David Brady Writes:
Are you serious? Do you really think theres some "silent majority" keeping the police out of N. Mpls? Being that you live there maybe your so immune to the site of the police but all I know is that I see more police in that neigborhood than any other in the city with S.Mpls being second, I suppose you will say its superficial. I truely empathize with the problem in general but don't feel this blame attitude is beneficial to anyone. I think the only way this neighborhood will get better is when the neighbors take back there neighborhood!
Dennis Plante Responds:
Yes actually I am serious. David Brauer is partly correct when he states that increased patrol officers in neighborhoods such as mine, or Jim Grahams (in South Minneapolis) are going to only come at the expense of something else. Which special interest group in our city is willingly going to give-up what they want for what we need? It becomes a matter of priorities.
As for the neighbors taking back their neighborhoods. They do not have the tools to do so, without the sustained stability that will onyl come by dramatically increasing police presence. I have seen numerous occaissions where, after a tragic incident, police presence is stepped-up for a short time, and the "problem" goes away. After a very finite period of time, the police presence is ramped back down and the "problem" comes back.
The night the 15 year-old boy was killed last year 3-blocks from my house? I called 911 3 times prior to the shooting to report a gang of 20-25 youths milling in-front of my house after curfew. The dispatchers' response? It'll be a couple of hours before a squad arrives, there is a backlog of more pressing matters to attend to.
A 50 year-old female neighbor of mine was brutally beaten last spring when she called 911 on a group of young dealers standing on a street corner.
Another female neighbor of mine (they have since moved), in th course of one-year, was threatened twice with bodily harm (once with a gun) for calling 911. She went to court and testified. In that same time span, she and her husband witnessed a kidnapping in their alley (a teenager was made to get in the trunk of a car at gunpoint). They have since moved from the neighborhood.
I have had 2 windows broken-out of my truck, a tire slashed and body damage done to it, I am sure because it is widely known on the streets I want to "take back my neighborhood". Probably about $3,000 out-of-pocket in the last six-months on this one alone.
Currently, there simply is not an adequate number of police resources to stabilize the situation and do what you propose. Unless of course you are suggesting that the "neighbors" all start packing weapons and making citizens arrests.
Dennis Plante Jordan
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