Opinion: How white prosecutors can carry out Mary Moriarty’s new policy

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Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has issued a policy requiring assistant county attorneys to take race into account in their decisions. I served on the Minnesota Supreme Court task force on racial bias in the judicial system and its follow-up committees for 20 years. Working in the criminal courts for 36 years, I have known a lot of prosecutors. Mostly white ones. They may be wondering how to carry out Moriarty’s policy. I have three suggestions for them.

1) Take a look at yourself. Take an online test for unconscious bias, then think about situations.

Say a Black teenager knocks down an elderly white woman and steals her purse. Does this feel any different to you than if a white kid did it? It does to me — I’m white, and I grew up in a racist world, so I think, “She could’ve been my grandmother!” more strongly if the offender is Black. This thought may not become harmful if you think about it before you prosecute. It’s the lawyers who say “I’m not racist” who do the most damage. I want to ask them: Where were you raised? On the moon? And, yes, prosecute the Black purse-snatcher. But think twice before you throw the book at him.

2) Don’t believe everything you hear. It’s easy for a police officer to tell you, “This kid is a violent gang member.” But is this true? Law enforcement gang identifiers have received lots of good criticism. Some of them say if you’re in a photo with a gang member, you are a gang member, too.

Well, that might just be his cousin. He might not even know the guy. Or, the officer tells you, “We think he did three more of these crimes.” Terrible. If true. Get the evidence and prove it. Rumors don’t count.

3) Support good policing. I live in Minneapolis. Most of the officers here are terrific people. I put my life in their hands every time I leave the house. But there have been several serious studies showing entrenched, long-standing patterns of racist law enforcement in Minneapolis.

You will see many cases where an arrest was made fair and square. But you will see some that look fishy — was this car stopped by racial profiling? Did that man really consent to be searched? You know some officers are liars — there is a list of officers who can’t be called to testify in court. Would they lie to you? Sure. But you are not working for them. You are working for all of us. Part of your job is to protect people of color from bad policing.

This can’t be easy. We do want you to be “ministers of justice.” That means filing charges where the policing was on the up and up and protecting the public from accusations tainted by racial bias. And thank you for doing this difficult work.

John Stuart, a retired lawyer, served as the state public defender, supervising all public defense services in Minnesota, from 1990 to 2014.