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MPD lieutenant gets letter of reprimand for forwarding racist email 11 years ago [1]
['Deena Winter', 'More From Author', '- May']
Date: 2023-05
A Minneapolis police lieutenant was recently disciplined with a letter of reprimand — the lowest level of discipline meted out by the department — for forwarding a racist email 11 years ago.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara concurred with a police conduct review panel that found merit to the allegation that Lt. Aimee Linson violated MPD’s ethics code and communications policy, which bans employees from transmitting, accessing or storing material that’s offensive, such as racial slurs.
The case dates back to 2012, when Linson, a sergeant at the time, forwarded a chain email to several other MPD employees with the subject line “Only in the Ghetto” and 16 photos, seven of which portrayed Black people in a negative light. Most of the photo labels indicated they were taken from a website called ReallyGhetto.com.
An MPD spokesman said the incident came up recently in connection with the state Department of Human Rights investigation related to a pattern and practice of racist policing. The reprimand comes amid a federal investigation of MPD for racist policing, which is ongoing even as the department begins to implement an agreement with the state human rights department.
Linson told investigators she didn’t remember sending the email — which isn’t surprising given it was 10 years before she was interviewed by Internal Affairs, where in the intervening years she became an investigator.
O’Hara wrote in a letter to Linson that the department can’t afford to lose legitimacy with the people it serves. But he noted that in the decade since the incident, there’s no evidence of similar conduct by Linson, who hasn’t been disciplined in 25 years with the force. At least a half dozen misconduct complaints have been lodged against her, but only one has been sustained.
Meanwhile, Linson has advanced through the ranks to lieutenant and has served as a crisis negotiator, supervisor of the field training program and a member of the mounted patrol. She has also received a merit award from the chief.
O’Hara’s letter indicates Linson expressed remorse for the incident, and has not had any other incidents of bias or discrimination in the past decade. He noted that most crimes have a three-year statute of limitations, except the most serious, like murder, which has a 10-year statute of limitations.
Still, he concluded coaching was not an acceptable consequence for behavior that he said undermines public trust.
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[1] Url:
https://minnesotareformer.com/briefs/mpd-lieutenant-gets-letter-of-reprimand-for-forwarding-racist-email-11-years-ago/
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