My son lived in a duplex near 24th and Clinton. The estranged husband of the woman upstairs threw a molotov cocktail on the front porch one night about 3 a.m. Fortunately, both my son and his roommate worked at bars and arrived home only about 1/2 hour before then and the roommate smelled smoke, awakened my son and they helped the woman, her mother and two children upstairs to safety. The entire place went up in flames.
My son told me that the police found a gasoline can and rags in a nearby dumpster, and my son had overheard several screaming matches in the days previous to this, as well as threats from the husband to the effect that he would kill his estranged wife. Apparently that was not enough to arrest him. My son made numerous phone calls to follow up on the case, gathered evidence himself, etc. After six months, he gave up. To add insult to injury, the next morning before he could clear out what was salvageable of his stuff he was robbed and lost nearly everything he had of value. This crime was not investigated and neither was the time he got robbed last year -- in the Lyn-Lake neighborhood -- once by some thief pushing in his air conditioner while he was at work. When a second attempted was made to rob him he happened to be home, and actually saw the guy. He immediately called 911, but the police didn't arrive for 20 minutes and by that time the guy was long gone. In both cases, the police took a report, but that's as far as it went. I can understand the difficulty police have in pursuing property crimes, but it was the arson that shocked me more. However, to give the cops the benefit of the doubt, perhaps there was just not enough evidence to indict the guy. It's definitely a sad state of affairs. Barbara Nelson Burnsville you can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl _______________________________________ 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
