This announcement is foolish indeed. Even if the Mayor and the Council intend this unwise action they should not announce it! Why don't the City Leaders just put up a "Welcome Thugs and Drugs" signs at the airport! Drug dealers in other cities already view Minneapolis as the land of "Milk" and "Money". So much so, that one dealer once told a Franklin Avenue storeowner that he had come to Minneapolis and started his business within a few hours. He said everyone (even in Chicago) knew about how good Chicago and Franklin in Minneapolis was, so he just caught a plane from Chicago Illinois and at the Minneapolis airport asked to be taken to Chicago and Franklin. Within minutes he was busy filling orders. I wonder what an announcement that not only is business lucrative in Minneapolis, with too few police, but there will be even fewer police to bother your drug business? Perhaps we will have another wave of a different kind of immigrant coming to do business in Minneapolis rather than to start new lives away from the refugee camps in Thailand. While I welcome our Hmong brothers I hope our "Thug" brothers would keep right on going!
We in Minneapolis are already 200 police officers short, and now the City wants fewer? Reminds us that most CM's and the Mayor do not live in "Impacted Neighborhoods". If they did, then perhaps they would have a different view? I have a proposition for the Mayor and Council keep police numbers high until you drive the drugs and thugs out of Minneapolis and my community and then talk about cutting police officers. Until our children are as safe as yours please do your sworn duty and make sure 'WE' have enough police protection. The Minneapolis Police Department does a commendable job with too few officers now, and what do we get for their commendable effort? A cut in the number of officers serving Minneapolis? And this is called "Planning"? Please plan a little more substance and a little less glittering fluff. This could lead to a whole new wave of "opportunity seekers" and whole new statistics on murder for turf. Such as the drug war that then U.S. Attorney David Lillehaug once took so personal. Speaking of which, who has seen a U.S. Attorney on the streets in the last four or five years. Many of us remember David walking the drug streets before going downtown to work. Doug Grow once told me about asking David Lillehaug what he thought he was doing, and David supposedly replied that walking the streets in the morning made him mad and charged him up to go on to his office do a good job when he got to work. The community sure misses that sort of personal commitment. If the Democrats win in November perhaps David's wife can be persuaded to let him do it again. Think what Minnesota has lost by David not being the U.S. Senator. David Lillehaug recently sent me a note that put "Average" and "Crime Statistics" into perspective. On the subject of "average" crime rates, as Robert Reich said during his visit here, "Add us together and divide by two, and Shaquille O'Neal and I are of average height." The falling crime statistic is absolutely correct, but might it be a little short in meaning. A falling crime statistic is a little short of meaning to the family on the short end of the stick with drug dealers threatening their children. Jim Graham, Ventura Village, Phillips Community Planning District, Third Precinct, Sixth Ward 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
