Okay, let me offer some rebuttal� First, I'm still waiting for answers to my original questions (which, admittedly, Gary Hoover may simply have not gotten to his emails to respond). What is the source of the information?
Second, Mark Snyder writes, "It was that they were perfectly willing to let this woman's death go uninvestigated because there was no family or friends demanding an investigation." This statement is being made without confirmation that the police are indeed doing this. Furthermore, Mark writes "However, if Ms. Jones is now dead because the driver was under the influence, distracted by a cell phone, was speeding or was engaged in any other activity that one shouldn't be doing while driving, then I think some charge of negligent manslaughter or whatever it would be is most warranted and should be pursued with great vengeance". Of this I'm of two minds. Certainly, if the cause was negligent driving, then further action should be pursued (though not with "great vengeance". That only debases "us" as the moral center). However, what should be considered negligent? Some things, such as DWI or reckless speeding would be most likely considered negligent. There is little dispute that these things are highly likely to cause harm. I'm not sure if other things such as eating or cell phones reach such level, though. My concern is that if we make every little thing that may **or may not** be "negligent" such, we become a police state. Then what have we accomplished? Third, regarding Roxanna Orrell's thoughts, I first disagree that "many" of Minneapolis citizens have distrust of the police. Some? Yes. Many? No. If indeed there are large numbers of police not acting appropriately, why is there only a small minority claiming police misacting? I'm not trying to belittle the claims of those making such claims, but rather we must look at the good and the bad. I would also suggest, while not speaking for the MPD, that perhaps some citizens have so many times convicted the MPD of being the big, bad people they have -in a manner of speaking- given up. Perhaps some police have thought something akin to "It's already assumed I'll do the wrong job regardless of what I do, so why put as much effort to do otherwise?" Is this correct thinking? Of course not. Yet, police are just as human as you and me. I can imagine if I were told constantly I was always doing the wrong job no matter how hard I worked, I'd eventually lose resolve to try. Maybe some of my concern comes from watching the list and seeing precious few times (I can think of one or maybe two) police are praised or even encouraged to/for doing the good job. Let's keep in mind police voluntarily take a job where they put themselves in dangerous positions that none of us have chosen to do. Furthermore, police don't get to walk away if it gets "too dangerous" like we could. Perhaps we could try "walking in their shoes" before constantly telling police how horrible they are. Gary Bowman Audubon Park __________________________________________________ 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
