Wendy Wulff: I agree with you in many areas. I don't think the police get paid enough. I can't say for certain if that causes us to get inferior candidates, but it does reflect the wrong set of priorities. Is the city line budget publicly published anywhere? I wonder what city employees make more than that. And how important is THEIR job relative to police work?
Anyway, where I probably part company with you is on the question of what motivations make a good cop. The reason some of us support residency is simply that non-resident cops don't have any personal stake in the quality of our neighborhoods. They are people who either never lived here or moved out. Either choice reflects a sort of rejection of city life. And I think that can have some impact when they do the work. It may be built on a subtle contempt for the kind of people who live in core cities. And that leads to inevitable friction with the residents, especially in areas with heavy minority concentration. How is an Apple Valley resident supposed to have rapport with a Jordan neighborhood resident? So, I support a significant increase in police salary. But I reserve judgment on whether a nonresident can remain truly "professional" when colliding with an alien culture such as the one in this city. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes http://finance.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
