Two lawyers take the gang situation and try to make political hay out of it in the Pioneer Press. But they go down swinging. What haven? Are they so totally out of tune they aren't aware there was a DROP in violent crime throughout the 90's. I guess if that's what happens when you "shelter" gangs, let's try to do more of it. Basically their arguments are detached from reality. The DFL government hasn't made the city a haven for gang activities. They've been very focused on corraling it for a decade. And it has nearly disappeared off the news until this recent event.
It is interesting that no one here talked about it until the event occurred and THEN they said there was routine drug dealing. What does that mean exactly? That people in the core neighborhoods considered that "normal" until an innocent got killed? I'm inclined to be skeptical. I think there's some retrospective "I told you so's". Granted we have too many homicides in this area, but they are NOT gang-warfare homicides. It would be instructive to recycle the homicides in Minneapolis so far this year just to see how little of it is gang-related. And are the critics of the city government blowing their horns for action on the things that DO lead to all these homicides. But gang violence is such a HANDY peg on which to hang a clamor about bad government. There are a lot of homicides out in the suburbs where the gangs aren't cruising around. What's the 2-bit explanation for THAT activity? By the way, the Star Tribune in a Feb. 10, 2002 had this to say about police action to fight fraud and identity theft:"During the last legislative session, Gov. Jesse Ventura vetoed an increase in state funding for the task force, saying he wanted to protect the tax rebates he had championed. And Ventura recently proposed cutting the current two-year state grant in half." Maybe someone should ask now if tax rebates are so sacred that citizens should be victimized for lack of personnel to fight the crime. Maybe THAT is why we have the gangs back. They've seen that taxpayers are so FOCUSED on "I want my money back, I don't want the government to waste it", they see us now as having divested ourselves of the very protection we used to value. ____________________________________________ I don't want to say any list participant makes things up. But all I can say about Franklin is that in all the times I've driven down that street on the way somewhere, day or night, I have NEVER been offered drugs. So that makes me wonder by what mystical powers these dealers "know" I could never be a customer. Reminds me of a guy I worked with years ago in Portland who borrowed (and didn't pay back) money from the entire department I was in but not me. When he did finally ask, I said no, but somehow he knew I wasnt a loan company. Just find it fascinating. ===== Jim Mork -- Cooper Neighborhood ________________________________ Help stop spam -- Join SpamCon Foundation, http://www.spamcon.org __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________ 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
