The presentation to law enforcement officers had an eye-opening title: “Remorse to Redemption: Lessons Learned.”
Part of the talk was to be given by Kim Potter, a white former Minneapolis-area police officer who was convicted of manslaughter in the high-profile killing of Daunte Wright, an unarmed Black driver, during a traffic stop in 2021. Ms. Potter served 16 months in prison and testified that she had mistaken her handgun for a Taser when she fatally shot Mr. Wright, who was 20.
But Ms. Potter’s message — on the ramifications of using force and ways to avoid it — will not be received by officers working for the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis oversight agency. In an abrupt turnaround, the agency’s leadership canceled Ms. Potter’s training last week amid media inquiries about her presentation, which was set to take place at a symposium in Vancouver on Sept. 23. The Seattle Times, which first reported on the matter, had raised questions about Ms. Potter’s involvement.
The decision to bring in Ms. Potter was made by “well-meaning” officers in the agency’s leadership “who were looking to learn from someone’s mistakes,” David Postman, the body’s board chair, said.
“But this decision was made without the conversation that needs to happen around issues like this,” said Mr. Postman, who last week took part in a move to rescind Ms. Potter’s invitation to speak before the agency, which includes about 100 officers.
The debate over her address underscored two starkly different perspectives on the treatment of police officers after wrongdoing. One view is to allow remorseful police officers to use their experiences to teach others. The other is that they are the wrong messengers and should be excluded from public discussion because of the suffering they can evoke.
Katie Wright, the mother of Daunte Wright, said that she felt as if she had been “punched in the stomach” when she first heard of plans to feature Ms. Potter in the presentation in Washington.
Ms. Potter, she added, was not showing remorse and was “only opening up the wound and hurting our family again.”
But for Minnesota’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, the cancellation of Ms. Potter’s talk is a missed opportunity.
“The loss of a child under the circumstances in which Daunte Wright died is deeply painful, and there is just really no way to help anyone understand how bad it feels,” said Mr. Ellison, whose office took over the prosecution of Ms. Potter’s case.
Mr. Ellison continued: “At the same time, it is absolutely true that we have to heal. And Kim Potter is doing something courageous and something that we need more people to do. If we do not, we relegate ourselves to repeat the pain and the sorrow, and we are locked into this sort of cycle forever.”
Mr. Wright’s death in April 2021 set off significant protest in Minnesota. Heightening the tension was that the killing occurred during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white former Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, a Black man whose death prompted global demonstrations against police violence.
Released in April 2023, Ms. Potter has formed an unusual partnership: telling her story as a cautionary tale in use-of-force training with Imran Ali, a former Minnesota prosecutor who originally charged her.
Mr. Ali now works as a police consultant. He advises officers on changes in use-of-force laws and decision-making — with an eye, he said, on helping to bridge the divide between distressed communities and law enforcement.
Mr. Ali said that his remarks would have formed the bulk of the presentation to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board’s officers and that the idea to work with Ms. Potter was his. Her willingness to participate was courageous, he said, adding: “With Kim, we have a message of resilience and hope.”
Mr. Ali said that he and Ms. Potter had given less than a handful of presentations together. For the trip to Washington, her flight and hotel would have been paid for, and she would have received a small stipend.
Ms. Wright said that nobody should be profiting in any way off her son, particularly not the officer who caused his death.
“There are other officers who can do training on this, and there are professors who can do it,” she said. The police “can talk to me about it. I can tell you what the use of force does to a family. Why not ask me to come and speak and tell these police officers why you must think before using use of force, and what can happen when you mistake your Taser?”
Mr. Postman, the agency’s board chairman, said that the decision to cancel Ms. Potter’s presentation was made by him, along with the agency’s director and its head of enforcement, with input from other officials.
Mr. Postman, who previously worked at The Seattle Times, said that he had not been aware of the presentation until recently and that he had to search for Ms. Potter’s name on the internet to remind himself of her role in the killing.
Although Mr. Ellison made valid points about healing and about learning from those who have done wrong, Mr. Postman said, Ms. Wright deserved empathy.
“I would like to talk to her, actually,” he said. “We can’t ignore the victims here and the continuing struggle around the country with shootings and the role race plays in them. That’s hugely important.”
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