No, not at all. I would be the first to stand-up against police brutality, and have in fact, on a couple of occasions, when I experienced it first-hand, done so.
What I am saying is that if you're really interested in assisting the minorities/impoverished class of society, the time would be better invested in assisting them out of their current dilemma, instead of making it "less-painful" for them to live there.
We are creating a perpetual cycle of lower-class citizens and police brutality by allowing large concentrations of minorities to exist in "pockets" of our city. Given a choice if all things were equal, where do you think the majority of my minority neighbors would rather live, Kenwood or Jordan? I've lost track of how many young kids my wife and I have come into contact with that have followed down the same path that so many disadvantaged children (before them) have gone down. It's all because of where they live, not how they're treated by the police.
We project the outcome by either our actions or, inactions.
Dennis Plante
Jordan
>From: Rosalind Nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Re: [Mpls] Fw: Gentrification? Indeed! >Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 23:59:10 -0500 > >Are you really saying that police brutality is the price we have to pay >in order to fight crime? I think that police brutality encourages crime >in a couple of ways: it sets a role model for brutal behavior and it >discourages nonviolent people from calling the police when they are >victims of crime or see a crime happening. > >Rosalind Nelson >Bancroft neighborhood, census tract 9600. >(According to the city website's CODEFOR stats, there were 21 serious >crimes in Bancroft in 4/03 versus 11 in Bryn Mawr and 37 in >Cedar-Riverside. According to the city's census stats, Bancroft census >tract 9600 has a 43.66% minority population, versus 9.42% in Bryn Mawr >and 58.95% in Cedar-Riverside.) > > >Dennis Plante wrote: > > > Personally, I have nothing but contempt for individuals that live in > > nice, middle-class neighborhoods that are working as "crusaders" > > against issues such as police brutality. Drive by my house 24/7 and > > see what I have to contend with, then drive into one of the more > > affluent neighborhoods, such as Bryn Mawr, or Kenwood and see what > > they have to contend with. As I write this, at the end of my block, > > there are 5-6 individuals (standing on the corner) selling drugs, and > > another 6-8 indivduals on the front porch of an abandoned house > > gambling. I make roughly 12-15 calls/week to 911 on this activity. > > It still occurs 24/7. Who's being brutalized? > > > > > > > >Bancroft 2347 564 52 175 237 231 3606 366 >TEMPORARY REMINDER: >1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. >2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) > >________________________________ > >Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy >Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mplsMSN 8 helps ELIMINATE E-MAIL VIRUSES. Get 2 months FREE*. TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
