Using Ferguson to Help Fix Minneapolis
As I reflect on the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri, I am reminded of the many times I have seen the kinds of police behaviors evidenced in Ferguson before. Abuses of police power, the shooting of unarmed black teenagers by police officers, threats against reporters and displays of force that turn peaceful protests into violent confrontations are familiar to many of us. Ferguson forces us to look at these through a racial framework and reminds me about how this is a continuation of historic racism that has existed in this country since its inception. It can be traced to periods of government sanctioned, legal and protected genocide and slavery, to an elaborate system of legalized oppression and segregation and so called “Jim Crow” laws after the civil war up to the more covert and insidious “ New Jim Crow ” of today. As a Minneapolis City Council Member serving in 2014 I am deeply concerned that the City of Minneapolis is, perhaps u...