I have real empathy for Barb Lichness' frustration about drug dealing in Philips. I lived on the West Bank at the height of the mid-90's crack wars. My apartment building's "common areas" were talen over by drug users. Sales traffic started at 5pm and went on through the late hours.The resodent drug dealer lived in the apt NEXT DOOR to mine.Pur outdoor "security" door provided no security because a drug dealers/users intimidated their way in. Residents,the caretaker and even the property owner (living in St. Louis Park) called the police for 3 years. We even had a SAFE office across the street. The police did nothinng.Whem I was assaulted, police advised me to move,saying"What do you expect living here?" Later,I found out they did not even file a report.
If this had been Uptown, do you think the response would have been different? If Ms.Lichness lived in Kenwood, do you think drug dealing would be tolerated? Those who remaim skeptical about police brutality and abuses of authority should see that police NEGLECT is the flipside ofthis other denied and ignored misconduct.Neighborhoods subjected to racial profiling and writtem off as the expendable poor, are termed "crime containment areas":allow a lot of the crime to go on there,hoping it doesn't drift into other ,more ecomically advantaged,white neighborhoods.Ms. Lichness' frustration is yet another indictment of so-called "community policing"--a policy that all too often doesn't listen to the community! However, her ire is misdirected at CM Zimmerman. So far it seems the City Council and Mayor have little influence on the MPD, who are a law onto themselves. Becoming active around police accountability is the real solution.Ms. Lichness should take her complaints to Chief Olson--or perhaps,the Police Federation.However, without EQUITABLE policing towards ALL,the problem of lack of police service will NOT be solved. There are insidious links between a police department out of control in terms of brutality and lack of response to those same "targeted" neighborhoods' demand for service. Its no coincidence that Phillips is both a "high crime"area and also has a concentration of police misconduct complaints (source the Minneapolice Civil Rights Deapartment) Lydia Howell Phillips. _______________________________________ 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
