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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Rights and Diversity - 11/14/2013 APPROVED MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2013 7:00 P.M., 125 EDEN PRAIRIE CENTER Office of Housing and Human Services COMMISSION MEMBERS: Laura Kaczmarek (Chair), PG Narayanan (Vice Chair), Zina Nourkadi, Jenny Buckland, Sana Elassar, Sandra Filardo, Connie Iacovelli STAFF: Patricia Fenrick, Staff Lori Creamer, Recorder STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES: Kristina Busch, Karena Lin, Chase Carlson, Emily Higgins GUESTS: Lieutenant Greg Weber, Eden Prairie Police Dept. I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Vice Chair Narayanan called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. Since there were a few new people introductions took place. Commissioner Kaczmarek was absent. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION: Buckland moved, seconded by Iacovelli,to approve the agenda. Motion carried 6-0. III. MINUTES MOTION: Buckland moved, seconded by Iacovelli, to approve the October 10, 2013. Motion carried 6-0. IV. PRESENTATION—Bias Crime Fenrick talked about the crimes of bias policy handout from the police department and since there is a current bias crime case it would be a good time to have someone from the police department come and talk with the commission. Lieutenant Greg Weber, the guest speaker, talked about the crimes of bias policy. Bias motivated crimes are those crimes in which the motive of the perpetrator is based solely on the victim's actual or perceived race, religion, ethnic origin, sex, age, disability or sexual orientation. There are three types of crimes which can be enhanced, which means the penalty can be increase,d if it is shown that the crime was committed because of some bias, such as criminal damage to property, assault or harassment and stalking. Our role as a Police Department is to go out and be as impartial and objective as possible when we investigate HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES November 14, 2013 Page 2 crimes and not to bring our own emotions into the crime. Officers need to look at the situation from a factual standpoint and document what it is they saw, take the victims statement and pass that information on to the city attorney. They would make the ultimate determination if the crime was perpetrated for biased reasons and then try and get the judge to enhance the penalties. Fenrick sent you a copy of the current policy which is mandated by the state of Minnesota. The Police Department must notify the State of Minnesota any time they have a crime believed to be committed based on bias. Molly Koivumaki, the Housing and Community Services Manager, is also notified. Narayanan asked if a bias crime penalty is higher than the other types of crimes. Weber stated there are three crimes: Criminal damage to property, assault or harassment/ stalking. If law enforcement can show someone perpetrated based on bias towards the victim then the courts can enhance the sentence. For example if it is a misdemeanor charge on a 5 h degree assault would be punishable up to 90 days in jail and $700 fine. Now if it is argued the assault happened because of a bias it would be enhanced to a gross misdemeanor and a sentence imposed of up to 1 year in jail and a$3,000 fine. The police department doesn't make the decision on the penalty that is up to the judge. The victim's statement as to why they felt it was a crime of bias could weigh in on the judge's decision as well. Theft is not one of the crimes that could impose an enhanced penalty. There are reporting requirements for crimes which are believed to be bias crimes. Buckland asked if the victim has to say they feel it was a bias crime. It is not up to the police to determine, it falls upon the victim to state if they feel it is for that reason and articulate that in their statement as to why they feel it was a bias crime. Many times the police deal with people whom they feel the crime may have been committed because of their ethnicity or sexual orientation and they will ask the victim. Many times the victim says no they don't think so. More often than not law enforcement officers are trying to do the right thing and make that conclusion. Filardo asked for clarification on the extent of the charges as a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor. Weber clarified the officer would ask those questions if they felt it was for racial reasons, victim may say they didn't feel it was. The officer will put that in the statement from the victim they did not believe the crime was racially motivated. The facts of the case are presented to a prosecutor and a judge and the judge would make that determination. Fenrick stated it could be overruled if the victim says it was not a bias crime. Weber stated it could be,but the police document what the victim is telling them, they want to be respectful of the victim as well and if the victim says it was not a bias crime towards them; the officer again will document it and leave it at that. The victim's statement weighs a lot in court because more often than not they are crimes the police did not witness and really the testimony that is the most critical is that of the victim. They would be the ones to get up on the stand and testify as to the details of the crime including how they felt, what the individual said to them during the assault, what names they were called, etc. Nourkadi asked about when a victim does not want to take the perpetrator to court but the police know it happened where would it go from there?Weber stated the police would come out and take a report we have the ability to clear a case if the victim doesn't want to pursue a case. The case would be cleared due to lack of victim cooperation. The police may ask for a statement and put that in writing