I find a fair amount of irony in the fact that the State doesn't seem to see the wisdom in stepping-up to the plate in assisting Don Samuels and the community of Jordan.
It might be interesting to find-out (from the State) exactly what constitutes a problem worthy of more attention than just telling local leaders that "times are tough" and to be "more creative" in their efforts.
A small rural town gets hit with a tornado and Pawlenty's on the scene, surveying damage and pledging support. An inner-city neighborhood is blighted by drugs and gang-violence, a large percentage of which COMES to our neighborhood FROM the suburbs, and we need to be "more creative" with what we have. I just don't get it.
As long as we're on the subject. It was mentioned that Don Samuels request of 5 foot-patrol officers, 24/7 would actually entail 35 full-time officers (more than we have on patrol at peak-time in the 4th precinct). I think it's time for the joint law-enforcement entities (that have jurisdiction in the State), to come together and "be more creative". Doing the math, 5 officers 24/7 comes to 840 patrol hrs/week. If 35 officers work 35 hrs/week, this comes to 1225 man/hours, or 146% of actual staffing.
Lastly, and this makes absolutely no sense to me if it's true, I've heard that the police officer jobs "saved" from the proposed cuts came, to some degree, at the expense of the transcriptionist positions (administrative) within the department. The net result, now the arresting officers (not the most proficient typists) now have to spend 2-3 hours "booking" and arrest and typing the reports, where it used to the transcriptionists a fraction of the time. So yes, we "saved" the jobs, and effectively turned our police force into part-time transcriptionists.
Dennis Plante Jordan
_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
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, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
