A number of years ago I spent six months in Negril in the west of Jamaica.
Most every day I found a reason to ride my bike from where I lived with a friend into town or farther up the cliff. I had one hangout down the road a piece that was no more than a shack by the side of the road where a few people could sit around and talk and down a beer and play dominoes. I liked the place because it was mellow. The owner was a grandfather who had lived in Manchester, England for thirty years and had come home to retire. Jamaica can be a difficult place to digest at times. We used to say "every ting a con, mon, every ting a con." I remember one day when I sat in the doorway of the bar and watched a fight taking place between two men across the road. There is really no law to speak of in Negril. People tend to settle their differences one way or another. It's only when someone is shot in a settlement that the police come around and sometimes not even then. One of the men engaged in the arguement(i hesitate to call it a fight)was wielding a machete. The other man was defenseless or so it appeared. Necessity is the mother of invention as they say and when you are trying to defend yourself you look around for what is at hand. In this case it was rocks. Each time the man with the machete made motions toward the other, the other hurled rocks at him. This went on for quite some time until it just sort of petered out of its own accord. All the time these men were dancing this way they were also talking to each other, more like shouting really. I wish I could tell you what was said or how it was resolved but the patois was mighty thick and deep down I'm just a white boy from Minneapolis who knows how to say 'Thanks' in 15 languages courtesy of Lunds. I am not suggesting for one minute that police go out on the streets without guns and with rocks in their pockets but necessity dictates we start thinking more creatively about how we as a community deal with the problems presented by mentally ill people in turmoil. I would like to be optimistic but I fear things may get even worse before they get better. I hope not. I have no ready answers. I will say this though. I was astounded this past September by the sacrifices made by NYC firemen, especially, but policemen also, in the World Trade Center tragedy. The idea of saving lives was paramount for these brave souls. Those men and women seemed to pay little regard for their own lives though I'm sure they valued them. The police have taken the attitude in the past that nobody other than them can deal with these sorts of cases like Rocco D'Andrea, Barbara Schneider, Abuka Sanders, and Abu Jeilani. I don't know that is true. And if they are not willing to a little greater risk in these cases I suggest we find others to do the job. In all these cases the police controlled the clock. To say otherwise is an untruth. This was not so much a failure of Tasers as it was a failure of attitude by a society that turns it's back on the mentally ill and leaves it to the cops to deal with it. That may be the only thing on which I agree with the Chief. I fault him for lamenting the situation rather than accepting reality and embracing the challenge to save lives instead of taking lives like the aforementioned. It's been my experience that attitudes filter down in an organization. That may explain why we continue to experience the shootings we do. Think of this the next time you see the Chief laughing on the front page of the Metro section as he shakes the hand of a man wearing a bowtie: Not once has Chief Olson met with the Friends of Barbara Schneider. Greg Hestness has been there many times. So has Sgt. Ron Bellendier. But never the Chief. Cool runnings, mon. Tim Connolly Minneapolis Ward 7 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Movies - coverage of the 74th Academy Awards� http://movies.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________ 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
