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On Thursday 30 May 2002 22:13, Barbara Lickness wrote:
> The public in Ventura Village, Phillips, and over
> north ARE outraged. In fact, they are scared,
> disheartened and and down right devastated right now!
Yes. I, too, am outraged. I ride the bus every day past the places Keith
writes about-- and probably on the same bus with some of the people Keith
writes about.
On Memorial Day on the corner by my house waiting for the bus I explained
to my daughter that the women across the street were taping new flowers to
the light pole because they were remembering their father/husband who was
gunned down while standing there waiting for the bus on his way home from
work. Their flowers have been there (renewed yearly) ever since I moved
here and I still remember vividly the chill I felt the first time I saw
them.
If every corner near a shooting in my neighborhood had such memorials put
out by families and loved ones in remembrance, I think this would be the
prettiest neighborhood in town.
> We just have to wait until the judges and the law
> makers get outraged, disheartened and devastated too I
> guess!
Not holding my breath.
> We need laws passed that require jail time with no
> plea bargaining. Our laws need to be as strong as the
> laws of the states that surround us. Furthermore, the
> judges need to be held accountable to at least impose
> the minimum mandatory sentences. If we need more jails
> to hold criminals, then so be it.
This is almost scarier to me than the shootings: this idea that we don't
have enough jails yet, so let's build more. The jails are not working. Not
in Minneapolis, not anywhere. The drug war has failed.
Frankly, I have no interest in supplying "three hots and a cot" to
small-time criminals at even greater numbers than I already do. Now maybe
if there were special cells for people who held jobs at large public
companies that defrauded their workers, their shareholders, and the public
I might change my mind. Maybe if there was a special wing for profitable
real estate developers who default on their Minneapolis loans...
The United States already leads the world in jailing its citizens.
Minnesota has one of the nation's worst ratios of black prisoners to black
citizens in the country. Guess who is being targeted. Guess who will end
up sleeping in your new jails.
How many times must I listen to the children on the 5 bus relate their
stories of "I'm on my way to court", "I just got out of jail"... how much
more friction can there be between cops and young blacks? How many more
futures will we steal away before we're willing to try something else for
once? Wonder why 40% of the kids in Minneapolis don't graduate?
Maybe it has to do with the fact that so many young black men (was it one
in three?) are either in jail, awaiting a court date, on probation, or
otherwise "involved" with the criminal justice system. And more and more
there are moves to treat these children like adults and to lock them up
with older criminals. That's not the peer group I normally want my
underachiever to take up residence in. I'm not too sure those older
criminals will set our boys on the straight and narrow.
And it is boys. Men are incarcerated in Minneapolis and everywhere else at
astonishingly high rates compared to women. Why is that? What are we doing
to our boys that makes them grow into criminals at such a disproportionate
rate? How about instead of that $186 booking fee we buy these kids some
Timberwolves tickets? That'll keep them off the streets for a night:
they'll be entertained, they'll like us for buying them a nice gift, and
they'll see some athletes show the value of practice and hard work. Heck,
how about we just *give* them the $186? Think they'll be on the corner for
long? I don't. They'd probably be out spending it and paying taxes, too.
> We have examples of criminals who have been arrested
> over 100 times and spent no time in jail. A big
> disconnect somewhere I think.
Yes, there is apparently a disconnect somewhere. Because when arrested one
is thrown in the back of a car, then into a cell, then carried from room
to room, then maybe back into a cell, then maybe let free 6 to 72 hours
later (depending on the flow of people through the system). In fact, I
would estimate such an individual, having been arrested 100 times, to have
spent probably six months in jail, without ever having been convicted of
anything. So much for pesky Due Process.
> are doing their part. It's time for the city council,
> mayor, county commissioners, judges, attorneys, and
> legislators to do their part. As Jim Graham said "It's
> the law".
Yes, they should do their part. They should change the laws. People have a
moral right to poison themselves and we do not have a moral right to
interfere with their decision. In fact, our "solution" makes more problems
than the original problem of drug use and addiction does. Because when and
where drugs are/were legal... and by "where" I mean the suburbs where
health-care-having middle-classers can get just about anything they want
prescribed for them by a doctor... when/where drugs are/were legal you
just don't find people from one corner drugstore going to the other corner
drugstore to engage in shoot-outs over territory.
> We can start by eliminating the $186 booking fee the
> county charges the city to book criminals who are
> arrested. That is ridiculous!!!!!
Best way to eliminate this fee is to stop using the service-- that's what I
usually do when I no longer feel I'm getting a value for my money. I
recommend the police stick to arresting people who can actually be
convicted of a crime-- this should keep the booking fees down and make
life easier for everyone. I'm well aware this means hooligans will run
wild in our streets, peddling poison to the masses, and causing havoc. The
answer to that is to take the profits out of their business. Then what
will they sell? Protection? I don't know. But the lessons of the 1920s and
Prohibition are clear, it didn't work then and it don't work now.
You can look out your window and see the drug war failing. A whole
generation has grown up during this war and they've been caught in the
cross-fire since the day they were born. How many more?
- -Michael Libby (Cleveland nieghborhood of North Minneapolis).
- --
______Michael_C_Libby__{_x_(at)_ichimunki_(dot)_com_}______
| my website: http://www.ichimunki.com/ |
|____ public key at http://www.ichimunki.com/public.key ____|
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