I covered the police department in the late 70s and early 80s and I can tell
you these are not new issues. But that makes it even more important that we
realize that several decades of wrongs have to be made right...right now.
(BTW: If I remember right Stenvig was a ranking member of the department,
and he was central to the politicization of the police department, but never
Chief. He became Mayor.)
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Rich McMartin (Rich
McMartin)
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 12:31 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Chief Olson's reappointment
Yes - anyone who lived through the Stenvig era is from a different
universe than those who are complaining about the current police problems.
If there were a Richter scale of police brutallity the force during the
Stenvig era was a "7.5" and what we have now is a "2.0" and that takes
into account the logarithmic aspect of the Richter scale.
It is true that CODEFOR was not invented here - we were about the 3rd or
4th city to adopt this methodology. So maybe that isn't his innovation.
Both New Orleans and New York preceded us.
Without CODEFOR we could have the old Minneapolis from 1995 that we all
knew and loved - 8 crack houses on my block in one year, gunshots 20 out
of 31 nights in May, 4 murders within a block of me - 95 in all of
Minneapolis. Perhaps you would like it that way again. I want nothing to
do with it.
If you are comparing management and control of the troops between Stenvig
and Olson you are standing on very shaky ground. Olson Is soooo much
better that Stenvig. Probably not perfect but certainly the best that
Minnepolis has had in 25 years.
Rich McMartin
Bryant Neighborhood.
Mr. Ferman -- Would you care to expand on your statement about the
> "innovation to
> MPD - CODEFOR..."? I fear that we must inhabit very different universes.
>
<...>
>
> ferma001 wrote:
>
> > Those who find fault with Olson have apparently not read Minneapolis
> > police history. Given the long pull of my memory, I would have to rank
> > Olson as either the first or second best chiefs that MPD has ever had.
> > Anyone remember Charlie Stenvig, for example. Olson has worked to bring
> > innovation to MPD - CODEFOR, for example. It will be interesting to see
> > how McDonald's opposition will play out at the upcoming Minneapolis DFL
> > city endorsing convention.
