NCEC -- Racial and Social Equity Actions in Minneapolis (Police Community Relations and Black Lives Matter)

[J. L. Strand]

Commissioner Wetjen raised the issues at the April 28, 2015 meeting of the police community relations and "Black Lives Matter" actions. There was robust dialogue at the meeting on the topics.

Some communications in Council Member Cam Gordon's April newsletter also feature some upcoming public engagement meetings and subsequent City Council civic governance matters that I would like to share with NCEC colleagues as related racial and social equity actions:

Quoting Excerpts, 

"Second Ward April 2015 E-newsletter

 

News from Cam Gordon

Council Member, Second Ward

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/council/ward2

http://secondward.blogspot.com

Community Conversations: Minneapolis’ New Jim Crow - Racial Disparities and the Criminal Justice System.  This spring, I am co-authoring ordinance amendments that will, if approved, repeal the City’s prohibition on “lurking” with intent to commit a crime and spitting on the sidewalk and some other surfaces.  I favor repeal of these ordinances because they are outdated, poorly crafted, unnecessary, ineffective and contribute to persistent racial and economic disparities in our city. While they are problematic each in their own way, I am most interested in repealing them because of the subtle role they both play in supporting a biased, unfair criminal justice system that, perhaps unintentionally or inadvertently, contributes to and perpetuates the significant racial disparities we find in Minneapolis today, and in our country. We are only one of two major cities in the country with this kind of stand-alone “lurking” law. Many legal experts, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), believe that our “lurking” law is unconstitutionally vague. In practice more than two-thirds of the people arrested for “lurking” in Minneapolis are people of color and less than 25% of lurking arrests lead to conviction. Still, a lurking arrest on one’s record can become a significant obstacle to finding housing or employment. The spitting ordinance originated from a response to the tuberculosis epidemic in the late 1800s. Today very few people (only one last year) are ever cited or arrested under it, but several have reported that it is used as a reason for the police to stop, question and sometimes search or intimidate people.  This repeal effort is supported by the Council on Crime and Justice, the Coalition for Critical Change, Black Lives Matter, the ACLU and others. I hope that the effort to repeal these rarely enforced ordinances might help us as a community engage in a deeper discussion about justice, public safety, institutional racism, the role authority figures play in the racialization of our young and how vastly different we experience life in Minneapolis depending on our race and economic status.  Please join the conversation about these laws and how they fit into the larger effort to dismantle the New Jim Crow and finish the work of ending racial injustice in America.  The first is on Wednesday, April 29^th, from 6:30-8:30pm at Harrison Recreational Center, 503 Irving Ave N.  The second is on Monday, May 4^th from 6:30-8:30pm at Park Avenue Methodist Church, 34th & Park Ave S, and the third is on Thursday, May 14^th from 7-9pm at Matthews Park, 2318 29^th Ave S.  There will be two public hearings on these ordinances at the Council’s Public Safety Committee on Wednesday, May 6^th, and Wednesday, May 20^th, both at 1:30pm in City Hall room 317....

....Working Families Agenda.  Several of my colleagues, the Mayor, and I have started a process to address concerns about poor working conditions and low wages in Minneapolis.  A “Working Families Agenda” has emerged around four key initiatives that will benefit low-wage workers: fair scheduling, better enforcement on wage theft, earned sick and safe time, and a higher minimum wage.  Fair scheduling rules would make sure that hourly employees know when their shifts are scheduled with enough time to plan, and ensure that if shifts are cancelled at the last minute, those employees are compensated.  Wage theft occurs when an employee works but then is not fairly paid as agreed upon, and the City currently does no enforcement on this.  Earned sick and safe time addresses problems with people coming to work sick.  In Minneapolis, 42% of workers lack access to earned sick and safe time.  While 63% of white workers have earned sick and safe time, only 32% of Latino workers do.  And there is a major push for Minneapolis to adopt a higher minimum wage, possibly as part of a regional push with our neighboring cities.  I strongly support all four of these initiatives.  The Council has unanimously adopted a resolution crafted by Council Member Glidden with the help of many of my colleagues, which establishes a work group to craft a policy around fair scheduling, wage theft and earned sick and safe time, and directs staff to start crafting a study on wages.  I expect to see the City move carefully with this effort with the input of the business community....."

Respectfully,

Jeffrey Strand

NCEC District 1

 

[kirk roggensack]

Jeff,
 
Thanks for this information.
 
Kirk
 

---

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2015 19:52:42 -0700
From: jeff_...@msn.com
To: neighborhood-and-communi...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [NCEC] NCEC -- Racial and Social Equity Actions in Minneapolis (Police Community Relations and Black Lives Matter)

--
--
To post to this group, send email to
neighborhood-and-communi...@googlegroups.com
 
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/neighborhood-and-community-engagement-commission?hl=en?hl=en

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Neighborhood and Community Engagement Commission (NCEC)" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to neighborhood-and-community-eng...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.