I concur with Wizard Marks except for the part about Corky Finney. We tend to think of Finney as a panacea for all our ills.
If we were to just get rid of the Chief without an entirely new framework for how we think of our police and what we expect of them plus myriad other issues we would be jumping the gun. For instance do we continue with 3 year terms that do not coincide with the mayor's or do we go to 4 year terms running concurrently with the Chief. There is one school of thought that concurrent terms make the job too political. Saint Paul has a 6 year term. LA has a 5 year term and they are right now in a brouhaha because the Civilian Commission does not want to renew the Chief's contract and he is appealing it to the City Council. How do we go about picking a Chief? Does the Mayor? Does a Citizens Commission recommend three choice to a Mayor? Two choices? Does the Commission pick outright? What do we do when a political novice comes on the scene who has zip experience with the cops? Someone whose sole deviation in life is wearing different colored socks? Someone who seems more interested in reaching consensus when kicking butt is called for? We need to look at 50 cities and see what they do, how it works, etc. This all ties into Citizen Review(you'll notice I won't use the word civilian which only reinforces the military model), recruitment especially of minorities less intimidated by the urban environment if not actually living here, mental health protocols so that we don't have another situation where we have a CIT officer(someone trained and recognized as knowledgeable calling off a slow speed car chase only to be overruled by a superior officer with inferior training),etc. I could go on but I think I've made my point. I think the story today was a big trial balloon sent up by the Mayor's office. Come on, where else would a leak this size spring from? This is not a PR problem. This has that element only in that Minneapolis has a reputation for being a force of "thumpers". And today I hear an interview with Paul Ostrow on MPR. What's up? We're greasing the skids and this guy(the Chief) ain't going nowhere at least until after he hosts the convention of Police Chiefs coming to town. Maybe if we peacefully picket we'll embarass him so badly he'll quit of his own accord? Sick idea, Tim. Cruel! Some might think he deserves it. Maybe the threat would be enough? Then again it might just provide another opportunity to dress up the force in catcher's gear for which we paid beaucoup bucks. The groundwork being laid is that the Chief is not good with money. I think everyone was miffed that he couldn't seem to come up with savings except through incredible arm twisting and even then there were dire predictions of the city losing ground on the "war on crime". Finally I don't want to pretend to speak for Natalie Johnson Lee but I suspect she doesn't want to spend money to buy out the Chief's contract for one of two reasons. A. Without anything in place that addesses root causes it's a waste of good money that could be better spent in her ward trying to generate community wealth and infrastructure or B. We ought to be able to find reason enough to fire the guy due to just being a poor Chief. Tim Connolly Ward 7 Where the Elite Meet __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.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
