The American Civil Liberties Union has called attention to the serious need for police reform in the U.S. after finding a systemic pattern of racial discrimination in Minneapolis policing in a new report published Thursday.
The case study of 96,000 low-level arrests in Minneapolis over 33 months between 2012 and 2014 found that police disproportionately criminalize Black and Native Americans, who are respectively 8.7 and 8.6 times more likely than whites to be arrested for petty crime by Minneapolis police.
.@ACLU finds startling disparity in the way police enforce low-level offenses in Minneapolis http://t.co/JR5JsB7Uen pic.twitter.com/lomL6aEbUy
— Sentencing Project (@SentencingProj)
May 28, 2015
“In Minneapolis, the eyes of the law look at Blacks and Native Americans differently than whites. The resulting injustices – more fees and fines, more time in jail, more criminal records – hurt Minneapolitans and undermine public safety,” said ACLU staff attorney Emma Andersson.
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The statistics revealing racial bias come after a Black Minneapolis teenager recorded a police officer threatening to “break his leg” and arrest him because the officer said he “felt like it” after pulling over the teen for making a u-turn in a parking lot. Police justified the arrest based on suspicion of auto-theft despite license and registration being presented, leading the Somali teen to believe his only offence was driving while black.
Annually, over 25 percent of the Black and Native American population in Minneapolis is picked up by police for a minor offense, versus just three percent of the white population, according to the report.
Among youth, 40 percent of all low-level arrests are for curfew violations, and 56 percent of those charges are against Black youth.
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The report also found significant over-criminalization of homeless people, with a strong pattern of repeat arrest.
The ACLU analysis adds to growing evidence of systemic discrimination in police practices across the country and the deep need for nationwide police reform.
#Overcriminalization in #Minneapolis is rampant, excessively impacts people of color https://t.co/4dxOaZ0MDL pic.twitter.com/3Sjoow6SkQ
— ACLU National (@ACLU)
May 28, 2015
Calling for reform in Minneapolis, the ACLU has highlighted strengthened anti-racial profiling policy, a civilian review board to address officer misconduct, and alternatives to arrest as means to address the bias and overcriminalization of marginalized groups.
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“We urge the chief and other policymakers to engage in the sweeping reform necessary to correct the extreme racial disparities documented in this analysis,” said ACLU Executive Director Charles Samuelson.
In Minneapolis, about 64 percent of the population is white, 19 percent is Black, and 2 percent is Native American.