Tamir Rice. Michael Brown. Freddie Gray. Walter Scott. Eric Garner.
The several hundred people who gathered at a University of Minnesota lecture hall Thursday hushed as Mark Kappelhoff recited the list of black men and one child killed in confrontations with police in cities across the United States.
Kappelhoff has intimate knowledge of the cases involving Brown and Gray. He supervised the Department of Justice's investigations into the policing practices in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, where the two were killed and riots broke out.
The deaths sparked long-overdue national conversation about police and community trust, he said. But the topic had been a priority for Kappelhoff long before their deaths became front-page news.
"I met with the Brown and Gray families, and I heard their pleas for justice," Kappelhoff said.
No matter what state his job takes him to, he hears the same perspectives that cause tensions in the community: Police officers feel attacked and residents believe officers aren't respecting their rights. "Some say we are at a point of crisis," he said. "But I call it an unprecedented opportunity to build back trust."
To that end, the American Civil Liberties Union of Minneapolis put together a panel of local and national civic leaders to discuss whether the demonstrations and unrest that took place in Ferguson after Brown's death could happen in Minneapolis. Without hesitation, at least three of the panelists answered "absolutely."
"I know people don't want to hear it," said Nekima Levy-Pounds, a law professor and president of the Minneapolis NAACP. "But the reasons it happened in Ferguson are already in place here, such as lack of equal employment opportunities, over-policing in communities and too many minorities in jail compared to their population in the state."
