By David Gordon, associate editor
The possibility of a local escalation of the “war on drugs” drew strong criticism Monday evening at an online forum sponsored by the Chippewa Valley branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
David Carlson, the state ACLU’s Eau Claire County coordinator for the “Rights for All” campaign, also told the small audience that the local incarceration rate for African-Americans “is one of the highest in the nation.” He said that African-Americans make up just over 1 percent of the county’s population but constitute 16 to 21 percent of the county jail population.
The designation of the county as one of eight high intensity drug trafficking areas in the state is likely to worsen the situation, he said, especially if law enforcement responses seem to target the black and brown communities rather than high level drug dealers.
“No community can be safe if any group in that community isn’t safe,” Carlson said.
Law enforcement may lack needed training
He urged his audience several times to bring pressure on the city and county governments to provide trained assistance to law enforcement personnel when they are called on to respond to crisis situations that don’t necessarily involve law violations.
“Law enforcement is responding to too many situations” its personnel lack the training to handle effectively, Carlson said. Such crisis intervention responses would often work much better if they included social workers, mentors and peer counselors, he said.
That applies especially to situations involving people under 18, particularly youths of color, he said.
“The community needs to demand” changes in the law enforcement system that’s been operating for 50 years, since the start of the federal “war on drugs” in 1971, he said. Funding is needed for treatment, housing, employment and education measures, which should go hand in hand with direct police efforts to control drug use, he added.
Sheriff criticized strongly
Carlson said he has been able to work with Eau Claire Police Chief Matt Rokus on some programs that build community, but Sheriff Ron Cramer hasn’t been willing to sit down to discuss such possibilities. He also criticized Cramer sharply for his “philosophical beliefs” and for his department’s lack of transparency about whether steps are being taken to combat COVID-19 in the jail population.
He said Cramer is very much “of the opinion that the over-representation of African-Americans in the Eau Claire jail” population is “not law enforcement’s problem.”
Carlson noted that part of the “Rights for All” campaign he is coordinating involves helping typically disenfranchised communities exercise their right to vote. In that regard, he said the campaign’s voting initiative will attempt to ensure that every person in the county jail who is entitled to vote in November is able to do so.
Carlson said that funding that accompanies the high intensity drug trafficking area task force will go overwhelmingly to direct law enforcement efforts, with only small amounts available for diversion or victim assistance programs. He said he was particularly interested in how the funding and the anti-drug operations will look 10 years from now.
“A war ends, right? This war isn’t ending,” he said.
ACLU statement on Kenosha shooting
David Shih, president of the local ACLU chapter, opened the program by quoting from a statement issued by Chris Ott, executive director of the state ACLU, following Sunday night’s shooting of a black man by a Kenosha police officer. A video showed Jacob Blake being shot seven times in the back as he was entering his vehicle.
Ott’s statement said in part: “Let’s not mince words: the police shooting that occurred in Kenosha Sunday evening looks like attempted murder. . . .
“These repeated acts of violence against black people by police have created a clear message: the police do not value the lives of the people in the black and brown communities they serve in the same way that they do their own.”
Shih added that the Chippewa Valley should not regard itself as insulated from the possibility of police violence or violations of civil liberties. He said the local ACLU chapter’s board will remain vigilant to help guard against such possibilities and to offer assistance in such areas as consulting with the police department about the possible creation of a city-wide task force to deal with racism.
NOTE: A recording of this forum is available on the Chippewa Valley CLU’s Facebook page and on its website.
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