Misdemeanor laws unfairly target people of color, a new documentary argues

The deaths of four Black men at the hands of police — Eric Garner in New York; Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.; Freddie Gray in Baltimore, and George Floyd in Minneapolis — began over nonviolent allegations.

That point is highlighted in the opening segments of a new 35-minute documentary, shown in the Twin Cities on Wednesday, that makes the case that people of color long have been unjustly targeted by law enforcement and court systems, starting with misdemeanor arrests that can lead to fatal consequences.

The film, "Racially Charged: America's Misdemeanor Problem," includes footage of assaults by police and interviews with people who were arrested, mostly people of color, for minor offenses that would change their lives.

Following the film presentation was a panel discussion that included Nadine Graves, a former Hennepin County public defender and adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and Mary Moriarty, former chief public defender for Hennepin County.

"These misdemeanors can have long-term effects on people's lives," Graves said, with the result being a loss of housing and jobs. Moriarty said that misdemeanor laws give police too much discretion and often lead to numerous "collateral consequences."

Featured in the film was Chris Lollie, a Twin Cities man who has since moved to Georgia, who was tasered and arrested by St. Paul police in 2014 on misdemeanor charges for sitting in a private area of a St. Paul skyway while waiting to pick up his children from day care.

The charges were dropped and the city of St. Paul paid him $100,000 in 2016 to settle the lawsuit he filed.

The film, which can be viewed on YouTube or Vimeo, is directed by Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films. It was inspired by the book "Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal," by Harvard law Prof. Alexandra Natapoff.

The film states that 13 million people are charged with misdemeanors every year in the United States, and that Blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately targeted.

Academics interviewed in the film contend that misdemeanor laws proliferated after the Civil War, particularly in the South where white supremacist governments used them after the end of slavery to control Black people. Such laws made it a crime to direct an insulting gesture at someone or outlawed interracial sex.

The film contends that misdemeanor laws remain on the books today that give police great discretion in how people are treated and allow officers to use violent tactics in making arrests.

Misdemeanor charges in Minnesota include petty theft, simple assault, disorderly conduct, trespassing, shoplifting, vandalism and reckless driving.

She said, for example, that people are arrested for public urination, sometimes because they are unsheltered and don't have facilities available to them. The solution, she said, is more public toilets.

Moriarty also noted racial disparities in reports made to police, such as downtown businesses that complain about groups of Black youth in the street but don't object to groups of white youths.