Chris L Beckwith wrote:
> Mpls cops are definitely better than LA or Chicago cops. ... St. Paul seems to > have a little more mellow cops. But that may be because it is simply a > little less rough over there - it's a more mellow city all around. I think that the comparison with St. Paul is important. The history of Minneapolis is that many years ago, we had a police chief who let a group of cops get out of hand. It was so bad they were called the "Thumpers". And everyone in the system knew who they were. There were a series of lawsuits [yes, lawsuits do serve an important purpose in our society] because the Internal Review process was useless. In fact, in one lawsuit there was a list that came out with the names of cops and how many charges and complaints they had had filed against them -- it was a small group, but they have done a lot of damage over the years. This was covered by one of the news stations. We got a new chief. The atmosphere didn't change much because the Thumpers were still there and indoctrinating the new cops into how things worked and what you could get away with. We are still paying for that, many many years later. There is a group of cops here who ARE ruder and meaner than St. Paul and we have more brutality than we need. There are people on this list who know more about this history than I, perhaps they could explain more about what happened. I don't want to defame anyone or get the history wrong... Also, LA had one of those police chief for life appointments [as did Milwaukee years ago] and that seems to generate more brutality. System controls DO make a difference. And don't fool yourself, we have serious problems here. Diane Wiley Powderhorn _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
