hello: i am forwarding a letter that i wrote and was printed in SIREN newspaper just after the death of Barbara Schneider this past june. i believe the sentiments expressed then hold true today. for the record, the henn cty sheriff was to investigate the death of ms schneider and present its findings through the county prosecutor to a grand jury. where we are in that process is anybody's guess. last time i checked with rose campagnola of the sheriffs dept they were waiting on one final test from the bca. needless to say, i think the entire investigative process is flawed. i do not expect impartiality from the h.c. sheriff. why not the state police though i am not sure i would trust them as well. the waters are all so poisoned. and where is the minnesota chapter of the aclu? charles samuelson was very vocal back in june and now it seems he has laryngitis. why no suit in federal court of the mpd and civil rights of minneapolis citizens? must go> tim connlly ward 7 the screaming saturday morning headline in the local daily told of a hotel strike. i looked below the fold, switched to an inside section and found nothing, then skimmed the editorial page and finally found what i was looking for. one two paragraph letter mentioning the good works of barbara scneider and the profound loss to her family and the community who knew her best. the five day news cycle was over. it was business as usual in minneapolis all week long i had waited for a pronouncement from an elected official. at the very least i expected the stock response about what a tragedy it was that this woman had died. but then i realized the overused word "tragedy" had become the sole province of television news delivered by a talking head of hair and a face of faux pain before the obligatory yellow tape we've come to know so well. we heard from the appointed police chief and an union representative. they used the word tragedy but mostly in the context of the irreparable harm certain to be visited on the officers who shot barbara schneider. for the record, it was once in the head, twice in the arm and shoulder and six times in the chest. that last part i think they call a cluster on the target range. i am nostalgic for the days when citizens of this city could purchase a daily tabloid featuring real photojournalism, not the ersatz version we are subjected to in the "newspaper of the twin cities." black and white photographs of barbara schneider's bullet riddled naked body would go a long way toward creating and sustaining the sense of outrage that is sorely lacking in the populace of this city. until there is a completely transparent and public investigation of this incident, complete with the actual blood stained knife barbara schneider used to ward off her attackers there can be no peace in this city. roundtable discussions with mental health professionals behind the closed doors of the mayor's conference room are window dressing meant to lull the gullible public into believing that our leaders are actually addressing the issue. Barbara Schneider was not the first person to be needlessly murdered by the police but she must be the last. what next? a grafitti artist shot in the back while fleeing the police? when police chief olson says the police department "may" develop teams to respond to mentally ii people in crisis, that is unacceptable. when police chief olson says he had the idea in the works prior to barbara scneider's murder, that is unacceptable. when police chief olson spends time compiling a secret dossier on the hard times cafe and advising the city attorney's to draft a dubious and redundant ordinance prohibiting the use of gas masks on the streets of the city while allowing this very real tragedy to occur, that is unacceptable. a man is judged by his deeds, not his words. when our perpetually pandering politicians, all too quick to grab center stage with pre-arranged sound bytes and pithy qoutes, are strangely silent about the murder of one of society's most vulnerable at the hands of those they empowered to bully and intimidate in the name of law and order, they must be held accountable and turned out of office. when the self-anointed "newspaper of the twin cities" fails to condemn barbara schneider's murder and gives a half page to the self-serving diatribe of the posturing president of the police federation that ill serves his constituents and short circuits real dialogue on the issue of undue police force with the city's chief conventioneer's calamitous prognostication of a "black eye" to the city if hotel employees striking for a livable wage as determined by precedent do not settle, it should be boycotted and made to apologize to the citizens of this city who at the very least expect correct spelling in the headlines. this city: it's elected officials, it's police force, it's apathetic populace which cowers behind cynicism and excuses of powerlessness to affect change in the status quo of american politics is shrouded by a pall of shame and will remain so until we rise up and march to city hall bearing brightly burning candles in one hand and knives held high in the other to the memory of barbara schneider and the other innocents who have gone before her. i suggest it be butter knifes we carry. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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