Image via Alpha Stock Images

Panelists spoke candidly of hopefulness and fear four days after Renee Good’s killing by ICE

By Monica Gallagher — Volunteer Contributor

Local leaders spoke about due process rights at an information session at Ramsey County Library’s Maplewood, Minn. branch on Sunday, just four days after the controversial killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.

Good’s death sparked massive local and national protests, including on the day of the due process forum. The event had been planned for months, but the 65 in-person and 28 virtual attendees and the presenters emphasized the increased gravity of the topic given the timing. 

The three presenters on due process rights were Erika Schreider, chief of Roseville police, Alicia Ganse, civil rights attorney with ACLU Minnesota and Christine Tucci Osorio, North St. Paul Area Schools superintendent. Susan Johnson, attorney and member of the League of Women Voters, served as moderator. 

What is due process?

After introductions, John asked the panelists several questions, some of which were written by audience members. The first question was “What is due process?” 

According to Ganse, due process is a somewhat complicated set of laws and principles contained in constitutional rights, the fifth and fourteenth amendments and the Minnesota Constitution. The government is required to respect due process before it can take actions that affect a person’s life, liberty or property. 

Due process can be divided into substantive due process, the law itself and procedural due process. Procedural due process consists of notice, the opportunity for citizens to be heard and an unbiased tribunal. 

Asked how due process influences the work of the Roseville Police Department, Schreider said that the Department has completed voluntary reviews of all their policies twice in the past four years, as well as pursued statewide accreditation with an outside entity focusing on due process and equity. 

Responding to a question about how citizens can be involved in policy and procedure of the police department, Schreider said the department cannot involve the public in every aspect of the 850-page policy manual, but does seek citizen input when making major policy changes, such as the use of drones or no longer stopping drivers for minor equipment violations. 

Various committees that include members of the public do first reviews of potential policy changes, Schreider explained, which are later read aloud at public meetings, a three-month process. 

‘Federal unwillingness’

Regarding the police department’s current relationship with ICE agents, Schreider said that they have had no communication with ICE, even the times they have formally invited them to a discussion. 

She added that  the City of Roseville formalized a policy that local government does not get involved with immigration “eight or nine years ago.”

“Get out in the street— we have to act together. We are at a place where we can start thinking about real change.”

Ganse of the ACLU said that her role defending due process consists largely of suing the entities believed to be violating it in some way. 

“We [the ACLU] act as a watchdog,” she said. 

Ganse also referred to a current “federal unwillingness to provide due process” in the case of current ICE activity in the Twin Cities. 

“They’re largely not using warrants, which is a problem,” she said.

Asked how citizens can fight a government that is not listening to the people, Ganse said the current moment does not fit her usual advice to rely on open meetings and data practices that provide opportunity for scrutiny. Rather, she encouraged people to “get out in the street— we have to act together. Keep going to meetings, call representatives, but we have come to a moment where that may not be enough…we are at a place where we can start thinking about real change.” 

She reminded listeners not to open the door to ICE agents unless they have a judicial warrant, signed by a judge, which can be slid under the door. 

North St. Paul community shows out during ‘scary times’

Tucci Osorio commented that in light of ICE activity in Minnesota, including Good’s death, it had been a “difficult week” in which she had “shed tears” serving a district comprised of 76% students of color who speak 75 unique languages. 

She also shared that the families of color she interacted with have expressed deep gratitude for the community’s response to the current moment, including being “amazed by white people on the streets.” 

Replying to a question about keeping protesting students safe, Tucci Osorio stressed prior relationship building and working proactively with key players before the events. She described a 500-student walkout on Friday, Jan. 9 in her district. 

“It was beautiful and it went very well,” she said. 

Discussing community and student protests, Chief Schreider said the police department’s number one priority is always safety. 

“We’ll be there if they need us, but we won’t try to insert ourselves (in the protest activity),” she said.

Asked to provide advice for anti-ICE protesters, Ganse said that to stay within the law, protesters should petition the government, assemble, exercise their freedom of speech, avoid threats of imminent bodily harm, remain on public streets, record activity that concerns the, and refrain from interfering between the person being detained and ICE agent. The Fourth Amendment, she said, prohibits government from unusual force and seizure, but that the government can regulate the time, place and manner of protests without discrimination and biased viewpoints. 

She recommends protesters go with a buddy, have a clear plan and reach out to the ACLU as needed. 

Tucci Osorio described several incidents that students and staff in her district have experienced with ICE agents in the past week, including a staff boxed in by ICE vehicles in the parking lot before she entered the school. A Hmong student was also boxed in by ICE agents in their vehicles, who pointed and laughed as the student entered school. 

An English language-learning (ELL) student was also picked up by ICE, and an ICE observer who was following ICE who found himself led to his own home by ICE vehicles, according to Tucci Osorio. Later that evening, she said the ICE vehicles drove pointedly by the observer’s parents’ home. 

Several of her staff have already quit or not come to school, citing fear of ICE intimidation. Tucci Osorio also described robust community organizing to support people of color, including staff calling families to ask what they need while they shelter at home, parents helping monitor buses, buses changing routes and more. 

“It’s just a really scary time right now,” she said. 

As school district leaders determine more ways the community can further support families of color in her district, she plans to share those ideas with the public.

‘Document, observe, report.’

Toward the end of the meeting, panelists shared closing thoughts on the concept of due process with a still-attentive audience. 

Chief Schreider expressed a hope that the Roseville Police Department can retain the improved community trust it has worked hard to earn over the past several years, but she also expressed fear that local police may lose ground given the ways people sometimes perceive other enforcement agencies in the same category as local police. 

“Police officers are required to intervene with peers, but these are different times with different levels of government,” she said.

In her closing statement, Superintendent Tuccio Osorio said she finds hope in the way the communities of color in her district are feeling supported by regular people. 

Granse of the ACLU cited hopefulness when she sees that “people plan to keep tasking risks…it’s scary but important. Keep bringing groceries, going to observer training, accompanying kids to school. Document, observe, report to ACLU.”

Correction: The name of the event’s moderator is Susan Johnson, not Susan John. This updated version of this story reflects this correction.