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Restorative Justice

There are two truths to this moment in Minneapolis:

We need police and we need real policing reform.

 

We cannot keep our city safe and transform policing by defunding or abolishing the police.

Unlike others, Alicia Gibson has a credible plan.

  1. ​​Follow the Roadmap

  2. Remove the Roadblock

  3. Restore Community

Step1:
Roadmap

FOLLOW THE ROADMAP: Attorney General Keith Ellison and Commissioner John Harrington have already created a comprehensive roadmap for policing reform for the state of Minnesota from the state, county, tribal, and municipal levels. Released just weeks before the COVID-19 global pandemic would alter our lives and create a crisis of historic proportions, it was ignored. ​

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This road map was created by: 

  • criminal justice reform EXPERTS,

  • law enforcement PROFESSIONALS,

  • and VICTIMS of police brutality.

Step 2:
Roadblock

REMOVE THE ROADBLOCK: Other than political will power, the real roadblock to reform is our police union contract. The proposed plan to rename our police department and put it under the management of city council does NOTHING to address this problem. If the union continues to refuse community policing and accountability reform, we must sue them.

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THE CINCINNATI MODEL

Cincinnati sued their police department and a court overturned their union contract. The Justice Department then oversaw implementation of the new contract for 6 years, which resulted in a 70% decrease in the use of police force as well as a decrease in crime.

Step 3:
Restore

RESTORE COMMUNITY: Current plans for reform have left most of us out. Everyone must be empowered as partners in forging a new path forward. We need precinct-by-precinct reconciliation processes for truth telling, racial reckoning, and ground-up community solution-making across linguistic, cultural, and religious differences. We must have citywide, meaningful engagement across our diverse communities about safety, policing, healing, and transformation FIRST -- this is how we restore community.

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RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Native wisdom teaches a different way of repairing harm that focuses on victims, relationships, and accountability. In the broadest sense restorative justice is philosophy for creating new paradigms to transform our public safety that insists on restoring the humanity of all members of the community. As a practical approach it offers an alternative path inside the traditional criminal justice model. Prosecutors, victim advocates, and public defenders all want to grow our restorative justice capacity. 

Alicia Gibson's Public Safety Vision

​Prevention and Peacemaking

  • Robust and adequately funded 211-311-411-911 system

  • Neighborhood restorative justice programs create alternate diversion programs to restore relationships when harm occurs

  • Publicly funded community-based mentorship, violence interruption, and peacebuilding programs create grassroots cultural transformation

  • Gun violence prevention addresses larger cultural conditions of violence

  • Opportunities for deep conversation across differences helps resolve the root causes of racial discrimination

Transform Policing​

  • Investment mindset re-shapes our police department to better reflect our vision and values with robust co-responder programs and sophisticated use of data trends that identifies a) problem officers and b) public safety trends early

  • Strengthened police accountability removes problem officers and restores trust

  • Precinct by precinct truth and reconciliation commissions and permanent restorative processes between police and community allows for historic reckoning and reconciliation

  • Rebuilt MPD with officers from our communities creates relationship-driven accountabilty and trust

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