Oh, so they're from Chicago now? Not Gary...or Detroit... or New York...
What a relief. What's the MN Dept of Tourism say - what's the big attraction? The owner at that 'mall' says we're too small; the weather stinks, there's no transit, no housing, no jobs, no welfare. Are the citizens of Minneapolis to believe that this city's thirst for contraband is heftier than the windy city's?
Dennis Responds:
To understand the issue, one must first understand how gangs work. It's a "young man's game". Highly transitional and w/o much of a future. Three phenomenon are now occurring that's only going to cause the issue to worsen. First, as gang members are arrested and removed from society, territories are opened-up for gangs to fight over (i.e., the shooting of the 19 month-old in Jordan). To prove the point, the "innocent" in the wheel-chair shot on 07/26 (at the corner of Humboldt & 26th Av N) isn't quite as "innocent" as you may think. Do some checking.... Does Kevin Brewer ring a bell??
Secondly, many of the gang members that were "sent-away" in the early/mid ninties are being released and haven't changed their ways.
Lastly, the economy has worsened nationally and YES, it affects all apects, both legal and illegal in nature. Comparable drugs do sell for more in Minneapolis than they do in Chicago. The competition (to sell them) is less stiff.
To think for one moment that this IS NOT a solvable problem, one only has to ask themselves whether or not the worst neighborhoods (crime/gang-wise) in Minneapolis even remotely compare to the worst neighborhoods in other large cities? To that I answer, there aren't any neighborhhods in Minneapolis where if my car broke-down and I was w/o a cell-phone that I wouldn't make it out without all my possessions in-tact. The same can't be said for most other cities. The problem's solvable. We just have to decide to solve it.
Dennis Plante Jordan
BTW-It's the Bloods causing all the trouble lately. And yes it's coming from Chicago.
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