Pam Taylor wrote: It took them (police)almost two hours to arrive at my home, and when they finally got there, they said it was not customary for them to dust for fingerprints. They wrote a report, which nothing ever came of, and gathered no type of evidence. I was given some crappy story, and I was quite pissed with the men in blue when they left. snip They seemed useless. David Piehl writes:
I had a similar experience. In February of 2001, my house was broken into late on a Saturday night/early Sunday morning. The thieves must have thought I was out of town, because they were still hauling things out when I pulled up after a late night of dancing at the Saloon (open till 3:00 a.m. on Sat). They were in such a hurry to leave when I pulled up, that one left a pair of glasses behind, among other items of evidence such as cigarette butts, footprints, etc. I reported the serial numbers of the stolen electronics, and descriptions of other items - in addition to describing the few people I saw to the police - including the taxicab they were loading things into. I'm certain one of the people I saw was a Sabri employee, so should be easily located for a lineup, etc. Despite all the clear leads, little or no investigation occurred. I followed up with the person assigned to the case, and know that none of my posessions ended up at area pawn shops, an electronic check was run to determine that - but that's about all. An alert employee at Marquette Bank caught someone trying to cash a check on my account with checks that were stolen - I closed all accounts immediately after the theft - and he was arrested but claimed he did not know anything about the theft. My experience taught me that the understaffing of the police force in Minneapolis has basically turned the average officer into a report-taker on many crimes, they just don't have the resources to investigate. Further, when they do catch someone - the judges don't punish the crime anyway, so there is little motive to even find the criminal. This is very wrong, as these crimes go right to the heart of livability in the city, and more often than not affect the people who can least afford it. My items were covered (less the deductible) by my insurance company, and I have beefed up my security system, etc. I'm probably going to add cameras to my arsenal soon, as the wireless internet ones are very cheap. That way, if the criminal is local, I'll at least be able to use the photos to get the person arrested. I do enjoy living in the city, but it makes a person think twice when you have to go to such lengths to create public safety. I can understand why people leave the city. CCP Safe, by the way, was entirely useless in the whole affair - what do they do anyway? David Piehl Central __________________________________________________ Yahoo! - We Remember 9-11: A tribute to the more than 3,000 lives lost http://dir.remember.yahoo.com/tribute _______________________________________ 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
