Having watched this discussion today, I am fascinated, and I have a few
questions and comments:
What I don't understand is why it is o.k. for the Chief and the Mayor to
point to CODEFOR when crime goes down, but then it isn't o.k. for us to
point to it when crime goes up? I understand we might not have a 3 year
trend here, but even a trend of a few months over the previous years months
should tell us something.
Why is it o.k for us to spend millions of dollars to reign in a few
protestors at essentially a "non-event" downtown, but when we need the help
in the neighborhoods like Phillips with drug dealing, the police point to
the landlords and property owners as those with the responsibility? If we
follow their logic, then the hotels and convention center are responsible
for any criminal protestors downtown. I don't see how the police can have
it both ways. I understand it is important to be proactive, but it kind of
feels like we are going overboard with this argument and not doing our
basics in monitoring and arresting. And this disconnect feels like it leads
us to the possibility that reducing crime around the businesses downtown is
more important than reducing crime in the places where our citizens live.
I understand the "business" of CODEFOR. I understand that we had an old
system of "time dis-connected" management in place instead of "established
time/geography" management. And that we are doing trend analysis is good.
And I'm glad we've changed those things, but it should be completely
unacceptable for our police not to crack down on legitimate crimes like this
drug dealing in the parking lot in Phillips. There would be outrage if this
was happening in Edina or Eden Prairie. This is not acceptable and this is
exactly why we have a police department. It goes to the argument that a
certain level of criminal activity in this city seems to be acceptable by
the current administration. I know we aren't going to stamp out everything,
but this seems pretty serious to me.
And this is not something the police can solve by blaming landlords and
having them rent to only "good" people. If that were the case, then the
police should monitor "conventions" that come to town and have the city deny
anything that will bring protestors with it. Neither is likely to happen,
do you think?
Finally, I agree with Mr. Hohman, unless we change our policies and take
away the demand side of the equation there will be no real, substantive
change. But until our political policies change, can't we film these deals
and arrest the buyers a few blocks away?
I'm feeling really bad today that we as an entire city are failing the
residents of Phillips.
Russell W. Peterson
Ward 9
Standish
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