On 4/11 someone wrote the list, quoting: >In today's StarTribune Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the >Minnesota Civil Liberties Union, said 80 percent of the complaints that >organization receives each year are made against Minneapolis officers. >That is certainly out of line for a city that has less than 10 percent >of the population of the state.
I can see that easily. I've lived in a small town. If you know the officer's name, home address, go to church with him on a regular basis (or know that he doesn't go), meet his wife in the grocery store, go to school with his kids or teach his kids in school or coach his kids at the youth center, and have all sorts of personal contact with an officer and his family on a day to day basis, year in and year out, then probably there isn't going to be a whole lots of reason to complain to the MCLU. Things can get out of hand in a small town also. With all that person-to-person contact, however, things are much less likely to get out of hand. If they do, you probably know the mayor, city council, a few other people to draw things back into line before it's necessary to even think about asking the MCLU for help. It's certainly an argument for more bicycle patrols and walking patrols and so on, isn't it? More face to face contact. A 5 minute presentation at a night out block party doesn't really make much impression. I'm thinking that I probably know or can find the home addresses of every member past and present, of the city council, of the current and former mayors, lots of other officials. Might that be a direction? Probably not very practical direction, but ... Emilie Quast SE Como _______________________________________ 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
