Minneapolis spokesman., 1963-07-04
Maturity And Hard
Headedness Needed
In This Crisis

Minneapolis Police Chief Pat Walling last week
stated that police officers are reluctant to take en-
forcement action because they afraid they will
be accused of prejudice :" He was referring to
difficulties encountered by police on the North Side
following incidents of name-calling by police and
the black -jacking of Negro citizen.
This is good example of part of the problem
which we have said editorialy calls for better
screening and better training of police They should
not be reluctant to make proper arrests because of
fear they will be accused of prejudice Properly
trained and properly informed policemen know that
the law-abidng community viii back them up. They
know also that the hoodlum and criminal elements
will take advantage of every angle offered to them,
including the race prejudice" angle.
We all know that the neighborhood which Is
giving the police great deal of trouble Is a very
very tough neighborhood, frequented by some very
very tough underworld characters, many of them
Negro. The is also inhabited by honest upright
law abiding citizens, whose rights have to be
spected and whose safety has to be protected 1t is
not easy police assignment. By the same token,
1t is the kind of assignment for which we maintain
police force.
Mr.. Walling said IF laws are violated, it will
make no difference whether the volators are white
Negroes" Why should he have to say that? Has
anybody argued that it should be otherwise? It
to that this is the sort of hysterica state
ment that is likely to confuse and aggravate stu
alton that is already bad-a situation incidentally
that arose out of police action.
Mr.. Walling referred to the dynamite blasts at
the homes of the two suspended officers In terms
that suggest he has knowledge that they are re-
lated to Negro indignation at mistreatment by po-
lice Are they related? Chief Walling should If he
has such knowledge, make it known. If he has not
then he should be careful about casting such aspers
ions because they certainly not likely to i'm
prove the situation 1t might possibly turn out that
the dynamtings were perpetrated by Negroes, but
as this is written the best police brains and the best
minds in the human relations field think that they
were not We hope that the police have the talent
know-how and persistence to get at the facts in
this case, first because it is very important that
such atrocious crime be solved and the offenders
punished; second because suspect that the facts
themselves may be very interesting indeed.
Finally Mr.. Walling has again taken out after
Raymond Wells, the victim in the beating. Why?
MIR. Wells has been tried in proper court Of law
on the charges brought by police. He has accepted
the judgment of the court And he has since cooper
ated with the police department and Chief Walling
In dealing with the dangerous tensions that have
followed the beating What else does Chief Walling
want? Another trial, on the radio, with the Chief
acting as judge and jury? This is what the Chiefs
public remarks last week amounted to. He said
There would have been no incident if Wells had not
insisted upon interfering himself into a situation
that was of his" This version of the mat
ter is not what the court evidence shows Nor is it
the judgment Of the court. 1t is nothing more than
the baseless and unjusfed judgment of the Chief of
Police What is the purpose of this. but to make
trouble and cast aspersions Mr.. Wells?
What need in facing our human relations
problems here today is calm judgment not Mysteries
hard-headedness not emotonalism; maturity and
understanding, not Ito borrow Chief Wallings own
description of police atitudes) bitterness
Pat Walling has been good, competent police
chief aware of the many ramificatons Of policing
metropolitan area. 1t is unfortunate that in reaction
to the heat" which has been put on him and his
officers (many Of whom excellent officers and
gentlemen) that Pat" should have made the public
statements Of last week which while reassuring his
men, added fire to a situation which already has
developed more heat than light.