1) These troopers will not be familiar with the neighborhood and will not be able to tell good folks from bad folks. Law enforcement is likely to be unnecessarily heavy-handed and innocent folks will get swept up, as has happened in the past. Every Black youth will look like a criminal. This could lead to beatings or shootings--some kind of big incident that will make matters worse.
2) Minneapolis already has 800+ cops. What good will 12 more do?
3) People echoed Brandon's sentiments (below) that investing in long-term solutions like jobs and housing would work better than wasting money on 12 state troopers for a month, but they know where Pawlenty's head is at on that. He is the guy who is throwing many poor families off welfare and who cut the funding for the city's job program for teens.
4) They also noted the irony of Pawlenty, the guy who pushed for and signed the concealed weapons law, sending cops to deal with the fallout of that law.
5) Finally, people noted that the MPD policy of creating "crime containment" areas in which drug dealing, prostitution and other crimes are tolerated and allowed to flourish is what created the climate for these shootings to occur.
The answer isn't 12 cops for a month. It isn't heavy-handed police sweeps. It is cleaning up the crime containment areas--letting it be known that they no longer exist and surgically dealing with the known criminals in those areas--and then working toward racial and economic justice so that others aren't tempted to take their place.
Michelle Gross Bryn Mawr
At 09:09 PM 8/3/03 -0500, Brandon Lacy wrote:
What is even more 'ducky' is the absolute lack of any type of investment in Jordan, or any other low-income community of color in Minneapolis, that will address the root causes of why folks turn to the streets and crime. It isn't for the thrill and joy of it. It's because there is a lack of any real opportunity. There is lack of livable wage jobs, affordable housing, and all the other issues that have come up on this list. Those issues don't excuse crime and folks getting shot, but sending state troopers into the mix is a patch that doesn't fix anything.
As a matter of fact, the Governor who sent those troops in is the same governor that is a co-conspirator for any increase in crime that happens in Minneapolis because he is the governor responsible for pulling safety nets out from under the citizens of Minneapolis, and when one is desparate and trying to feed ones family or when one feels there are no real options left crime becomes a way to provide for oneself.
So I applaud the govenor. *clap* *clap* for increasing the feelings of desperation in the city and then being so kind as to send twelve state cops to keep the masses calm and quiet. Good for him.
-Brandon Lacy Campos -Powderhorn Park
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.)
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