Yes, I think the audience is owed a proposed solution. That is the basis of a dialogue.
I don’t think anyone here supports racism or overly aggressive policing, harassment, profiling. Certainly not the horrific murder we witnessed last Monday. So, what’s the solution? What do both parties need to do to build bridges and understanding?
There have been all sorts of things proposed; which, none by themselves will solve a problem this complex, but are steps in the right direction.
--I never thought I would agree with Pat Garafalo on anything, but I do like his idea of eliminating the arbitrator as the final say on firing of policeman. Several cases have been given where the cop was fired or severely disciplined for documented severe violations by the Minneapolis chief, only to have an arbitrator reinstate the cop.
--Obviously, ban chokeholds in no uncertain terms.
--Open up, instead of sealing disciplinary records.
--I know it's one talked about all of the time and they try to do it for a while, but get more cops out of their cars and on foot where they engage people simply by talking. But really commit to it.
--De-escalation training. It's a long, slow process, but there are places where it has been shown if they commit to it, it makes a huge difference. I've seen stories on it being used in Flint, Mich. and Gary, Ind.
--Obviously, more minority cops but with better screening and training (for all cops.) Going to be that much tougher now to recruit good candidates. There were enough red flags on Chauvin that he should have been long gone. Have no idea what the other 3 are like but this looks like a classic case of guys with less stature defering to the toughest S.O.B. much to their ever-lasting regret.
--It'll take chipping away because it's not going to happen overnight, but once they see it's headed in the right direction, minority leaders have to get people to cooperate with the police to get the genuinely bad guys off the streets.
--Another thing that needs to be addressed is single parent families. This was a thing Robert Smith, the Viking RB, would always stress: how too many men would father children and then move on. Obviously, this is solved in connection with all the other issues and will take time but Smith was adamant that this responsibility fell mainly on the black community.
That's just off the top of my head mainly on policing and then you have schools, housing, justice system, jobs, etc. There have been many concrete things proposed, but you need the will to totally commit to them. There's going to be pushback, and it might totally go down the drain again because the senseless rioting and looting make it easy for people to use that as a reason to take the focus off the fact a police officer murdered a black man over a period of time while on camera and with three other officers not stopping it.
Lost in all this was the story of a policeman killed in Grand Forks while on a domestic call. So most people recognize it's a tough job. It's got to be stressful going to work knowing how many guns are out there. But there are things that have been proposed so cops aren't seen as the adversary.
