The New Ulm Journal is fairly free in publishing a variety of opinions, some that seem to trip around the edges of civil society.
We were taken by a letter to the editor published on Thursday, Racial profiling doesn't work, divides community:
A recent letter to the editor advocated racial profiling as a means of maintaining peace. The New Ulm Police Department and the New Ulm Human Rights Commission categorically denounce the use of racial profiling by law enforcement.
Simply put, racial profiling doesn’t work; police departments consider this practice unethical. In fact, part of modern police training includes being taught not to use racial profiling. Nor is this practice a good use of police resources — law enforcement never wants to follow a false lead.
Racial profiling leads to racial divisions in the community. These practices pit neighbor against neighbor and cause an atmosphere of unfounded fear and mistrust. Groups who are targeted have their human rights violated. Racial profiling doesn’t help any community to be welcoming. Overall, racial profiling is not healthy for the well-being of the community and is not used by the New Ulm Police Department.
Police Chief David Borchert
New Ulm Human Rights Commission Public Relations Committee:
Larry Czer
Wendi Ringhofer
Daniel Kalk
Tim Frenning
What letter prompted that disavowal? In Profiling can keep us all safer, Vern Clobes of Cocoa Beach, Florida, wrote:
I was the the captain of an airliner hijacked out of Tampa years ago by someone who met our (hijacker’s) profile. A folding knife, hidden in his shoe, was missed. His Havana destination failed when he was subdued by passengers as we approached Cuba.
Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg cut the murder rate from more than 2,000 down to about 300 per year using aggressive profiling. Today about 20,000 more men are alive in New York than would be the case if aggressive profiling had not been used?
Inner-city parents must be in utter dismay as less than ten percent of students in their schools score proficient in math and reading. Their graduating children become part of the uneducated, unqualified young people, especially males, who now have no alternative to the activities that are so prominent in our inner cities.
When I qualified for my driver’s license, 62 years ago, my father instructed me: “When stopped by the police you will respond yes sir, no sir and will comply with their requests.” Imagine, for a moment, the positive impact this would have on Black lives, and the rest of us, if this was followed by everyone.
We need to be sympathetic to Black people who are profiled and stopped for Driving While Black. However, this procedure keeps all of us safer, even when unwarranted in a particular case, and I would encourage this be accepted as a small price to pay that helps the police keep all of us safer.
The police chief and the human rights commissioners weren't the first to respond. In Is Profiling OK?, Alma Marin of New Ulm wrote:
For the last 4 years, we have been responding to “letters to the editor” that range from the conservative, to the lunatic fringe. We have tried to answer politely, with a well thought out argument based on facts, science and what we believe is good for our town and our country. But the letter exhorting the virtues of profiling really got me thinking. What exactly was the criteria for choosing to give a forum to such a view that has caused so much pain in our society? Is it to sell papers? Does it contribute to the well-being of our community? Or, does it pander and validate views that have been discredited over and over and are the antithesis of American values? Responding not only gives this view credence, but it has not made people reconsider their own views. It only continues a debate for the sake of debating, and it does not make our community more united or our world better.
Good question.
Photo: New Ulm, Minnesota, a south central Minnesota city, seat of Brown County.
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