C.R. police and leaders are not on same page

I was saddened and angered when I read David Harris' March 4 letter, “Do police stop everyone taking photos?” He was stopped by police when he took photos near the grand reopening of the Iowa Theatre Building.

He wrote that two officers stopped and detained him as he was walking back to his downtown apartment. He said that they questioned him about what he was doing, wondering if he might be taking pictures of Wells Fargo Bank, perhaps planning a break-in.

What Harris was doing is exactly what Cedar Rapids leaders say they want people to do: live in downtown and engage in downtown activities and celebrate the return of attractions there. He is also the demographic that those same leaders tell us we need in this community: bright, young, upwardly mobile, well educated and skilled. He is also, in his words, “a male person of color.”

Our elected leaders need to quickly get answers to some hard questions about this incident. Apparently, there is an embarrassing, mile-wide chasm between what we say and what we do in Cedar Rapids. After all, it is OK to take photos of a public celebration and renovated buildings in our once-flooded downtown. Perhaps most important, we won't attract and retain our best and brightest using tactics of intimidation and insulting supposition.

Terry Murrin

Cedar Rapids