What's plain to me is that our city residents are perhaps more divided than the council on the issue of who should be our next police chief.
There are those like Peter (I might be assuming to much, but I hope not) and me, who are ready to do what we can to make things difficult for any nomination that doesn't ruffle the feathers of the police federation but would be satisfied with McManus, and those who will find fault with McManus becuase they don't believe the MPD needs change. In my view (I'm only speaking for myself, but I know many others strongly share this opinion) most (not all)of the people who support an internal candidate support a certain level of police brutality (or tough policing, use whichever term appeals to you) becuase it makes them feel safe. This also seems to be the attitiude of many council members, that they support CODEFOR (even though it's goals failed miserably in NY and the program was scrapped with it's creator, William Bratton) and believe that all of the "unfortunate fatalities" (I call them murder and stand by those statements) were ok and even necessary (although I doubt that would be admitted publically.) It also drives me nuts that no one else seems to be able to remember the tenure of the last internal candidate (John Laux) and what a miserable failure he was in terms of reigning in both the thumpers and crime. It was under his watch that Lloyd Smalley and Lillian Wiess (and elserly couple in the thier late 70's) were "unfortunately killed" (murdered) as they slept in a botched drug raid. There were many other such incidents during his tenure. It was also on Laux's watch that Mineapolis earned the nickname "Murderapolis" (given to it by a New York newspaer...I still maintin that this was a political statemanet intended to imply that Guilliani was effective by showing a city that "wasn't.") If you liked the Laux era in the early 90's, (it wasn't that long ago) then you should support an internal candidate. Of course it will mean that there will be more mistrust between police and community, more brutality, more thumping, more hopelessness, more protests, more police abuse of protesters (which Sharon Lublinsky herself has participated in, the ISAG incident) and more crime, and anyone who looks the slightests bit unusual will continue to be harassed by rude cops whether they've committed a crime or not. It will also mean more "unfortunate fatalities." I know that deep down that's just fine with alot of people because ot makes them feel safe, but the hopelessness that incidents like those create really make the community a whole lot more dangerous, and contribute to the crime rate. I really appreciate the difficulty of Rybak's dilemma. On one hand, if we don't get Gerold or Lubinsky there will be a group of people who will complain and make things difficult and complain loudly. I can live with McManus, but if we do get an internal candidate, even more people (including me) will make things more difficult and complain more loudly (no offence to anyone, I just know how to do it and I really care about this issue.) Perhaps the real substance of Rybak's and McManus' management style is to try to build consensus between some like me, the police, and other Minneapolitans on the other side of this issue. If this can be done, than it truly is subance rather than flash. Tamir Nolley Holland __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
