My, My, My, talk about inflammatory rhetoric and heat without light. Chris Johnson has certainly provided it. Crass and arrogant indeed. I do not seem to remember Mr. Johnson being present at that meeting to have any standing at all to question anyone's memory. I did offer some others who were in attendance. Whatever "vague recollections" I may have had are certainly more accurate than someone's fantasy that was not there. In Johnson's fantasy gangs perhaps never did come to Minneapolis.
My point was that there was such a statement and it was, and is, not just legend. Chris is correct, however, about no comparison between New York and Minneapolis. New York has aggressively addressed its problems to a point where some of its crime rates look better than Minneapolis. Lets look at murder rates. How does Minneapolis compare to New York? Lets look at rape rate; Minneapolis has far surpassed New York for the last twenty years. Again Johnson is correct, NO COMPARISON! Perhaps Chris does not think the safety of women is that important, but many of us do. Some talk on list about the relative safety of walking down in once infested areas of New York now with confidence in their safety. Those same people compare it to being afraid to walk to some of the clubs in downtown Minneapolis because of more street crime. I guess those "List posters" are just part of a myth also. When I posted I intended to only look at the supposed "urban myth", not Tony Bouza as a whole. I also did not include Tony Bouza in the "Open Public Official" category. Tony was never elected to anything; the Mayor and City Council of Minneapolis hired him. As such he never was a public official in my mind. To let a little warm air from Mr. Johnson's swollen balloon, I had no intention at character assassination of Tony Bouza. Tony Bouza remains probably the most open Police Chief in my memory. Tony Bouza from his office was always open and acted immediately to help people. I actually admired Tony Bouza. That has nothing to do with Tony making those asinine statements and his discounting the coming flood of crime that would engulf some Minneapolis Neighborhoods. Tony Bouza was one of the most human of Minneapolis Police Chiefs, but he did not walk on water. He was capable of, and did, make that stupid statement and terrible mistake. Humans do that sort of thing. I was not that bothered by Chris doubting the truthfulness of my statement. Such small things are to be laughed at. I am however more than a little warm about his discounting the seriousness of the problem that beset the residents of the Phillips neighborhood and implying theirs was a hysterical fantasy. Chris Johnson writes, >"The scenario may have been this: > Fact -- one Chicago gang moved into Phillips. > > Phillips resident: "Holy moly! Gangs are taking over Minneapolis! Our > city is being turned into endless drug houses! Gangs are shooting > everybody! The sky is falling! The biggest problem we face is gangs! > Do something!" > > Chief Bouza: "Gang problems? I'll show you gang problems. Look at > NYC. Minneapolis doesn't have a gang problem. Your neighborhood has a > problem with what appears to be a gang." Here are some facts for Johnson and any who may have had a head buried in the sand or anatomical features for the last several years: Fact: SEVERAL gangs moved into Phillips and began a shooting turf war for prime drug sales locations. Perhaps Chris thinks the children murdered in those neighborhoods were just the imagination of a mid-western over reaction to "Big City" life? Perhaps fifty drug dealers on one block doing open business in front of residents, cops, and God does not compare to really bad cities in Mr. Johnson's mind. But if it is your block, if it is your wife being threatened and having a cement block thrown threw the window at her while sitting breast feeding a baby, if it is your children who are laying on the ground under gunfire from a gang shootouts it is a little more serious. (One of those children, now a man sat through another such shootout a week ago that occured at 911 East 21st Street with three or four gang members firing twenty or so rounds at each other. So the Chicken Little is still upset. The sky might not have been falling but the bullets were fling and keep on flying. That son recently returned to Minneapolis from the Iraq conflict and may have been shot down the street from his own house. Remember folks; bullets that miss do not just disappear into the air. They DO keep going and hit other things) If you stand and look at a couple of small Indian children laying in coffins in a couple of week period and are amazed at how small and frail they look to already have been gunned down and imagine your own child in their place, you also might think the sky was falling. As I have said before, for the white affluent middle class who object to Minneapolis and its leaders being insulted by bringing up these facts such things are not that big a deal or a catastrophe. But, to the mothers of those children and their community it was a world catastrophe. I am sorry we appeared to be nothing more than a bunch of scared chickens running around hysterically when we asked to have our community declared a "National Disaster Area". Chris says, "You praise Scallon for listening to the people. I've never met a CM in > a non-political event until Lisa McDonald." I say Chris should become more involved in Minneapolis life and making the City better. Chris should get out more. City Council Members are easy to meet, heck most of them want to meet you. Go over knock on their door and talk to them. City Council Members live in your community and are just plain old people (though some of them may think better of themselves). As for Tony Scallon listening, while Chris does not say that did not happen, he may seem to imply it. Chris, it might surprise you to know that as a matter of normal business I, on behalf of the neighborhood, would send in problem properties, gang houses, and drug houses to Tony Scallon. Tony Scallon would send them on to Chief Bouza or the Third Precinct Commander with a letter requiring that a written response be written detailing what action was taken to address that problem before the next neighborhood meeting. If that response did not occur, or if the response was not adequate to successfully address the problem, Tony Scallon would be on the phone wanting to know why. Chief Bouza participated in that activity and made it happen. (Something that should be happening at present time) I may have had major disagreements with Tony Scallon about PNIA, but Scallon was the most responsive Council Member I have ever experienced. Sometimes the response was NOT what I wanted, but he was more responsive and more involved than any Council Person in my experience. Graham's urban fact IS a great deal more than fantasy. Chris please do not feel that this is dumping on you, many of the uninvolved in Minneapolis also participate in a fantasy of discounting the things that they have no personal experience with. The amazing thing is that those same people who discount the problems of "Impacted Neighborhoods" also participate into blowing them all out of proportion. So they are so scared of inner city neighborhoods that they believe the people in them in some way deserve what happens. Talk about fantasy! This has been and is both a sourse of much of the problems for "Impacted Neighborhoods". Jim Graham, Ventura Village >"It is always an utter folly to underestimate the lure and attraction of a great evil. The whitened bones of their victims litter the highways and byways of mankind's history. Stopped only by the few willing to pay the ultimate price and make a stand." - Toe REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. 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