Two sheetrockers drove to my house on 21st and 10th on their way to a job this morning at 6:30 AM. They told me of being accosted by drug dealers on Franklin at Portland Avenue, then at Park Avenue, then Chicago Avenue, when they slowed to go around the corner on 10th. and finally drug dealers came running when they stopped at my house on 21st Street. Later in the day I talked to them again. They told me drug dealers had run to the truck, (again as they left my house at 7:00 AM) at 11th and 21st, then 11th and Franklin, and were so bad when they pulled over at Chicago and Franklin to buy cigarettes that they were afraid of getting out of the truck to go into the store. So they drove away through the crowd. They reported they were again offered drugs at every stop light on the way back to the 5th Avenue on-ramp to the freeway. These were young clean-cut guys who if anything looked like cops. They wondered why the police have a problem catching these drug dealers. One laughingly commented, "You don't have to chase drug dealers here. You pull up to an intersection, open the back door, and you get a full carload showing you their drugs. Then you drive to the police station. It's like smelting". They could not believe 40 or 50 drug dealers were that brazen with openly shown drugs in broad daylight. They were even more amazed when I told them things were getting better. Their question was, "How bad could it get?"
The sad truth is that some of the blame for the terrible thing that befell Tyesha this week falls on City Officials. Children in the inner city have a right to be protected. Parents in the inner city have a right to expect that their children will be just as safe as those in "Better" neighborhoods. While the City of Minneapolis gives away hundreds of millions of dollars for its development "friends" we are told there are not enough resources to pay for adequate police protection. Some City politicians even argue that Minneapolis assigns more than enough financial resources to policing "Those" areas. Some ask how much more do we expect. There is an easy answer. We expect and demand the same level of protection for our children as RT Rybak expects for his children. We expect the same level as Lisa Goodman gives Kenwood. We expect the same level of protection for our children as Paul Ostrow gives North East. We expect the same level as Barret Lane and Dan Nizoelic give their "better" neighborhoods. Our children are just as damn precious to us, as yours are to you, and theirs are to them. So please do not tell me about resources. It is the City leaders duty and obligation to provide whatever resources are necessary to solve the problem. If they have to raise taxes then they just have to raise taxes. State law actually says that Minneapolis City Officials failing to enforce State and Federal Laws shall constitute a gross misdemeanor, and if found guilty of so doing the offender may never again hold elected office in the State of Minnesota. If this law were to be actually enforced, Brian and Joe would not be the only ones out of office. Five years ago, after several of our children were murdered, Clyde Bellecourt and myself, with a whole lot of other Phillips folks went down town to confront the City Council. I remember Jackie Cherryholmes yelling at me across the chambers that I had to "show more respect for the City Council". I yelled back even louder "when the City Council starts showing some respect for the dead bodies of our children I will show a little more respect for the City Council". The murders of those children then, and Tyesha now, were the result of not showing enough respect for our children to assign the needed resources to stop OPEN gang activities and OPEN drug dealing. The murders were the symptom of the problem that again is coming to Minneapolis. The ONLY way to address the problem is to make it unsafe and too high a risk for criminals to be engaging in open criminal activity. These gangs are in open warfare over lucrative marketing areas for their products. They feel safe from police and from a citizenry that is not allowed to protect itself. The sad truth is that a normal person is more likely to do jail time for accosting a drug dealer selling drugs on the corner in front of their children, than the drug dealer is for dealing. IF he were arrested! We, the residents of impacted neighborhoods, demand and ask for Federal Mediation, to address the failure of the City of Minneapolis is provide us with "Equal Protection Under The Law" as guaranteed us under the Constitution of the United States of America. If adequate manpower and fiscal resources are not allocated to properly enforce State and Federal Laws against Organized Crime and Drug Crime, then I ask the Attorney General of Minnesota to start an investigation of public officials violating the Minneapolis Charter to the State of Minnesota and State Statute. Fortunately Chief Robert Olson has been and is attempting to address this problem with the limited resources the Council has given him. He needs to be given the resources to accomplish the task. Part of the reason we now have an entrenched drug gang problem is Chief Boza refused to acknowledge the problem until it was established. We didn't use adequate recourses back then, but the Council and Mayor should not cheat on this effort now. Chicago Avenue and Franklin is known as the best drug business corner in the country for a reason. Profits are high and risk is very low. That needs to change. We need the risk to be so high that Chicago and Franklin becomes famous for being the place where people go away for a long time. Then move on to the Near North. The City now concentrates drug crime in these areas, how about concentrating tough policing in those areas? We do not want pretty words and worry about the poor unfortunate drug dealers who "just need better educations and opportunity". We need them given the "opportunity" to go to jail. We do not need promises of concern and looking at options. The path to hell is paved with good intentions. We need action now, not promises! Jim Graham, Ventura Village _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
