None of what you've said gets to the heart of the issue. Staff people at the Hard
Times were busted for dealing in the cafe. Other establishments who have done
likewise, particularly those whose owners or patrons were largely African American
were closed down under like circumstances. It would hardly be fair to let the Hard
Times slide.
Wizard Marks, Central
Jordan S. Kushner wrote:
> Whether Hillary Freeman worked for the police department or City Council
> Member Joe Biernat as of June 6, 2000, does not make any significant difference
>
> on the issue of whether Biernat, Freeman, Krueger and their gang engaged in
> legally
> improper efforts to influence the City Council's actions against the Hard Times
>
> Cafe. Krueger seems to be continuing his role of propoganda and spin
> control that he so activiely pursued in efforts to shut down the Hard Times.
>
> In the email dated June 6, 2000, Biernat instructed Freeman, apparently
> his staff person as well as a FORMER MPD employee, to "contact a few of your
> cop
> friends and have them put c [lobbying efforts] into Ostrow who NEEDS to hear
> from the other side.!!!" Biernat request that his employee arrange for "a
> full-court press" at caucus consisting of "all the police and SAFE people who
> worked on this issue there for resources AND let cms [city council members] see
>
> them." (these are quotes from an email which has been filed with the court and
> provided to The Pulse).
>
> The point is that the revocation/"non-renewal" of a license is supposed
> to be the equivalent of a court proceedings where the city council members act
> as impartial judges of evidence presented at the hearing. Biernat's actions
> were the
> equivalent of one judge arranging for the police to put political pressure on
> other
> judges sitting on the decision-making panel. I do not believe it is unfair to
> label such behavior as corruption.
>
> Another improper action by Biernat was to forward constituent emails
> to Luther Krueger so that he could respond. This would be equivalent to a
> judge responding to citizen's letters about an upcoming decision by arranging
> for an interested party to publicly respond so as to influence the public mood.
>
> The most obvious problem with this approach is that it shows that the judge
> has made up his mind before the hearing and is acting out of purely political
> motivations.
>
> On a personal level, the review of Mr. Krueger's and SAFE's extensive
> lobbying and public relations efforts have confirmed by suspicion's of SAFE's
> role in the system as a mechanism for the police department to exercise its
> political will over what are supposed to be democratically representative
> civilian
> government bodies.
>
> Jordan Kushner
> Powderhorn, Ward 8
> [recently moved from Ward 6].
>
> "Krueger, Luther" wrote:
>
> > Scott McGerik wrote: "... , the fact that he forwarded, to the police,
> > emails from
> > > people in support of the Hard Times Cafe shows that he can not be
> > > trusted. For these reasons, I believe he should resign his position
> > > immediately. "
> > >
> > He is referring to the Pulse article which is erroneous. Pulse states...
> > "In a June 6th e-mail message to officer Hillary Freeman, Biernat requested
> > that police officers lobby individual council members at the June 8th
> > Democratic caucus "
> > Freeman at that time was not with the police department, she was Joe
> > Biernat's aide.
> >
> > CPS Luther Krueger 673-2923 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > (Lyndale, 8th Ward)
