By Mike Matejka
The Bloomington City Council, Bloomington Police Department, West Bloomington Housing Collaborative and Mid-Central Community Action all need commendation for establishing a community house on West Jefferson Street. There’s been much discussion on this issue with the majority of neighbors supportive.
“Community Policing” is one of those elusive terms. Everyone is in favor of it, but how do you make it happen? Is it officers out of their squad cars, walking the sidewalk? Is it officers actually living in the neighborhood? Is it a more diverse police force? Hopefully, this community house will allow neighbors to speak freely with police, build personal relationships and work together for a safer neighborhood.
The Black Lives Matter group objected to this effort. They were voicing an opinion that low-income neighborhoods are already over-policed and individuals feel harassed.
Black Lives Matter did a very effective job in bringing forth people who felt they were profiled or targeted by police. Those are uncomfortable stories, I’m sure they are very uncomfortable for our uniformed services. We have to hear those stories and recognize the legitimate concerns they represent.
At the same time, we need a dialogue. Recently I told Bloomington Police Chief Brandon Heffner that he deserves a medal for patience. He went and listened to the concerns Black Lives Matter raised, yet that group would not allow him to respond. That’s wrong. If we are going to truly build a west side centered effort, everyone needs to listen well, and that includes not only asking the police to listen, but also being willing to hear them.
Is there racism and profiling in our society? There certainly is. Often the blame is laid on “one bad apple” in a police department. It runs deeper than that. Changing racism and other discrimination requires all of us, not just the police, to change our culture. We have to learn to listen and understand that discrimination is more than individual, it is also systematic. Who gets a job, a quality education and access to finance are all still intertwined with discrimination.
We ask a lot of our public services – police officers, school teachers, fire fighters. We expect them to be the best of the best and to reflect our highest values. If a west-side community house is going to succeed, it’s not just the police department’s responsibility – it is all of us. If a community house helps build a safer Bloomington, then all of us will gain.
Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Normal. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.
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