August 27-28, 2020

A Duluth police sergeant shares a story on the local police Union Facebook account about how he nearly shot an unarmed Black man.

The sergeant had a gun. He did not know if the other person did or not. But his fear was entirely for himself, and worry about what will happen if he shoots an unarmed Black person. The post is intended to garner sympathy for the officer and others like him who go into situations not knowing what to expect. It goes viral and is shared on multiple news sites. Chief Tusken defended his sharing of the post. The Chief again defended his department and officers, insisting that they are the ones who live in danger. He lamented that people are mean and disrespectful to them now.

Impact: The post from the sergeant is clearly racially biased. That police view this as a sympathetic story for them; a look into their day to day lives tells us much about the mentality of police, and their ignorance of how those they are interacting with view these incidents. It is a clearly triggering story for many in the community, some of whom are able to speak out about what a misstep it is in an attempt to move forward to work with people across the community. 

The Chief is clearly not seeing how this post and interview will come across to people who are not openly supportive of police; a group he claims to care about. It is completely tone deaf, and focused on his own department and their feelings, without acknowledging the reality that people in this community face every day who are afraid of police involvement. The racism and hate that many of them experience every day from this community is ignored, while the experience of police is centered as the most important.