to Roy Wilkins, then assistant secretary of the NAACP. And that's just a small sample.
It is not a coincidence that the brass at the Minnesota Highway Department decided to route I-94 through the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul (and, to a lesser extent, I-35W through the Central neighborhood of south Minneapolis). It was and remains much easier to condemn and take less-expensive property than go to the negotiation table with the railroads. And guess where the less expensive property was? Uh-huh, along Rondo Avenue west of downtown St Paul. MnDOT has to deal with that legacy today, and often struggles mightily to do so.
This website has a lot of background information, as part of a scoping process for determining what to do in the corridor now that all the physical plant is 50+ years old and in need of major work. There are also maps out there that showed the locations of both the predominantly African-American neighborhoods and the prospective routing of interstate highways through St. Paul, but I can't find the in a non-Facebook setting.
"Gut and rebuild" doesn't roll off the tongue nearly as well as "defund," but that seems to be what is on the minds of both the Mayor's office and the City Council.
Camden, New Jersey appears to be a role model for a future MPD.
Pardon the long post, but there was a lot that needed to be said.
