Melvin Carter on Police and Equitable Communities in St. Paul
Channel: Fire Wally
Date: 2017-10-29

Melvin Carter III, St. Paul Mayoral Candidate, addresses a group of volunteers in response to an attack mailer sent out by the St. Paul Police Federation. Brief introduction by Senator Al Franken (D-MN). 

Partial Transcript:

When everyday civic encounters like passing a police officer on the street or applying for a business permit can feel hostile to half of our city's population, that's a problem for all of us. We won't build a better Saint Paul by doubling down on the same old strategies and divisions that got here in the first place - we need a new way. Building a city that works for all of us means rejecting an underlying culture of policing, of education, of economic development that rewards sameness and conformity while banishing those who are different to the sidelines. And it means replacing that culture with one that builds our city by ensuring that we can all bring our best and fullest selves, our best and fullest contributions, to crafting its future together. It means re-imagining the relationship not only between our police and our neighborhoods but between city hall and our entire community. 

We saw this week that there are still those who benefit from and will do everything they can to maintain the status quo, and this won't be the last time. But we won't fight back, we fight forward. We've got 10 days until election day and a whole lot more work to do after the polls close, but we're not fighting against the police union or the chamber of commerce or even against the other candidates. We're fighting for a new way of doing business at city hall, for a stronger future for our children, for neighborhoods that are safe not because they are full of police but because they are full of hope and opportunity and we ain't gonna let nobody turn us away.