or tape record the victim's statement that you don't HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES November 14, 2013 Page 3 want to prosecute so 6 months from now someone doesn't come back and say the police didn't care or they dropped the ball on this case. It happens more often than people may think. People are willing to forgive the first time, but they want it documented so if it happens again we have it documented for 7 years, which is the records retention schedule and it is easier to go back and show the pattern which may result in a stronger case. It is completely up to the victim as to what they want to do with the case, except for domestic assaults there is a specific caveat in the law that says when law enforcement shows up and there is evidence of domestic assault even if the victim doesn't want to prosecute they still have to make an arrest. Elassar asked if the bias crimes were reported to the state. Weber stated yes they notify the state of MN, specifically the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). The BCA tracks the information and every police department is mandated to complete a one page form with information more for statistical reasons, as there is not a lot of detail that goes into the reports. If someone at the state sees a particular case in which they wanted to know more information on, they could call the department and ask for more details. Elassar asked how many bias crimes in a year does Eden Prairie file. Weber stated maybe 2-3 in a year would be a lot. Fenrick stated in the 4 years she has been here in Eden Prairie this is the second one maybe. Elassar commented maybe the number is lower because of people not reporting incidents possibly because of the fear component. Fenrick stated she has known of what she would call bias activity,but the victim chose not to report it so I think that does happen. Filardo asked if the police deal with a lot of problems with in the high school level if there is racist/bias behavior. Weber stated that was a great question. There are two officers assigned to the high school but they are not school district employees. They have a fair amount of latitude, and what is meant by that is, many of the issues at the high school are behavior related which are not necessarily violations of criminal law. The question is should the police officer or the school district be dealing with those. Police have to be careful and align with the school district because if a kid is skipping class, there is no law against skipping class. Sometimes the school gets frustrated with some repeat offenders and will want the police to come in and deal with that. The police want a peaceful environment at school and also want kids there learning as much as the school district wants that,however, it is a fine line so the police have to be careful in their involvement. The two officers assigned to the high school are Rob Geis and Patty VanSickle and they know how to navigate around that. They try and encourage better behavior out of someone without it appearing as the threat of law enforcement action. It is a very unique roll. Higgins asked what types of things at the school are specifically law enforcement actions. Weber stated theft, drugs. A kid that goes to school but choose not to go to class is not a law enforcement action. The officers try and develop relationships with students and talk with them about going to class. That's the fine line the officers have to take. Higgins asked about the domestic violence piece does that extend into the officers area if you hear HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES November 14, 2013 Page 4 about an abusive relationship at school. Weber stated yes, absolutely. There have been cases of a breakup and one of the parties does not want the relationship to end. Those are some serious warning signs that law enforcement should be involved from a preventative standpoint. With students that are under 18 the police will go to the parents for more weight in the decision making process. Hopefully that will open some communication avenues for the child and the parents. Fenrick asked Weber to give a brief synopsis about the bias crime case that is before us. Weber stated if you read the crime of bias directive it talks about some of the things the police will do including meet with neighborhood groups, residents, target communities or other groups to allay fears,reduce potential for counter violence, and provide safety & protection of information. We have bias, we have emotions, we get angry with some of the things we see happening. We have to remain as impartial and fact gathering as possible when dealing with each case. We gather the facts to see if it violates a particular statue or violation and then go from there. Weber read the criminal complaint as that is public information. The criminal complaint read as such: On or about October 26 officers investigated a call on terroristic threats between neighbors on Trillium Circle. Officers spoke with an adult male K. R., the victim in this case who reportedly had been threatened by a neighbor, and adult male, later identified as Ronald Bruce Stark the defendant. The victim reported he had been doing yard work and the defendant shouted to victim he was going to go in and load his gun and shoot his ass. Victim saw another neighbor; a former police officer was also outside. Victim asked witness if he had heard the defendant's threats. Witness indicated he had. Many times these cases are he said she said,but it was pretty clear when a retired police officer witnessed the offense. When the officers arrived at the house of the defendant he refused to come out. Numerous tactics were used in an attempt to get defendant to come out of his house. Officers finally made entry and arrested defendant. Officers found a shotgun in defendant's house. Officers noticed the resident