It appears there was a lot of phoney posturing from on all sides during Wednesday's evaluation of Police Chief Robert Olson and the "Open House" that Mayor Rybak hosted afterwards for some dubious activists.
Rybak and four members of the City Council give token mention to brutality during Police Chief Olson's tenure, but by gutting the Civilian Review Authority, they're every bit as responsible as Olson for every incident of police brutality that has occurred since the beginning of their terms. Plus nothing was mentioned in Olson's evaluation in regard to public perceptions of crime containment in the poorest neighborhoods of Minneapolis. And as one list member recently mentioned, the city now has a law suit to contend with by a police officer shot by one of his colleagues. Again, the Mayor and City Council are every bit as responsible for this mess as Olson. After all, they're the ones who advocated and secured pay raises for Minneapolis police officers earlier this year while every other city employee went without a raise in pay. Spike Moss, who was hired and anointed by Olson last summer after rioting broke out in the Jordan neighborhood, calls for an independent investigation of the police department by a black prosecutor working with the Urban League ( a club that Deputy Chief Greg Hessness belongs to, according to a posting on this list a few months ago). While Mr. Moss is at it, why doesn't he ask Mitch Pearlstein and the Heritage Foundation to investigate George W. Bush's claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Nice cover, Spike. Then there's the law suit against the Police Department by Barbara Schneider's family. After Ms. Schneider's death I believed the police department was acting in good faith to improve how they deal with citizens with mental illnesses. Then I started hearing stories about how homeless people (many of whom are mentally ill) were being beaten and harassed by our police. Even the Star Tribune, for God's sake, expressed its dismay in February at the treatment of homeless people by Minneapolis police. I suppose it's the fault of homeless people for having no relatives working for City Hall or a socially sanctioned civil rights organization. In the past I've mainly blamed Mayor Rybak for all the problems we've been having lately with our rogue cops, but now I see that there are many folks, inside and outside of City Hall, who are just as culpable as he is. BTW, whatever happened to the "Protect And To Serve" slogan I used to see on police cars? Has the city of Minneapolis reached the point of abandoning all pretenses of caring?----------Peter Schmitz CARAG TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ 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
