Originally I was on the side of "city employees should live in the city." I
grew up in Cincinnati which had a 2% city tax on every employed person inside
the city limits. The also insisted that city employees live inside the city.
And, I have heard some truly nasty stuff out of the mouths of cops about
Minneapolis. Like,"I'm working the ghetto now" (overheard from a plain clothes
cop in a local beanery during a moment of eavesdropping), or "I want to work
out where the real tax payers are," and, of course, the all time most often
quoted one, "Why don't you move?" as a reply to citizens who complain.
Course, that was not every cop, but a fair sprinkling amongst the 900 or so
cops we have.
Now, a few years later, I think if I were a cop I'm not sure I would want to
live inside the city limits. For one thing, if everyone on the block knew I
was a cop, would I have people calling me and ringing my doorbell every time I
turned around? Would I ever be "off duty?" Would my kids get picked on in
school? Would I have to wear my gun in the shower to meet the rules?
There are much bigger issues between the citizens and the polices than where
somebody's crib is. The issues of race, class, and brutality are way bigger
than one's abode (on a cop's salary).
Right now I'm saying, examine how people are chosen for police forces. What
kind of testing do they do? What kind of testing DON'T they do? Then, how are
cops being trained? What are they being trained to do? What are they being
given as tools?
I think bullies are attracted to police work (and no, every cop isn't a bully).
And bullies are cowards. There are cops on the Minneapolis Police Force (and
probably on every other police force on earth) who get a charge out of hurting
people. There was a notorious one who must have retired a few years back, who
regularly beat up punk kids at Lake and Hennepin. He'd take them down and
whale on them awhile and/or throw them down the 29th St. bridge embankment. I
would venture to say that more than a few of the Lake and Hennepin merchants
knew he was doing that on a regular basis and said nothing. The punks didn't
have much money to spend and a lot of them, being disgruntled for one reason or
another, were taking five-fingered discounts. They were dumpster diving and
whatever else.
Somehow, whether we know it or not, whether blatant or subtle, the collective
expectations of police officers allows this stuff to continue. And how do you
deal with bullies if they have a license and a gun?
Wizard Marks, Central
Krueger, Luther wrote:
> Russell Wayne Peterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>
> "I don't think it is fair to say, 'just because you don't live in the city
> you don't care about the city.' "
>
> This I can agree with:
>
>
> Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy
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> http://e-democracy.org/mpls
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