Seek the Peace of the City

By Dan Orban

The incident on Lake and Bloomington happened 7 blocks from my house.  I know the neighborhood and the people who live here.  I have a vested interest in the peace of this community because it is my community.  We are a diverse set of neighbors with real joys and real problems.  I agree with caring for everyone in my community, especially those who are experiencing fear and anxiety over the direction from our current national administration.  We should support and protect immigrants.  I also fully support the direction of the Minneapolis Police Department to separate from federal immigration activity.  Let’s love and protect our neighbors, securing their position as members of the community, peacefully protesting if necessary.  We should care for each other and seek the peace of the city.

That being said, I believe that we made several mistakes on June 3rd that we should all learn from.  They are listed below:

1. Leaders should be accurate and deescalate dangerous situations.  Based on the information that was released by the city, the federal law enforcement event on Lake St. and Bloomington was a criminal operation regarding drugs, money laundering, and human trafficking.  In my neighborhood I see drug activity and human trafficking on a daily basis.  We must enforce these laws to keep the community safe.  Unfortunately, this message was not initially communicated.  Instead the situation escalated under the false assumption that the event was an immigration raid, requiring additional law enforcement presence to help control the growing crowd.  Even if this was an immigration raid, a leader’s role should be directed towards peace and deescalation.  Stirring up emotional responses can lead to dangerous activity as we saw on Tuesday.  Leaders should also take responsibility for the consequences of their words and actions.

2. Protests should be peaceful.  Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi both brought change through non-violent and peaceful civil disobedience.  I agree that the community has a right to express themselves peacefully, however, that is not what we experienced on June 3rd.  It is good to gather information, take photos, and ask questions.  In contrast, hateful speech, yelling, disrespect, and contempt often leads to violence.  This use of language is dehumanizing and not effective in keeping peace.  Eventually, people threw trash cans, taunted law enforcement officers, and were physically aggressive.  In my opinion, these are violent actions.  Instead the goal should be peace, even in protest.

3. Law enforcement actions should be above reproach.  If we have learned anything over the past 5 years, it is that we should maintain the highest moral and ethical standards for police officers.  Even the appearance of excessive use of force ruins the witness of the Minneapolis Police Department’s efforts.  According to reports and videos, we cannot assume innocence here.  People were shoved and knocked over by law enforcement officers in ways that appear unacceptable.  It is unfortunate that both federal and local law enforcement were involved.  This makes it difficult to know the MPDs role in the violence.  It would be good to encourage training and positions that value deescalation in these situations.  I know that the Minneapolis Police Department has worked hard to build systems of transparency and accountability, but hopefully we can continue to grow.  We must restore trust in these institutions.  Tuesday did not help this cause.

Key Takeaways:

• We need to create trustworthy methods of transparent communication to quickly get accurate information to communities.

• We need to establish methods to build trust among leaders, community, and law enforcement.  Perhaps this involves working together on projects in which we have shared vision and agreement.

• We should encourage peaceful protests that effectively drive change in communities.

• We should invest in deescalation projects, which focus on truth, transparency, and peace.

• Above all, we should seek the peace of the city.  Let’s build up instead of tear down.

As a city and a community, we failed together to bring peace, myself included.  We should use this as an opportunity to grow in communication, transparency, and truth.  Unfortunately we cannot easily control the federal government, but we can learn to stand up for our neighbors peacefully and effectively.  It’s been done before!

Dan Orban is running for City Council in Ward 9

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Related: Watch – Lake St and Bloomington Ave federal law enforcement after-action review

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