On September 18th, a number of Minneapolis city council members hosted a community listening session about the Minneapolis Police Department. The event was moderated by Professor Nekima Levy-Pounds. The listening session was supposed to be an opportunity for the community to dialogue with the the Minneapolis Police Chief about their concerns. However, at the last minute Police Chief Harteau cancelled her appearance because of threats of disruption and protest. While the ACLU-MN was not involved with the planning of the event, we attended and were looking forward to the dialogue. We were disappointed that she did not attend and sent this email to her on September 19th in response:
Dear Police Chief Harteau –
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota was deeply disappointed that you decided to not attend the listening session in South Minneapolis that occurred on September 18th.
This listening session would have been a great opportunity to hear from community members and their concerns about the Minneapolis Police Department. Many of the concerns voiced at the session included police brutality, racial profiling, and racial disparities in arrest rates. The ACLU-MN shares many of these concerns with the community and we wish you could have been there to hear them.
While the ACLU-MN does not condone civil disobedience, peaceful protesting is a constitutionally protected activity and not one that a police department should be afraid of. MPD is a government body that should have accountability to the community it serves. There will always be people angry at police actions, but this does not mean that MPD shouldn't listen to people's concerns. But even if the situation is uncomfortable showing the community that you are willing to listen can provide a good beginning to solutions for the situation.
We attended the event which was fairly calm and peaceful, with most of the anger arising from the fact that the MPD wasn't there. Hopefully there will soon be another opportunity for the community to dialogue with you and allow them a forum to publically share their concerns about the Minneapolis Police Department.
Sincerely,
Charles Samuelson
ED ACLU-MN