Dear Council Members and Mayor Frey,
I attended a couple of the MPD’s Use of Force community engagement sessions this week. One of the comments I made was that the MPD should adopt a policy describing when torture — I specifically mentioned waterboarding and the use of electricity — will be permitted. I tried to say that with a straight face. Of course, such a policy would be absurd! Why? Well, one reason might be that Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions prohibits the use of torture in warfare against our enemies. Why would we permit such a tactic to be used against our own citizens?
I then pointed out that, interestingly, a 1925 protocol to the Geneva Conventions — the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare — outlaws the use of tear gas in warfare. The United States, of course, was a little late to the table on that protocol, which took effect in 1928. We didn’t ratify it until 1975.
Our domestic government entities and our local police departments, including the MPD, justify using tear gas or chemical agents by calling it a “riot-control” or a “crowd-control” tactic. As if pinning a lipstick-on-a-pig label on such a tactic makes it legitimate.
I say, shame on the MDHR for assuming this tactic will continue and only trying to regulate its use by requiring Chief of Police approval. Shame on the City Attorney’s Office for not adopting a ridiculously low-bar requirement that MPD policing tactics will be consistent with the Geneva Conventions. And shame on any Minneapolis elected officials who approve of using a tactic on the streets of Minneapolis against our own people when its use against our enemies in a war would be illegal and violate a basic norm of a civilized society.
Yours,
Chuck Turchick
Ward 6
P.S. Had you realized you are representatives of constituents and made the MDHR settlement agreement public before you voted on it, maybe this is one of the comments you would have heard.
