Re: [Mpls] Pawlenty sends troops to N. Minneapolis

[Kelly Phillips]

It would be interesting for North and South Mpls. neighborhoods to compare notes on repeat offenders. In North we have dealers on the streets some of which have been arrested 40++ times and never served time in jail or community service. What crimes are being prosecuted? If a dealer on the corner can be arrested over 40 times and have no consequences and a woman who argues with a bus driver gets 250 days what kind of court system do we have? At worst the woman held the bus up for a few minutes, in the meantime the dealers are shooting bullets at each other and for someone who lives 4 houses away from the corner of 26th and James (a Jordan hotspot) I find the skewed priorities of the court system very disconcerting. I also believe that the troopers will ultimately be for the good of the city but only a small part of what needs to be done, I think there must be cooperation among the other 12 Council members to accomplish policies for the benefit of impacted communities and the city as a whole. Minneapolis will not be a healthy city if crime continually plagues one or more communities. What we need in Jordan is similar to other communities where drug dealing is a common occurrence - economic development, a method for dealing with absentee landlords and homeowners who do not keep their houses up to code (praise the ones who do), drug addiction (I suggest that effort take place in the suburbs or in colleges since that is where a large number of buyers come from as a former teenager from Eagan I know this), and so many more problems that are prevalent in impacted communities I cannot go into for lack of time. I know there are a few councilmembers who hold these issues close to them and are working hard on solutions w/in their realm of power. Kelly Phillips Jordan Barbara Lickness wrote: I was told this morning by a person who has been working closely with this initiative that they are not planning on flying the helicopters over our houses this time. I was also told that in addition to the state police, they have added the services of the state gang strike force. This is an important element because Minneapolis is clearly dealing with gang issues on both the north and south side of town. I suspect gang members are most likely the ones doing all the shooting. I was also told by police that many of the gang members that were arrested in the early 90's have been released from jail and looking to re-establish their territory. As activists on crime, we need to change who we are sending the messages to. The next vigil or hot dog roast should be in the judges chambers and at the state legislative crime committee meetings. That's where we need to send a message. The message we send on the street each time we let a criminal go is "go ahead and do the crime cuz you're never going to do the time". Maybe we should gather up all the criminal rap sheets the neighborhood folks have and put them in a notebook and send them to the legislators and and ask why these people have never spent a day in prison? Maybe it would outrage them enough to do something. The neighborhood activists working on this stuff have been outraged for a long time. Barb Lickness Whittier ===== "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com 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 .