I understand and fully support the notion that the "drug war" isn't working. Evidently, we didn't learn much from prohibition in the 20's. And prostitution is the world's oldest profession. Like we are ever going to end that.
It's easy when you live in a neighborhood that isn't impacted by this daily barrage of criminal activity to rise to ethereal reasoning for why this happens and what should be done to fix it. Isn't it nice and doesn't it feel good to say we should just legalize drugs and how we need to help the poor criminals become better people. Ah.....such a nice liberal posture. But, when you're up to your neck in alligators you don't think about building a boat. You swim your rear end off and hope you don't get bit. Meaning.....when you are surrounded by pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, drug addicts all carrying guns and poised to use them, you deal with what is real. What is real is that their behavior is currently illegal and there are prison terms suggested by the State Sentencing Guideline Commission that are supposed to take criminals off the street and OUT of the neighborhoods in which they are affecting livability. These guidelines are not being followed by the judges. At this point, I am way more concerned with the good law abiding citizens AND THEIR CHILDREN that are living with this crap day in and day out than I am about the future and well-being of some crack head packin' a piece. I just want them taken off the street. And right now, that is the only reality. These people most likely have already been offered treatment, been through treatment several times or whatever. Maybe if they have to do some time, they will go to another state where it is easier to do this stuff or like my relative, they might just get off crack. Right now from where I live, I allow my son to ride his bike to all points West. I live on the Western end of Whittier but I will not let him ride around Whittier or anywhere east. Because unfortunately, the crime problem is bleeding back into Whittier. Fair Oaks Park is once again an active haven. He can hit the greenway and go to the lakes or up to the park by our house. That's it. My son and his friends all choose to wear plain white or plain black t-shirts when they are outside. Maybe something with a cute cartoon character on it and occasionally they may sport something in a nice plaid. They do not want to be accidentally thought of as "flying colors" for some gang. I hate that this is my son's reality. I hate even more that he has to think about stuff like this. The good news is that his school has moved to King Field. He can finally go to and from school without counting hookers or encountering and drug dealers. I am one of the ones that took their child out of the public schools. Not because I didn't have faith in the educators. MPS has some really great teachers and administrators. I didn't want my son continually exposed to the out of control children from out of control parents. He spent way too much time in grade school being bullied, punched and in one case urinated on. And his teachers spent way too much time dealing with the out of control children at the expense of the other kids while their parents did nothing to attempt to correct the bad behavior because they were too busy behaving badly themselves. Remember, the crack heads kids go to school too. He is now in a nice little middle school comprised mostly of inner-city Mexican and African American children whose parents were sick of their children receiving sub-standard educations. It's a bilingual school. There are 7 kids to a classroom. He loves it and I love it. The tuition is based on the parents ability to pay. Many of the kids in the school come from poor families. Why don't I move? Because then they would win! Anyway, I am drifting now. 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
