Green Party Candidate
for Mayor of St. Paul
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Green Party Candidate |
For Immediate Release September 7, 2005
Elizabeth Dickinson's Statement on Public Safety St. Paul, MN – Wednesday, September 7, 2005 – Green Party mayoral candidate Elizabeth Dickinson today visited the Margaret Recreation Center on St. Paul's East Side; with the center's rundown former playground as a backdrop, she offered the following. I'm issuing this statement at the Margaret rec center, a place that has been without a playground for some time, although it is in an area of the East Side that urgently needs a safe place for kids and parents to spend quality time. As Police Chief Harrington recognized in a recent editorial, and has been backed up by my conversations with scores of citizens, including current and retired police officers — although they might not use this phrase — there needs to be a more holistic approach to crime. Crime is an endpoint and there are places of intervention – places where we can slow down and stop crime in its tracks, if we only know where to look and we put the money and time resources in those places. But to do this, we need not just a unified strategy but a shared commitment to addressing the factors that create crime. St. Paul has seen an increase in serious crime of over 6% for the first half of this year. Do we need to put more officers on the street? Of course. But we can not solve the problem only through those means — that's like trying to cure heart disease by building more cemeteries. 80% of those incarcerated in our prison system witnessed domestic violence as children, and become perpetrators or victims of domestic violence. Many of those incarcerated are simultaneously guilty of drug related and/or gang related activity. And the single largest category of calls to the St. Paul police are domestic violence calls. We can not put a police officer in every home. What can a mayor do? First, let's look at domestic violence. As a mayor I will support the reauthorization of the federal Violence Against Women Act which is about to expire. This act is a template to support policies which reinforce that domestic violence is a crime and should be treated as such. Second, to address other crimes including domestic violence, gangs and drug activity I will work with community councils to expand block clubs into every area of the city and work with the police department to ensure a regular presence of police officers at the block clubs. Police need neighborhood block clubs to be the eyes and ears of the police — to notify them of any suspicious activity — whether it's graffiti, which may indicate increased gang activity, or unusual comings or goings at odd hours of the night, which may indicate drug or gang activity, or screaming from a nearby home, which may indicate domestic violence. Block clubs also need the police. Block clubs need to develop ongoing relationships with specific police officers so they know specifically who they can call. As a society, we encourage zero tolerance of crime through informal and formal community education — when neighbors know not only that they have the right to report suspicious activity when it relates to people they may not know, but they have a duty to report domestic violence even if it occurs with people they do know. Domestic violence is not a private family matter. Domestic violence affects all of society and must be recognized as a crime. And since many women withdraw charges against their batterers, we must offer the support of independent witnesses in court to ensure that warranted charges stick. As mayor I will aggressively look for continuing funding to expand on the $389,000 recently received from the U.S. Department of Justice to combat domestic violence so when it runs out in two years, we will have replacement funds to continue fighting domestic violence. I will support the safety and accountability audit to enhance communication among all stakeholders, including battered women's shelters, city and county attorneys, probation, judges, healthworkers and the women themselves. We must increase protection orders, since battering tends to be a pattern and not an individual event. We must educate teachers, students, mentors, and parks and recreation centers to recognize symptoms of battering, since 40–60% of men who batter women also batter children, and over 25% of domestic homicide victims are children. And as noted in the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights report, special attention needs to be paid to immigrant women, not because they are more likely to be battered than other groups, but because they have particular language and cultural barriers to accessing services likely to protect them. We must hire more trustworthy, bilingual interpreters at shelters and emergency rooms so immigrant women know there is a law against beating and laws to prevent your children being taken away or to prevent landlords from evicting domestic violence victims. Third, I will work with the community councils and recreation centers to get more VISTA and Americorps workers and volunteers into rec centers and libraries to start innovative programming. Vista and Americorps workers are an effective, lower cost way to help overworked staff in our rec centers. Additionally, besides traditional programming of sports and recreational activities, we need to develop programs to teach non-violent communication skills to parents and leaders in the community to encourage awareness that there are alternatives. Fourth, I will work with the SPPD gang unit to help them establish ongoing relationships with schools and rec centers to combat the formation of gangs. The community — especially kids — need to see police outside of traditional roles so they don't only perceive the police as the people who take people they know away from the community. I strongly support the establishment of police athletic and activities leagues so kids see alternatives to joining gangs and see police as trusted members of the community. Finally, there is no substitute for full funding of parks and recreation centers and libraries. Randy Kelly's budget only increases the budget for parks and rec centers by 2.2%, which is the equivalent of flat funding, accounting for inflation. At a coffee shop one woman told me that as a child her main source of emotional support had been her local rec center, but due to declining hours, the same opportunity was not open to her son. Rec centers should not be closed on weekends — they should be open late on Friday and Saturday nights so kids have a place to go that is not a street corner. As I have mentioned in previous speeches, we need to ask for more financial support from our corporations like Xcel, whether it's through Community Benefit Agreements or through increased franchise fees to support the parks and recreation centers or through direct donations to parks and rec centers. But finally, we must ask ourselves: Do we understand that investments in keeping women and kids safe pays dividends of reduced crime, down both now, and in the future — so today's kids don't become victims or perpetrators of domestic violence, gangs and drugs? Do we understand that public investments in parks and rec centers and replacing playgrounds like the one here at the Margaret rec center give kids and parents not just a place to enjoy themselves — although that is incredibly important in this stressful world — but they also may be a lifeline — the one place a kid or parent may go to that encourages a sense of self-esteem, a sense that they are valued by the community simply because the community has given them a safe place to express their energy? In the end, if we do care, do we care enough to pay higher taxes now? Or do we prefer to pay a higher price down the line? Contact Elizabeth Dickinson, (651) 235-1208 (cell) Mary Petrie, Campaign Manager, (651) 226-3527 (cell) Christopher Childs, Communications Coordinator, (651) 312-1216 Elizabeth Dickinson for Mayor 384 Hall Avenue St. Paul, MN 55107
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Click here to read the pre-event press release.
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