sizeable rant! forewarned is forearmed. apologies to
those with short attention spans.
i don't think that anyone is suggesting, certainly not
me, that chief olson is to blame for all the problems
with police, drug interdiction on the street, etc.
that would only play into the chief's martyr complex.
examine the statements he has made to the press over
the last year or two as i have and you will see what i
refer to.
the chief is said to have an inscribed stone on his
desk saying "attitude is everything". well, what i
continually hear from the chief and shills like john
delmonico is how hard it is to be a cop, how
beleagured they are, and how society dumps all their
problems on them and expects them to clean up the
mess. all true to a degree perhaps and as a society we
might look at the idea that we continually look for
the easy way out, i.e.; call the cops, take a pill,
don't risk anything, etc. but all beside the point.
the media is not much better in making excuses.
witness the sidebar in sunday's strib about new and
improved police training. they want to keep casting
this through the refraction of mental illness.
immaterial!
the police of this city have difficulty controlling
their impulses irrespective of who they deal with, be
that mentally ill people or simple folks asking simple
questions requiring simple answers of simple info
entitled to them under the freedom of information act.
mentally ill people unfortunately have poorer coping
skills in the throes of their particular madnesses
than supposed able minded people.
i wonder sometimes about able minded people when i
look at the state of the world and our city and
consider the fact that able minded people elected
these people and put up with their inability to govern
effectively and their proclivity to make excuses for
themselves and shifting responsibility to another
level of government, another function of society,
another.......
no, chief olson is responsible for the attitude of his
department, the attitude that makes these guys look
more like a lynch mob than a professional police
force.
there's that old saying that "?@! flows downstream."
that is true in organizations as well. you don't
change the performance of a unit most times by getting
rid of the janitor. You don't cut down a tree by
starting at the base of the trunk. you lop off the top
and work your way down the tree.
obviously, not reappointing the chief will not cure
all the ills of the department but it might be a
start. other reappointments we might consider are
those of our mayor and city councillors who signed off
on olson's appointment to begin with. i mean here is a
guy who has left a trail of clues as to his nature and
attitude that a four year old could follow. check out
his record. don't take my word for it. and know that
if i can do it with the limited resources i posess,
then our mayor and council could have done the same.
or possibly they just liked what they saw and then it
calls into contention their lack of sound judgement,
something which has been the subject of much debate
already.
a city gets the police they deserve. mpls. deserves
better and we have a right to demand as much from
those charged with providing it.
we might take a close look at what we want, what we
have, and how we get there from here. this might
include an independent commission that reviews past
cases, looks at new candidates for chief along with
the mayor, considers new directions and ideas coming
from the community at large on a departmental level
rather than a precinct level.
we need to eliminate the appearance, if not the fact,
of conflict of interest in investigating police. does
the hennepin county sheriff's office have too close a
relationsip to the mpls police dept to conduct an
unbiased investigation? is the county attorney the
right office to present a case to the grand jury given
their symbiotic relationship with the police? do these
practices serve the best interests of the public?
the executive committee of the city council has the
authority to appoint an interim chief for a period of
up to three months. that would be enough time for the
mayor to appoint a commission chair and the council to
approve. then it would be essential that the chair
pick members for an independent commission rather than
the mayor and council loading it with those whom they
can control or reward and leave us back where we
started.
how about somebody like tony bouza, someone who seems
to have the trust of the public and little to gain
from being a sycophant to either the mayor or the
council?
having said all this, i expect it unlikely any of this
will come to pass. the council has shown unwillingness
to challenge the mayor's authority in these matters
and has gone along with large increases in spending on
the police since 1994 up to and including this year.
who wants to be seen as "soft on crime", despite the
fact we all know that is a red herring.
until now i have spoken only of the public's need for
a reformed police force. the fact is that the attitude
the police espouse makes their jobs more difficult and
more dangerous to perform rather than the opposite. it
does the force no good to be continually drawn into
the headlines and to be subject to the second guessing
of the public at large. as long as they are led by a
chief who finds it easier to whine and make excuses
than to take responsibility and admit fault, it will
continue to happen and their credibility will suffer
along with chief olson's.
olson stated in one of his first interviews as the new
chief when asked about race relations that a "fortress
mentality was over". i beg to disagree. the fortress
mentality is growing and has crossed color lines that
heretofore it had not crossed. it has crossed social
and economic lines it had not crossed. ask residents
of condominiums near the hyatt how they felt this
summer.
exercise your rights of free speech and expression.
let your council people know one way or another how
you feel. they are your representatives and it is
their duty as such in a representative democracy to
consider your opinions, weigh the situation vis a vis
the good of the city, and make a decision. i know what
i would do.
tim connolly
ward 7
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