Michelle, Some initial thoughts about your comments:
1. The troopers will not be familiar with the neighborhood. This is true. This is why the State Patrol will under the command of the local inspector and will be teamed up with a local law enforcement officer. My understanding from Inspector Dolan is that the State Patrol will never be out on their own. (The Mayor was very insistent on this when he and Don met with the Governor.) They will be a resource to expand the scope of the existing law enforcement resources. 2. What good will 12 more do to a force of 800+? First of all it is not just 12; it is a coordinated response including Park, Hennepin County, and CRT law enforcement resources. It also includes other resources from Hennepin County District Attorney's office and the ATF. What these additional resources will allow is a target response to the problem area without seeing a decrease of resources for any other area of the city. 3. Everyone agrees that long-term solutions are important. Stopping the bleeding, saving lives, and creating a window for other initiatives to gain traction are important too -- especially to the majority of residents in there neighborhoods bearing the brunt of the bad choices by some people in our community. 4. As much as I oppose the concealed weapons law, I do feel compelled to point out there is no demonsratable connection between the violence in our communities and the concealed weapons law. The "bangers" are not going to hand gun safety classes and filing out applications for concealed weapons permits. The indirect link contending that the conceal and carry law increases the flow of guns, thus allowing more into the community is logical -- but not demonstrated. As much as it would be political convenient to point our fingers at an unpopular bill as the rational for the increase in violence of the past two months, it probably isn't intellectually honest. 5. Let's assume there is a policy of creating crime containment areas which helped to create a climate for these shootings to occur. Then this is precisely the type of coordinated response the "clean up the crime containment area." This coordinated law enforcement and citizen action, lead by strong civic leadership, is exactly the "letting it be known that the area no longer exists". The coordinated response teams are surgically targeting the known perpetrators. This is precisely what Ms. Gross calls for. The outstanding question is whether those who traditionally work on social and economic justice issue will lob rhetorical bombs decrying short term solutions as not being enough -- or will join local residents and help build a healthy community. Let's seize this opportunity, and come together as a community to really make a difference for the people of this community. Understand that there will be different perspectives and different approaches, but that we all want the same thing and working together will make each of our individual efforts stronger. I would urge the residents of Jordan (or anywhere else in the city) that have concerns and are interested in being part of the solution to contact Jonathan Palmer at Jordan Area community Council or Laura Wolff at Don Samuels Council office. Joseph Barisonzi Willard-Hay ---- 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
