A couple months ago, I wrote a blog pointing out that paying millions to victims of police shootings has no impact on the problem. Within 2 weeks Daunte Wright was shot. We need to come up with real solutions instead of playing this morbid lottery that costs families one member. 6-year-old Aniya Allen was shot in the head in Minneapolis. She was riding with her parents eating a happy meal in the backseat at the time. 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson Smith was shot in the head last weekend while jumping on the trampoline at a birthday party by someone (who apparently didn’t care if he killed children). The shooter drove by and opened fire at the house. 10-year-old Ladavionne Garrett Jr. was shot in the head riding home in a car with his parents. Black lives matter. They matter if the shooter was killed by a police officer and they matter if they are killed by someone from the neighborhood. So let’s please for once address the issue instead of offering band-aids, kissing the wound and pretending it’s better. The problem: Shootings in North Minneapolis in 2021 are up 150%. We have had a 6-year-old, a 9-year-old and a 10-year-old shot in the metro area in the last couple weeks by citizens. More than 550 people were wounded by gunfire in 2020. That represents more than a 100% increase over the tally in 2019. 99% were not shot by police officers. More than 80% of shooting victims were African American and 62% of people wounded or fatally shot were residents of Minneapolis. The shootings in North Minneapolis are up 150 % in 2021, with a reported 250 shots fired in this area, in one weekend. People in Brooklyn Center cheered police reform last night, after it was proposed they will prohibit arrests (only tickets and fines) for low-level offenses and use unarmed civilians to handle minor traffic violations. In one tense moment, a man said he didn't agree with having unarmed people pull over drivers. He then turned to Daunte Wright’s mother and said: "Your son was killed, not because of a traffic stop in my mind. But because he had warrants." In the media this man was criticized for being disrespectful to Daunte Wright’s family and people were applauded for guiding him away from the microphone. I wasn’t at the meeting, so I don’t know exactly how it was said, but the reality is he was correct. If this had been said at any gathering in honor of Daunte Wright, it would be out of line. But it was stated at a meeting intended to change police policy. “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” Ida B. Wells-Barnett If we’re going to honestly resolve issues, we have to start with the truth. The initial reports suggesting Daunte was pulled over for having an air freshener hanging on his mirror were not true. He was pulled over for having expired tabs. And if that was it, he would have been given a ticket and released. Now I want to make it clear—Daunte never should have been shot. His death is a tragedy. When the officers saw Daunte had an outstanding warrant, they tried to arrest him, he tried taking off in his vehicle, and he was tragically shot. The reality is that Daunte was going to be confronted somewhere on that outstanding warrant. He never should have been shot and my heart goes out to his family. But changing traffic policies doesn’t resolve the problem. Are we going to not arrest people for outstanding warrants? Maybe the Brooklyn Center decision will ease some of the tension between police and citizens. I hope so. But it won’t resolve the larger problem. The problem: Good intention does not equal good problem solving. Kobie Dimock-Heisler's grandfather called police in 2019 after Kobie, who had autism, grabbed a knife, and his grandfather feared he might hurt himself. The police didn’t know to handle an autistic person, and didn’t calm Kobie down. Kobie went after his grandmother with the knife and two Brooklyn Center police officers fired six shots at 21-year-old Kobe Dimock-Heisler killing him. His family has been active in making sure officers have 4 hours of training in autism—and this is great! Here’s the problem. Last year I was asked to provide 8 hours of training to law enforcement officers. 4 hours had to be in autism, and the remaining 4 hours had to address domestic abuse, sexual victimization, sexual offending, depression, suicide, substance abuse, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. (Not exactly the perfect balance.) Solutions: 1. Protect families. Take the tax burden off of the middle and working class. I’m tired of hearing that politicians are pro-family when they don’t really protect families. MN legislature is proud of not increasing taxes. That’s good, but why are middle class families paying 30% of their income in taxes when billionaires and millionaires are paying about 20% of their income in taxes. I’m not even asking them to pay more. How about just being fair? If it was fair, working class and middle class families would have more money. Our legislature has refused to address this and it’s gotten worse every year for 40 years. 2. Encourage and fund more positive interactions between police and community members. Build homes, like the one in St. Cloud, in poor areas to encourage the police and community to work together. 3. Tragedies create learning opportunities. Use them. After the riots in Minneapolis we should have brought teens in from every community in Minnesota to help clean up the mess so they could learn the work needed to develop a community. Every flood, every tornado, provides an opportunity to teach community service. I agree with this guy! St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter addressed the school, buildings and homes hit by gunfire -- saying the generational cycles of trauma, despair, and anxiety need to be stopped and replaced with opportunity and investment. 4. Commit to a serious change. Everyone says we need to create opportunities. So let’s actually create one. My suggestion is go into a poor area and invest in education to provide computer programming training to students from early on. We have an incredible demand for this work in the U.S. and because we can’t fill the positions our tech companies go to China when they want to expand. This doesn’t mean that everyone in those schools would have to be a computer programmer. It would mean that everyone would have a professional job with benefits to fall back on if other efforts failed. More opportunities, means less crime and more children growing up to be amazing women and men! Thanks for listening, Frank Do I have all the answers? Obviously not. But let’s try something new…
The book openings are starting up and I’m excited!
2 Comments
|
AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
April 2024
Categories |