This dream task force exists and has existed for years. It is called the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee of the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County. The membership of this committee consists of the Mayor, two councilmembers, two county commissioners, the police chief, the sheriff, the judges, the probation/parole officers, county attorneys and the city attorney. This committee is long on power and short on results. I will keep saying this can and should be the group that develops a long term strategic plan for managing crime in this city. I have yet to see such a plan. My requests for a plan or even some sort of report about what this committee is working on has fallen on deaf ears.
While the CJCC committee sits on coast, we have a city council debating whether or not we should allow landlords to charge application fees to reimburse for the cost of doing tenant screening. The very screening those of us in the inner-city have encouraged our landlords to do to protect us from getting neighbors with "out of control" living skills and gangster behavior. And while I'm here, a comment to doubting Thomas Searles. I attended a meeting a long time ago in a neighborhood represented by the 3rd police precinct. Far away from Dennis Plante's northside war zone. The commander of the police precinct reported then that 60% of the drug purchasers and "johns" frequenting the southside were from OUTSIDE Minneapolis. Thomas, do you think we sit and make this crap up? Please, we have way too many real stories to bother with fiction. And to Ms. Gallagher. The young single mothers you described in your post are as afraid of the drug dealer thugs that terrorize the blocks as the two parent fully employed families. Terror sees no boundaries. Poor people are just as victimized by the criminal thugs and want them gone just as badly as anyone else. I can attest to that personally. My neighbor across the street is a single mother of 5 children. Yes, she is poor. But her kids are well behaved and respectful and she is quiet and keeps her place up. She and her kids spent the summer being terrorized by the family from "hell" living upstairs from them. Two of her kids spent most of their time at my house afraid to be by their own home. They had what little belongings they owned stolen from them, they had their lives threatened and they lived imprisoned in the house. The smile on the woman's face when I see her on her porch now that we got rid of the gangsters tells the whole story. It also has made all the hard work I did to get rid of the tenants from hell all worthwhile. 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
