Stop demonizing our law enforcement

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem tells Seattle officers, “To those Seattle officers leaving the force: instead of demonizing you, we will stand WITH you.” Offering them jobs with the state.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson lights up their state capitol dome blue in honor of law enforcement.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds introduces a bill to protect law enforcement, penalizing local governments who attempt to “defund” police.
What has our Minnesota Governor done to support law enforcement? Here are few recent comments from Governor Walz regarding the Brooklyn Center Incident:
“I am closely monitoring the situation in Brooklyn Center. Gwen and I are praying for Daunte Wright’s family as our state mourns another life of a Black man taken by law enforcement.”
“That unimaginable love I have for my son Gus, I can’t imagine the daily traumas,” Walz said. “I don’t worry about him being killed in a traffic stop... just because of how he looks and how that is viewed when they walk up to that car.”
“Minnesotans who are Black should not have to live with a fear that expired tabs could put their lives at risk.”
While these comments may make him political points, they are simply encouraging distrust and fear of the great men and women that serve our communities day and night — his comments paint us all as racist.
This incident was absolutely tragic, but there are no facts to suggest it was anything but a terrible mistake. It had nothing to do with color. Comments like his encourages anti-law enforcement behavior and aggression towards the men and women who work day and night to keep us safe. Frankly, our Governor’s continued comments demonizing law enforcement makes are jobs that much tougher and more dangerous.
In our schools, the Governor supports the book “Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice,” which features conversations among multiple families about a white police officer shooting a Black man who didn’t have a gun. Different family members off er different perspectives. One family member says the shooting was a mistake. Another responds that the shooting was “a mistake that was part of a pattern.” One character refers to cops “sticking up for each other.”
Proponents argue that this book will help teach kids about racism. I would argue the opposite. Read the book. How is this book not going to program kids at a young age to fear police. The book paints law enforcement as unfair, violent, and racist.
Many agencies use minor traffic stops as an opportunity to have positive contacts with the public; headlight, taillight, expired tabs, license plate light, etc. Now after the Brooklyn Center shooting, our leadership at the capitol thinks we need to ban these kinds of stops? I for one stopped a ton of cars for these types of violations, especially license plate lights out. Why? I would use them as a courtesy stop, to let the vehicle owner know the light is out and that getting it fixed will be a lot cheaper than a citation.
I rarely wrote citations for these, usually had a nice visit with the driver, and made the stop a positive experience. That’s how most of these stops are conducted.
Prager University released some interesting facts about law enforcement: · There are an estimated 3.75 million U.S. police interactions with citizens. · In 2019, 999 ended in shooting fatalities by police (0.0003%). · 14 of those were unarmed black subjects (0.000004%). · 1 of those was not attempting to resist or evade arrest (0.0000003%).
The facts don’t support the narrative of systemic racism in law enforcement — they never have, but the media chooses not to report the facts. The facts do support one very important statistic — in nearly all of these incidents, the victim in the vehicle fought with or resisted with law enforcement. Had they complied with the officers and not escalated the situation, they’d likely still be here. 99% of the men and women serving in law enforcement have worked very hard over the years to build trust within the communities we serve — with our school resource officers, National Night Out, at city events and festivals, etc.
It’s hard not to be concerned that our Governor’s comments, and his actions along with many others in leadership at the Capitol, are unraveling a lot of that hard work we tried to do over the years. Our men and women serving in law enforcement in Minnesota deserve better from our state government.
As parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, we need to teach our kids to respect law enforcement, that law enforcement is here to help them, that their local officers are their friends that they can trust. Treat these officers the same way you want them to treat you and we can avoid most of these tragedies.
If someone believes they were not treated right by an officer, they need to know they can always report that after the fact and the agency will address it. We are always open to discussing any concerns here in Dodge County, our door is always open.
Our men and women serving in law enforcement here deserve better from our state government.
Thank you for all your support! Your Sheriff , Scott Scott Rose is the Dodge County Sheriff .