was cluttered and unkempt. Victim reported defendant had threatened him on previous occasions. Defendant told police the victim is a stupid immigrant and immigrants are the reason this country is having problems. There is the potential this person is committing a crime based on the language in the Crimes of Bias policy. Defendant was charged with one count of terroristic threats, which a felony with a maximum of 5 years in prison and/or$10,000 fine. Bail was set at$30,000 and the defendant posted bail and is currently out on bail. Narayanan asked if it is still ok to have a neighborhood meeting. Weber stated it would be ok. The specific case would not be discussed, but the police have a crime prevention unit and those folks certainly could come out and talk about personal safety and how to feel safe in your community. Fenrick stated part of the role of the commission is to be available to meet with the victims in cases such as this. Commissioners Narayanan, Elassar, Filardo and Fenrick met with the victim and his family. The family shared their story and talked about some of the frustrations and the fears. They brought some letters of support from their neighbors. The letters have been sent to the prosecutor. The activities the commission is involved in regarding this case are 1) Fenrick will be accompanying the victim to Hennepin County to file a harassment order against his neighbor and HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES November 14, 2013 Page 5 morally support and make sure victim understands the trial process. 2) Working with the police to do a neighborhood safety meeting because there is great concern among the neighbors about safety. Buckland asked if in these situations firearms can be removed from the defendant. Weber stated it was asked for; however the judge did remove the language so the defendant could possess a firearm. 3) Fenrick has been in contact with the senior social worker, as the perpetrator was a senior citizen. The hope would be to discuss possible options of connecting with perpetrator as potentially being a vulnerable adult. If the victim would want to continue meeting with members of the commission, Fenrick would be in touch and ask for volunteers to meet with them. V. REPORT FROM STUDENT COMMISSIONERS Fenrick said she gave each student commissioner two questions to report on to stay connected with high school happenings each month. She asked for something positive happening on campus and something challenging or a barrier. Busch stated she didn't have anything positive or negative to report,however she talked about the recent election and since she was eligible to vote this year she did her civic duty. The referendum for the school district had two questions —one for technology and one for more money per student. The technology question passed,however the question relating to more money per student did not pass. Some students but mostly teachers complained about it because even if they bring in more technology, they won't be able to pay for it because the other referendum didn't pass. The school is already going through budget cuts which won't be good for students who maybe don't have as much money to be able to participate in activities. Busch was excused from the meeting. Carlson said a positive thing to report is there wasn't any violence or disruptive things happening in the lunch rooms at school. One negative thing I have noticed is people are getting more and more exclusive with their lunch table groups and people are alienating each other. One thing I've noticed is I am part of several groups and sometimes I have a hard time choosing which group of people I will sit with at lunch. Higgins said a positive is one of her teachers was really excited when she found out Higgins was on this commission. The teacher continues to ask about what kind of things the commission is doing, and she has been passing the information onto some other students who are getting excited about what we are doing as well. I haven't heard of any negatives. High school has its clicks and it is just something we have to get used to. Lin said there are a lot of clubs at school centering on human rights. There is also a Face AIDS club led by her friend. The organization aims to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa. Currently we are teaming up with three other clubs to have a public movie night. VI. OLD BUSINESS A. COMMUNITY CINEMA (CC) —Iacovelli/Elassar Elassar said November 21 is the next upcoming movie"State of Arizona" which is about the immigration debate. It is a long movie so I encourage all of you to attend if HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES November 14, 2013 Page 6 you can to show support. We will also have a speaker from the immigration law center. We will keep it a large group discussion instead of breaking into small groups following the film. The October film was "Half the Sky" and we had about 20 people in attendance. We anticipated having 4 people on the panel, however, it ended up to be only one person. Elassar ran a scenario in her group to see how people would react. It really helped people to be more engaged and talkative. Fenrick stated she had flyers for"Arizona" to be distributed. This will be the last film of this year. The film has been advertised with community education. Fenrick is going to talk with the principal to communicate with teachers to increase student participation. The lineup for next year will be January 16, March 20, April 22, May 22 and a special Martin Luther King (MLK) event January 28, which will be about the freedom riders. VII. REPORTS FROM STAFF - Fenrick A. OTHER REPORTS FROM STAFF 1. Southwest Transit Fenrick has been working with Southwest Transit to coordinate community feedback meetings on possibly expanding transit options within Eden Prairie. There is an ongoing need to eliminate transport barriers. There are seven meetings set up in the month of November. 