A motorcyclist enjoying his classic Harley-Davidson Knucklehead and minding his own business
ST. Paul, Minnesota - 2/24/2015
A minority group claims its members are being unfairly profiled, stopped by police for no valid reason, and it’s demanding a bill to prevent it.
The legislation, put before the Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee Monday by Sen. David Osmek, R-Mound, requires Minnesota’s Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training to develop a statewide policy to eliminate motorcyclist profiling, including methods to identify and avoid it. It also requires every law enforcement agency in the state to have “a written anti-motorcycle profiling policy.”
In testimony, several members of Minnesota motorcycle clubs laid out a litany of their own experiences: Officers they believed had pulled them over on trumped-up pretenses questioned them about who they were and why they were in their community and, in some cases, photographed their tattoos and patches.
“It’s my constitutional right to be in a motorcycle club,” said Jim Jahnke of Rochester, the national vice president of the Sons of Silence Motorcycle Club.
“I am not a criminal. … I think law enforcement is ill-educated,” said Jahnke’s wife, Audrey Jahnke.
After Frank Ernst of Chanhassen, representing
American Bikers for Awareness Training and Education of Minnesota, described an instance in which he said he was pulled over by an officer who claimed he hadn’t seen Ernst’s protective eye wear, which he was wearing, Senate finance Chair Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, asked if Ernst had filed any complaint with the agency in question.
Ernst said he hadn’t but that he would in the future.
Jim Franklin, executive director of the Minnesota Sheriff’s Association, along with a representative of the Minnesota State Patrol both testified they had not found evidence of a single complaint filed against law enforcement agencies concerning profiling motorcyclists.
The not-so-subtle implication: That might be a good place to start.
Mimicking the testimony of Nathan Gove, executive director of the officer standards and training board, Franklin said current statutes and guidelines already required impartiality as well as arrests based on “reasonable suspicion and probable cause.”
“This (legislation) is unnecessary because of existing law,” Franklin said, before noting he himself rode horses, often had crap on his boots — but looked forward to having discussions with people to help them understand that cowboys weren’t so bad.
He suggested motorcyclists do the same.
