O.K. so we ban smoking throughout the entire city. Exactly what will the consequences be if you are caught lighting up? How will it be enforced and who will enforce it? At what cost? Who will pay for enforcement? Will this fall under the jurisdiction of the regular beat cops? Would we call 911 if we saw someone smoking in a building? Would it be the Community Response Team? The Sheriff? Business Licensing? Would we have to wait until they gather enough info. to get a warrant to enter the building? Just how would this all work? Quite frankly I think law enforcement is struggling just to enforce the "bans" we have now.
Right now I am dealing with the "house from hell" on the corner of my block. Selling stolen guns and selling drugs are banned in this city too. Someone forgot to tell the people in the corner house. I am convinced that the thugs in this house are connected to my husbands mugging last Friday. From what we can tell there are about 25 - 30 people living in two units of a tri-plex. I found out today that there is a guy living there with 57 felonies for drugs, burglary, assault, domestic violence and guns. This guy has an active bench warrant. Tell me how this guy is walking the street? If we pass a no-smoking in buildings ban maybe I can hand him a cigarette and he will be arrested. The police have been very helpful and are working on this issue. As usual it takes time to gather enough information and evidence to do a bust. In fact tonight I made a request for extra patrolling down our block and I have seen several police cars responding to my request. As a result it is quiet in paradise tonight. In the meantime, I am a little uneasy. We are having a block club meeting on Sunday and after they get rid of the dangerous people we will attempt to educate the misinformed landlord about screening their tenants better. We have decided if they won't come to our meeting we may just hold the meeting on the lawn of their house on Lake of the Isles. I'll keep you posted. 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 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