2. Half the Sky Event Fenrick and Elassar will be speaking to a book club on Monday who is reading the book. 3. Cinema Movie Reporting Fenrick is looking for a volunteer for cinema movie reporting. After every showing they ask there is an online report completed pertaining to significant impacts to our city, who was in attendance, speakers etc. Buckland agreed to help with this along with the blogging on face book. Buckland encouraged commission members to become friends with the City of Eden Prairie's face book page and share the information on their own face book page for greater visibility. It seems the best success will be advertising through word of mouth and other groups we individually are connected to. Fenrick stated some cities get 100's of people to attend the showings. Narayanan asked how those cities get those people to attend. Filardo said it's more about how do they get to the people who want to see it. Not sure if we have identified yet the people who want to see it in Eden Prairie. Buckland suggested keeping an e-mail list of those that come each time and accumulate those names and keep building on that list for future events. Elassar suggested contacting previous commissioners since they had an interest in the topic and they will have others they can tell about the events. Fenrick said to keep the ideas coming on how we can advertise these events. Let's think ahead since we already know the dates for 2014. Which groups at the high school could help promote it, who might be interested in being on a panel for one of the discussions? HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES November 14, 2013 Page 7 VIII. NEW BUSINESS A. 2014 WORK PLAN Fenrick took the commission through the work plan quickly. Some of the activities will be done in partnership with community education. The Community Ed spring catalog starts in April so if there are events that are happening in spring we need to get them into the catalog before the deadline. New events 5K - start talking about it in Feb with Parks & Rec. Elassar volunteered to be the point person. Another topic discussed was Cafe conversations, Filardo volunteered to be the point person for this event. One Voice conversation as an annual event— adult and youth focus. Youth during the school year, and the Adult conversation in August. Higgins suggested January or April for the youth one voice conversation. Students please be thinking about the timing of this to start planning. Adult one voice point person—Buckland and Nourkadi. Youth point person Filardo volunteered along with Higgins & Lin. Fenrick pulled some information down from the MN Department of Human Rights website and added a couple of items to the HRDC calendar for 2014. It may be simply to raise awareness in Eden Prairie and make sure they touch all the groups we are commissioned to support. For example October is disability awareness month, November Native American awareness month. Check out the MN Department of Human Rights website for other options. Lastly Fenrick talked about the becoming a welcoming city campaign. There is a network called Welcome America. Their mission is to get cities to sign on to say they are a welcoming city because they bring harmony and build relationships between immigrant and non-immigrant neighbors. Fenrick has to look into it a little more and bring the commission up to speed on the program before presenting it to the commission. It would involve getting the mayor and council to sign on to it. Iacovelli stated that was a good thing as that is one of the tasks the council had wanted them accomplish. Fenrick will send commission members more information on this and if it is something that we want to work towards then it would be a nice recommendation for 2014 that Eden Prairie is committed to being a welcoming city. B. HUMAN RIGHTS AWARDS TIMELINE Fenrick reported Narayanan has put together a timeline for the Human Rights Awards process. Creating flyers is on the plan for the first month. Carlson volunteered to create the youth focus flyer if he had the information. Everyone was to put the information on their face book page to help get the word out. Advertise on the City Website as well. The goal is to make sure we have enough people to choose from in each category. There are many good things happening and we want to recognize them. HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY COMMISSION MINUTES November 14, 2013 Page 8 Lin asked what the criteria are for choosing the recipient. Fenrick stated the criteria to be nominated for the award is the recipients have shown exemplary work in school, volunteer, business, community service and/or faith community activities that reflect the principles of human rights, the Eden Prairie Manifesto and the value of diversity in our community. There is no age limit. C. EP WELCOMING PACKAGES Fenrick thanked Filardo for obtaining a packet from the city offices which is handed out to new residents when they purchase a home in Eden Prairie. Fenrick knows the process to get new information into the welcome packet for new residents who purchase a home. There are two things we wanted to talk about with the packets: 1) What is missing that we would like to have in the packet and 2)how do we reach out to people who are renting. This was a topic at the One Voice conversation that generated a lot of comments, which Fenrick would like to see the commission work on as a project for next year. How do we reach out to renters and make sure there is human rights information in the welcome packet. X. FUTURE MEETINGS/EVENTS Thursday, December 19, 2013, 7 p.m. at Eden Prairie Center, Room 125. XI. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Filardo moved, seconded by Nourkadi, to adjourn. Motion carried 6-0. Vice Chair Narayanan adjourned the meeting at 9:30 p.m.