Public Safety is a Resource - We Need Public Safety NOT Public Surveillance
Walt Cygan is correct about giving up personal liberties with Video-Policing. Rights that are given away may never be re-captured. The pro-life people do not understand that if they give the power to the government to control reproductive freedom and limit the choice of a woman whether or not to have a child, they also give the government the right and power to make a decision to force women to have abortions. It is the same power to control an individual woman's choice about her body. If you give them that Right, it may be used later in a way which you did not intend. Seeming progressive liberals who may have a anti-car bent see no fault with giving the government the right to do video monitoring and policing of citizens in public places, as long as it polices those "car people". Do they not realize that this also gives the government the right to invade privacy in other public places? Restrooms in public buildings? Doctors' offices? All streets, sidewalks, parks, and pretty much anywhere but your bedroom? Maybe even a bedroom, after all you could be performing sex acts that create pregnancies that might then need to be ordered terminated, and which would tax the limited medical resources of the country. Also, terrorist activities might be planned in a supposedly private bedroom. In the name of protecting freedom after 9-11-01 Mr. Ashcroft and the Republicans have perpetrated one of the greatest attacks on the personal freedoms and rights of American Citizens since the creation of a Bill of Rights. This present day taking of individual liberties without much more than a whimper by the present members of their Democratic Party would appall Jefferson and Lee. Of course they would also be appalled by their political descendents leading the attack on the second amendment while the descendents of the business class Whigs attack the first amendment rights among others. Next we will have our own "Clerics" enforcing their rules on how we live our lives and removing the personal liberties that cause us to "sin". "Progressive" once meant the empowering of the individual, and the creation of individual liberties for ALL men. Now it has become the measure of how well one attends to the leash of a political ideology and power group. We need to put a little more "Progressive" individual back into the Democratic Party in Minneapolis before Republicans take liberals up on their ideas to grant to governments powers they did not have before. We need the police manpower to be at an adequate level to provide public safety to ALL residents of Minneapolis on an equal basis. We also need to recruit and train police officers who recognize that they are PUBLIC SERVANTS, not the righteous fist of justice. Truly professional police officers already recognize this and give everyone the courtesy and "service" which all residents of Minneapolis deserve. Though I sometimes disagree with Tamir, he is absolutely correct that we deserve to have ALL police officers act in a professional manner when dealing with the public. Those who do not act in a courteous manner hurt the policing activities of the many who do. It is not too much to ask that its servants treat the public with courtesy After the years first three days that have seen shootings, stabbing, murder, and continued "normal" endemic drug dealing in a neighborhood, one would expect a number of police patrols to be active in that community on a Saturday night. Like tonight! At 7:00 PM on this Saturday night there was ONE police car, and one police car ONLY, with two officers patrolling all four neighborhoods of Phillips. The officers reported that they had no time to do any policing at all; they had time only to run from call to call. In that situation does anyone really believe they have time to do policing of traffic violations? Some might say that is the reason to have video policing! Total curfews and not allowing people to drive cars might also help crime statistics, but I would rather pay for a highly motivated, adequately manned force to help protect my personal freedoms rather than give them up. The Minneapolis Police Department is 100 officers short of even the inadequate manpower level they are supposed to be at. With out that manpower resource how can anyone expect adequate service and policing? If there were adequate numbers of "street" police we would not have to worry about traffic violators nearly as much. With adequate numbers of officers, in slow times those officers could enforce traffic laws to the point where people took more care when driving. There are just not enough officers presently to harass drug dealers doing open business and drug sales on the corner of Franklin and Park or Chicago, let alone worry about someone running a red light or rolling a stop sign. I know some from more affluent neighborhoods think it, but please do not tell us that traffic violations in "good neighborhoods" are more important than assaults, rapes and open drug dealing is in Jordan and Phillips. When the City allows open serious crime to take place on an everyday basis, as business as usual, it creates a culture of lawlessness where people just do not pay much attention to what they view as minor traffic violations. When City officials are being arrested and sentenced to jail for graft and bribery, and when the City violates its own ordinances in poor neighborhoods, a culture that allows ignoring "Law" is created. We need to allocate the resources that are necessary to show that we are truly interested in public safety and a lawful society. TIF financing was used to pay for "improvements" that would create more City tax dollars in the future. How about if we use TIF financing to pay for an adequate police service in Jordan and Phillips? The improved public safety will create higher property values, which will then pay higher taxes that will pay off the cost of this adequate policing. Maybe sell "Public Safety Bonds". Public Safety is a resource and a "Marketable" commodity. Collateral added value could accrue Citywide for Minneapolis. Jim Graham, Ventura Village Wise sayings: "We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be" - A Cherokee Feast of Days "The people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty" - Thomas Jefferson _______________________________________ 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
