I'm not sure where I come down on the likely ouster of the police chief, but I am going to play devil's advocate to all those who can't get rid of him soon enough.
A few people have suggested that a $300,000 buyout fee is cheap, in comparison to all the lawsuits (of police brutality I assume) we may be avoiding. But it just occurred to me that I haven't heard of such a lawsuit in several years. For a while there, it seemed like we had a couple of lawsuits per year. Is it just that the Strib has stopped reporting on them because they happen so often they are no longer news? I find that unlikely, because the Strib loves to highlight troubles in government. Maybe the current chief really has stopped most of the police thumping. Sauro is still with the Department, but I haven't heard anything bad about him for awhile. Is it possible that Olsen has laid down the law that police thumping will no longer occur, and the street police are listening? I'm sure there's still some thumping going on, but the decline in lawsuits suggests to me that at least the most egregious acts have ended. Olsen has gotten into most of his trouble, at least on this List, for the massive police interventions, and perhaps mistakes in judgment (I don't believe anyone can reasonably call the Somalian action thumping). My biggest concern with Olsen is simply that he doesn't explain himself. When each of these episodes come up, the police need to be right there in the middle of the discussion, explaining why they did what they did. Instead, we get a bunch of hotheads attacking the police force, and one can only respond by guessing the intent of the police. It also scares me a bit that Rybak could be somewhat in the thrall of the Police Federation. the Police Federation's goals are certainly not those of the people of Minneapolis. I remember when I first decided that the Federation is run by bad guys. When Jerry Haaf was shot in the back in the Pizza Shack, the head of the Police Federation (Berryman I believe) blamed this murder on the current chief's work on rapprochement with the gangs in Minneapolis. This was an absurd comment - how could working with the gangs result in a gang member deciding he had to shoot a cop? Berryman must have known this was absurd, but said it anyway, to get a political benefit from the goodwill generated towards the police because of the shooting. He used the death of one of his own for political benefit. I've seen no indication since that the Federation has become more civic minded since then. Back to Olsen, he may also be partly responsible for the decline in crime during the last several years. If we go looking for a Chief that is good at community work, we may lose the management skills that help fight crime and decrease thumping. Do we want to go back to Murderapolis and twice yearly lawsuits? I don't know if Olsen was responsible for the improvements, but it certainly is possible. Mark Anderson Bancroft _______________________________________ 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
