When it's warm enough for criminals to stay out on the street corners all night it's warm enough to for them to sleep in tents. And if memory serves me right we already have several large chunks of fenced off land already in city inventory- the waterworks immediatly comes to mind, but I'm sure we have others.
So on the first warm night of spring these drug dealers, thieves, gangbangers, etc. come out and ply their sick trades, assuming the usual "catch and release" treatment if even they get hauled off to jail. Imagine there surprise when the get cuffed and loaded on a Metro Transit bus following a police sweep up and down 26th, Chicago, and all the other notorious avenues. The buses fill up and drive right into a massive empty hall in our Convention Center complex.
Our perps, wondering why they ever left the "safety" of Chicago, KC, or St.Louie are greeted by night shift judges, attorneys, bailiffs, the whole cast. Those who want to get some sleep tonight wisely plead guilty and get back on the busses for a ride to "Camp Minneapolis" Those remaining are shown a quick video of their offenses, and most wisely change there plea and catch the next bus. Those insisting on their day in court will get it sometime around dawn... there are no plea bargains here. By the time the sun is high in the sky most have been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and caught the last bus (of the day) to Camp Minneapolis.
They'll get to join the wiser ones who plead guilty in putting in the crops and building the barracks in case they decide to reoffend and stay the winter. Sort of like "Prairie House", except there's no $100,000 bonus after a year's sentence...
Dream on... Minneapolis is in denial and will not take crime seriously until the gangbangers take over City Hall AND the whole Nicollet Mall business district. In the meantime, we citizens will have to take matters into our own hands.
On Tuesday, April 20, 2004, at 11:26 AM, Dennis Plante wrote:
Somehow, someway, we've got to find a way to get the City agencies to work together to combat problems such as these. Far too often, residents are left in the position of - if they want to live in a "safe" neighborhood, they have to beg, cajole, and even at times, harass inspections/police/SAFE/council members, etc... to obtain what should be a given.
Perhaps a class action suit against the city and other levels of government by crime victims in the impacted neighborhoods, charging negligence and bias in policing and dumping of criminals in these neighborhoods?
I am tired of hearing and the perpetrators "rights", or the fact that the individual can't be stopped and questioned because of the concern for "profiling". I see absolutely nothing wrong with a squad stopping and asking a group of young males standing on the street corner what they're up to, and that it's time to move along. Geez, I live in a neighborhood where the majority of the residents ARE African American. I can also say that I know my African American neighbors well enough to say that they don't like living this way either. Maybe it's time we started worrying a little bit more about the rights of the majority of the people that live in these neighborhoods and feel like they're in prison?
Sounds like some of these cops have a "Stanek attitude"- they figure all law abiding folks should move to Maple Grove like they did. Unfortunately, a lot of us are stuck in Jordan, Hawthorne, Phillips, Whittier, etc.. because we can't afford Maple Grove home prices.
My wife and I went down and stood on the corners of 26th & Knox, James, Irving, and Humboldt last evening for roughly 15 minutes each. Other than the odd looks we received from passersby (not expecting to see a middle-aged caucasian male dealing drugs), we reported the fact that three young dealers (we watched the transaction) were currently sitting on the steps of a rental property (and the fact that they didn't live there) at the corner of Humboldt & 26th to a passing squad. The immediate response was that they were concerned about "profiling" and that we probably shouldn't be standing there as it wasn't safe for us to do so. Think about it for a second. My wife and I can't stand on a street corner in our own neighborhood because it's not safe? Doesn't anyone see a problem with this?
It's been proven that anyone that even remotely resembles a drug dealer will get police attention within 15 minutes in Kenwood...
Dennis Plante Jordan
From: Barbara Lickness <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] Spring has sprung and so have the thugs - UPDATE Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 06:32:44 -0700 (PDT)
Since Friday I found out that we were not the only people victimized by the thugs. Someone on 29th and Pleasant was hit and also two people on 27th and Nicollet. There are probably more.
>From what information I have gathered it was two males riding around in an older model car like a Caprice doing "jump outs". They cinch their hooded sweatshirts around their faces tightly so you can't identify them.
The Caprice like most gangbangers cars is probably a rolling probable cause... but our traffic squads are busy raising revenue on Hiawatha and the Hennipen Avenue bridge instead.
My neighbor got his wallet back from a nice guy who found it on Nicollet and Franklin. Everything was in tact except for a bit of cash and his Social Security card. So, now he is dealing with notifying the 3 main credit agencies that his SS card was stolen to prevent potential identity theft.
I got several e-mails off list from people. Thanks a lot for your support. I also got some suggesting we get a gun.
Given that most of the opponents of Concealed Carry live in the suburbs and have day jobs they're not going to be around to protect us when we get mugged coming home from work late at night. Our budget cut police force may respond in a couple hours.... Thusly many of us are sadly being forced to acquire and carry firearms.
My husband and I dissected the incident to see if having a gun would have changed the scenario. If my husband owned a gun (I am glad he doesn't especially when I whip out that "honey do" list) in all likelihood he wouldn't have been packin' the piece while sitting on the back steps having a brew. If he had a gun on him that night would he have taken it out? The guy was already standing there with his gun cocked, aimed and ready to fire. Would it make sense for my husband to brandish his gun in response? I don't think so. In all likelihood he would have been shot if he had. My hunch is that if my husband had a gun on him that night it would have been stolen and there would be one more illegal stolen weapon out there.
Quite correct- you wouldn't want to draw a gun in this situation. But you still might want to have it handy if it turned ugly...
At any rate, we are way more aware now. My husband and neighbor still use the back stoop. My neighbor just faces the street now so he can see who is coming. My "honey do" list got a little bigger and I have planned the long overdue block club meeting. Yippee Ki Yi Yo.
Your earlier plan to fence in the yard makes sense too... In fact the city should subsidize fences as an anti crime measure. Fencing off the yard forces the criminal to penetrate another later of security to get to you, your home, etc.. Fences also deny criminals the use of yards as cover and forces them into the street where they can more easily be controlled.
hanging on in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________
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
