There are many answers to that, some of which I’ve already articulated, but I felt the need to do some more research. So I looked up the bills that Ellison introduced in the last session of the Minnesota Legislature.
Many of them are innocuous. Most are well meaning. But the two that got me were this one and this one.
The first would remove the state’s ability to revoke the driver’s license of a “dead beat dad” in order to pressure him to pay up, and the second would decriminalize making a false report of police brutality. The latter, in particular, is troubling, especially in light of another bill that he introduced which extensively spells out the affirmative obligation of a police officer to explain exactly why he may have stopped someone who is African American.
I’m not the first to point these out, but they are right there for anyone who cares to look. To me, the two bills relating to civilian contact with police betray a world view that Ellison’s perceived constituency and the police are essentially at war with each other. That’s probably, unfortunately, very close to the truth.
But, that world view doesn’t get us anywhere near where we ought to be going. It’s a hopeless view, in my opinion, and we should get more than that from our legislators.
Leave a Reply