Mr. Mork explains to us: >"Nonetheless, it does disturb me to read daily the way people with kids and >living in crime-impacted neighborhoods think about education and criminal >law. It makes me have second thoughts about community crime prevention. >I arrive at the conclusion that citizens in these neighborhoods certainly >can be eyes for the police force. But if my money is to be spent well, they >cannot be the BRAIN of the police force. Because the reasoning I read is >far too emotional. It sounds like the underpinning of mob psychology, > being full of myth and angst.
>Especially, after reading some of the posts about drugs and crime in the >3rd precinct I'm left with a series of questions: (1) How do our participants >have such an intimate idea of what the faces of resident drug addicts look >like? (2) Since my discussion was not about the generic drug addict but the >subset who commit violent crimes, how do they know what THEY looked like >when they committed crimes, given that the minimal standard for identifying >a perpetrator is a conviction, not simply a suspicion? (3) How DO they know >the person is only committing the crime because of the drug? That really >requires some sort of certain knowledge of an alternative reality, one they >never will see, yet they spend time rehearsing in imagination." Yes, it does disturb me when someone posts daily to this List as an authoritative voice on a subject that he admits he knows very little about. Someone like Jim Mork, that is, who admits he would not know a drug dealer if he saw one. Unlike Mr. Mork, who fled a neighborhood that made him feel "uncomfortable", there are those of us who choose to stay and fight and who in consequence have real data, real experience, and real stories to tell. Now, these experiences are a far cry from the idle speculation that Mr. Mork has acknowledged purveying. Let me simply say to Mr. Mork that we have an intimate idea of what "the faces of resident drug addicts look like" because we know them from mug shots and from personal observation. We know "what THEY looked like when they committed crimes, given that the minimal standard for identifying a perpetrator is a conviction, not simply a suspicion", because we have actually watched these crimes go down. Mr. Mork says, "How DO they know the person is only committing the crime because of the drug? That really requires some sort of certain knowledge of an alternative reality, one they never will see, yet they spend time rehearsing in imagination." In fact, and unlike Mr. Mork, we do not have to spend time inventing lurid fantasies to entertain ourselves in private. All we have to do is look out the window and watch the druggies straight and watch them messed up. Experience is a hell of a thing, and anyone who can't tell the difference between it and fantasy has gone off his meds. Those of us who have been involved with the Franklin Avenue Safety Center, Court Watch, and the "Top Ten" most wanted list do not idly speculate. We have real information and have worked with real police records and, yes, we do "know" drug dealers by face and name. We also often know them in more personal ways, having confronted them numerous times, and even talked to them on many occasions. And, yes, Mr. Mork, we also know and talk to police officers and help and support those officers in their job. We often have greater knowledge and familiarity with the criminals and police work than most police officers serving the community, certainly far more than any "idle speculator" (your words). It's wonderful, isn't it, that Mork can believe himself over-taxed if his money happens to go to support extra police and education for bad neighborhoods. But this demonstrates once again his abysmal ignorance of the matter. Residents of neighborhoods like Phillips and Ventura Village in all likelihood pay a higher tax per square foot for their neighborhoods than Mork does. Even individuals (without children) in one bedroom and SRO units pay taxes. They pay them with their rents. The landlord passes along all taxes to the renter. That rental property is taxed at a higher rate than Mork pays. The fact is (even though Mork may not know it), poor renters in rental units subsidize single-family residences in middle class neighborhoods, not the other way around. Since Mork constantly brays at and bullies others who post to this list for data to support their judgments, I challenge him here and now to compare the tax base per square foot in his neighborhood with that of Phillips. Put up, Mork, or shut up. To those who, like Mork, doubt the drug criminals with records of hundreds of arrests are being let off, let me invite you to go down to the Franklin Safety Center to look at some of these guys' rap sheets. Gaze at their mug shots, memorize them, and then go and sit down at, or walk around, Park and Franklin. You will then have an empirical basis upon which to base your conclusions about drug dealers, their numbers, and their behavior (instead of basing them on fantasy and prejudice). (An interruption here. I had to drive my son to an auto dealer to repair a smashed window and a jimmied glove compartment in his car--which was vandalized last week by one of those wraiths Mork has accused us of having created.) Now back to it. Mork doubts the residents of Impacted Communities have the expertise to make comments on proper policing. Once again, this demonstrates an incredible ignorance of who actually participates from the community. It shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who actually thinks about it that many of the best solutions for combating crime come from neighborhood residents. Here is a psychological fact: When some people sense they don't know the truth and thus feel inadequate, they defend against the resultant anxiety by projecting ignorance upon everybody else. Since the world revolves around them, they assume that if they do not know something, no one else does either. One of the wonderful things about this List is that when you believe there are talented and knowledgeable people also contributing to it, you are probably willing to ask for information, and you'll probably get it. This is a far cry from dismissing what people say because they seem to know something you do not. Precisely because I know there are incredibly talented people on this List, I am not afraid to ask for an opinion. I know someone will enlighten me. That great stuff Jon Gorder sent me on hawks and falcons is an example. The great legal stuff Brian Melendez and other lawyer post are other examples. When Barb Lickness, or Ann McCandless, or Wizard Marks, or Dennis Planke, or Don Samuels (or even I myself on occasion) talks about crime and life and drug dealers in their communities, it is more than idle speculation. These people have "PhD's" in life and crime in their communities. We may not always agree among ourselves, but we know we all have an experiential basis for our opinions. I'm confident that we also have enough experience in dealing with people who doubt there really is a drug and crime problem to dismiss them for what they are: the frightened who do their "taunting" safely from the sidelines. Jim Graham, Ventura Village >"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr. REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ 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
