Tamir Writes:
Incidently, I've lived in some of the worst neighborhoods in Minneapolis, and my son cueertly goes
to school in Jordan. I know darn well that crime and drug addaction are a huge problem.
However, no law enforcement plan (not even Amy Klobuchar's drug courts) can solve the problem of drug addiction. The best police can do is brutalise people and throw a bunch of addicted people in small county jails and make the problem worse.
It is also simply logical that a brutal repressive police force does not reduce crime. If it did, LA would be a safe paradise. So would Minneapolis.
Tamir Holland
Dennis Responds:
I have no doubt that you no darn well that crime and addiction are a huge problem in neighborhoods like Jordan. Hence the reason you live in Holland, Tamir. It's a much safer neighborhood. If I'm not mistaken, the N.E. neighborhoods just voted unanimously against allowing a development (along the rive) that would have had a high percentage of "affordable housing".
To the best of my knowledge, I have never spoken, nor conveyed the thought that I felt that ANY law enforcement plan would abate the serious problem of drug addiction. Instead, I believe that I've always expressed the feeling that we (as a society) need to look deeper and discover the "root" cause of higher drug addiction rates in specific neighborhoods.
L.A., just like MPLS (except on a larger scale) has many neighborhoods that are VERY safe... However, there are many neighborhoods (in both cities) that are not safe. To think for one moment that a police officer would conduct themselves in the same manner in VERY SAFE and VERY DANGEROUS neighborhoods(in EITHER CITY) is absurd, and beyond my comprehension. If you question that, spend a month in a patrol car in Kenwood AND Jordan and tell me that you'd react the same way in BOTH situations.
The problem isn't one of police brutality, the problem is one of keeping hopelessness bottled-up and contained in specific geographic areas. We (again as a society) need to ask ourselves WHY we continue to allow both blacks and whites to refer to each other as "us" and "them". We need to start asking ourselves if it is in ANYONE'S best interests to continue to live in a manner where ANYONE is potentially brutalized BECAUSE of their ethnic background. Good case in-point, how many CUAPB complaints are currently being investigated on the behalf of societal members that are middle-class caucasians? Would the toal number be cut in half? In a quater? Again, what's the problem and what's the symptom?
Dennis Plante Jordan
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