Minneapolis (MN) police officer Christopher Guelcher apparently thinks that people who litter or urinate in public should be shot to death

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune published one of the most vile op-eds I’ve ever seen in my entire life. The op-ed was written by Christopher Guelcher, a police officer with the Minneapolis, Minnesota police department.

In his op-ed, which he wrote in response to recent police killings in numerous cities across the country, Guelcher strongly implied that he thinks that people who have committed even minor crimes, such as public urination and littering, should be shot to death by police and that police officers should shoot anybody who they see is committing a crime:

Could this be the future of today’s demands for reform and change? Would people be happy and fully support the federal, state or even local governments if they passed laws restricting the police from proactively enforcing low-level misdemeanor crimes committed in an officer’s presence, such as littering or public urination, because the crime does not warrant the possibility of police use of force and possibly death?

People like Christopher Guelcher are the reason why real reform of the police and criminal justice systems in this country are badly needed. Far too many police officers think that their badge gives them a right to hunt and kill people, especially black people, even for minor offenses like pissing in public and throwing trash on the ground in a public place, when, in reality, their badge doesn’t give them that right.

I found Guelcher’s remarks to be downright vile, and he owes the people of Minneapolis an apology and a resignation from the police force.

Here’s my audio blog about Guelcher’s op-ed. Please note that my attempt at speaking in a Minnesota accent sucked badly.

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Corporate media launches racist attack against Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges because she pointed at black guy

KSTP-TV, the Hubbard Broadcasting-owned ABC affiliate in Minneapolis, Minnesota, ran a racist smear piece against Minneapolis, Minnesota Mayor Betsy Hodges on one of their local newscasts earlier this week because she was filmed pointing at Navell Gordon, a black community activist affiliated with a group called Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, during a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort in Minneapolis for the this year’s November elections.

KSTP has been the subject of frequent criticism since they ran that racist piece, in fact, the Twitter hashtag #pointergate has been trending non-stop on Twitter since not long after KSTP aired and published the piece. KSTP deserves to be criticized over this, in my opinion. This smear attack against Hodges is clearly racist, since KSTP wouldn’t have aired such a piece if the person she was pointing at was a white person like me.

KSTP responded to the criticism over their racist piece by claiming that they aired and published the piece because the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) asked them to do so. Given that most police officers in this country are more interested in hunting down black people than actually protecting and serving their communities these days, it’s even worse that KSTP admitted to being a public relations shop for the police department of Minnesota’s largest city.

It’s bad enough that there are tons of right-wing Republican politicians who launch Willie Horton-style attacks against Democratic candidates for public office. It’s even worse that the corporate media is doing the Willie Horton-style attacks against Democratic elected officials themselves. These kind of pieces by the corporate media do nothing but stir up racial tensions in this country.

Betsy Hodges is not a gangbanger, and for KSTP to effectively claim that she is amounts to nothing more than a racist attack against her. It’s about damn time that the corporate media got called out on their race-baiting and right-wing bias in a big way!