Minnesota G**damn (Apologies to Miss Simone)

When it comes to race relations, Minnesota Nice is like the Klansman who offers to mow your lawn before he burns a cross in your front yard: kind of polite about the details but not very nice about the unneighborly gesture itself.

Once again, a simple traffic stop turned deadly because a trigger-happy white cop panicked and shot and killed the unarmed driver because he was a black guy. Here we go again.

But wait.

This shooting, along with what led up to it and what took place afterward, were all recorded on the shooter’s cop cam. So that should show us what happened, right? That should make it easier for everyone to understand, right? Uh, WRONG. Having this incident documented means the Brooklyn Center Police Department and the BCA and even some media outlets can ignore the obvious and reinterpret what happened.

As though the general public viewing it is either too stupid or too clueless to see what actually took place that Sunday afternoon on April 11, 2021? Well, yeah. That’s what usually happens when these incidents are preserved on film. The recorded shooting keeps getting played, over and over, while so-called experts keep telling us what really happened.

Only this time, the obvious is too obvious not to see, yet so obvious it’s unbelievable. This time, what happened can’t be completely or immediately understood because it’s just too weird. Weird in the sense that if the footage was from a “Law & Order” episode, viewers would be laughing(or having fits) because the events shown would seem so unimaginable that suspending disbelief would be impossible.

This time, the trigger-happy cop was Kim Potter — a woman! So much for the anecdotal notion that female police officers are better at de-escalating situations than their male counterparts. In fact, Officer Potter ignited — and escalated — this situation by turning a traffic stop into a training exercise. Bad idea. Furthermore, Daunte Wright, the unfortunate victim in this case, wasn’t just pulled over for driving while black. He was also violating Minnesota’s notorious “fuzzy dice statute.” Allow me to explain, dear readers.

Initial reports about why Daunte Wright was stopped in the first place focused on an air freshener “illegally hanging” from his rear view mirror. Then the reason evolved into an outstanding warrant. So exactly why the Brooklyn Center Police pulled him over remains unclear. But it’s important to clarify this legal point: If anything would have been dangling from his rear view mirror, the police would have been legitimately justified in stopping him and giving him a ticket.

You see, in our wondrous land of 10,000 lakes, we have Minnesota State Statute 169.71, which forbids “suspended objects between the driver and the windshield.” What? Like fuzzy dice, good luck charms, even St. Christopher figurines?(For more information see news@duluthnewstribune.com/12:00am,Jan. 4, 2009.)

As long as it’s a’ danglin’ the law will be entanglin’ you:

“…no person shall drive or operate any motor vehicle with a windshield cracked or discolored to an extent to limit or obstruct proper vision, or (except for law enforcement vehicles) with any objects suspended between the driver and the windshield, other than the sun visors and rear-vision mirrors." (The exception for law enforcement vehicles provides for necessary speed detection equipment as well as video and other equipment).
But in the “Lifestyle” section of the Duluth News Tribune that featured info on this statute, some flawed conclusions are also revealed:
“…Many of the crashes officers investigate are due to a driver not seeing another vehicle, bicycle or pedestrian. We have many visual obstructions in the vehicles we drive already, such as the support pillars and rearview mirrors. Any that we can eliminate makes everyone safer on our roads.”

While this commitment to safety might seem admirable, it misses an important point. Quite often, when law enforcement takes statements from drivers involved in accidents, they do hear, “I didn’t see that other car.” But maybe that’s because drivers don’t want to admit to causing any car accidents. They don’t want to say things like “I was too busy thinking about my hot date to pay attention to that stop sign.” Drivers lie all the time, especially when they get in car accidents and don’t want to incriminate themselves. Hanging fuzzy dice or air fresheners have nothing to do with their alertness or field of vision.

So was this law really designed to make driving safer or was it enacted to make it easier for the police to stop young males — mostly non-white ones — in order to run plates and check ID’s without being charged with racial profiling? Hmm. I’m wondering about this because very few white drivers I know have ever been given a citation for violating this statute, especially if they’re driving expensive cars. Sounds like this dangling odor eater was just an excuse to pull Daunte over and detain him so Officer Potter would have time to find a reason to arrest him. And she did.

Poor Daunte Wright. He could have gotten a stern warning about his hanging air freshener since he, like most drivers, was probably unaware that he was even breaking the law in the first place. Some police officers do give motorists that kind of courtesy. But Daunte didn’t receive that kind of a break.

While the male officer who had stopped Daunte was still talking to him, training instructor Potter, who was observing and checking information, yelled “he has a warrant.” Then she ordered her trainee to get Daunte out of the car. He complied. So did Daunte. Then the officer appeared to have some problems cuffing Daunte, almost as if he didn’t want to really do it.

At this point, Daunte got back in the car and sat in the driver’s seat. When that happened, Potter quickly drew her gun and pointed it at Daunte. Thanks to her cop cam, you can easily see her unwarranted hair-trigger response. She pointed her gun directly at an unarmed, non-resistant seated Daunte Wright.

Although he was not trying to flee or start his car, Potter began yelling at him. “I’m gonna taser ya!” I’m gonna taser you! I’m gonna do it!” she cried. With her gun still pointing at Daunte, her voice got even louder as she announced, “Taser! Taser! Taser!”

Then she shot him, not with her taser but with the gun she’d already been pointing at him all along — as soon as he’d moved back into the driver’s seat!

As if to punctuate her own reckless incompetence even more, Potter said “Oh S**T! I shot him!”(Not “Holy S**T” as The Washington Post and The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.) Like it was some kind of oops-a-daisy moment that happens when you burn your pot roast or drop your cell phone.

Even the Brooklyn Center Police Chief Gannon( who resigned? or got fired? not long after his remark) said it looked like an “accidental discharge” to him. Accidental? Accidental means something occurs by chance, not by gross negligence or uber stupidity.

The cop cam clearly shows a 26-year veteran of the police force who shoots and kills an unarmed black man because she forgets that what she’s been pointing at his chest is a gun and not a taser while she yells “Taser! Taser! Taser! I’ll taser you!” That’s not an accident. That’s inherent stupidity and irrational panic and inexplicable recklessness.

Even Porter herself knows that. Like most cops in a bad shooting, however, she doesn’t want to admit she made a fatal mistake. On Tuesday, April 13th, she resigned. Her written resignation stated she was doing it for “the good of the community, the department, and my fellow officers…” Like, we should applaud her because she finally realized she was unfit for duty? Maybe if she had realized that a little sooner Daunte Wright would still be alive.

At this writing, Potter has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, not 2nd or 3rd degree murder. Let’s hope the jurors at her trial will toss out Minnesota niceness and put her in jail for the full 10 years.