Perhaps there are other factors at work. I am not the first to think that increased incarceration actually augments the culture of crime. How many years of the drug war now? Haven't we had stiffer sentences implemented over those years? Why isn't such an approach working? How many young "thugs" have gotten a short course in criminal operating procedures while locked away in the workhouse or prison? As they get out, who are their "friends"? Do stiffer drug laws get guns off the streeets?
My eyes tell me that the increase in "illegal activity" this summer in South Minneapolis has been less in terms of drug selling and more in terms of prostitution--and not exclusively in what are considered "impacted areas," to use Jim Graham's term. Haven't seen much discussion of that thus far on the list, despite the well documented effects of illegal prostitution on the women and men (less frequently) pimped on the street.
We are experiencing an extended economic downturn, the stock market notwithstanding, and we have a state government that has abandoned its role to help the state's people endure it. We will see more crime, especially revenue generating crime like drug selling and prostitution. Rhetoric that draws the line between good neighbors and bad elements won't solve a thing.
I am all for a serious discussion about what can be done about violent crime in this city, but I am afraid that the approach advocated by some will do nothing IN THE LONG TERM to change the situation. Instead, the illegal economy of this city will simply be pushed around to various neighborhoods. In addition, I doubt that any "solution" that refuses to address the humanity of the "perps" and their families (and they do have families) will succeed. We live in a town where at the local Walgreen's there are announcements posted for bus tours to local prisons so that neighborhood residents, statistically speaking mostly people of color, can visit their relatives. Something is wrong, beyond drugs and crime on the streets and a lack of tough mindedness, in such a place.
Russell Raczkowski Bancroft
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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