Dorothy Titus makes a pretty strong point about being an entire shift short of officers. I know the cops are currently expected to do way more with less. They have taken on responsibility to start the investigation at the time of the police call. That adds time to each crime. I know non-violent crimes get little attention at all. Hell, even violent ones don't go far. When my son got whacked in the head I didn't get a call from an investigator on that crime for 3 1/2 months and that was to tell me without further evidence the case was closed. If a white kid in Eagan got whacked by some stranger and took 9 staples in his head, every t.v. channel and newspaper reporter in town would have been hovering and Tim Pawlenty would have been on T.V. screaming for justice. But, because it happened to a black inner-city kid, it drew not even a bat of an eye. I think the "impacted" crime ridden neighborhoods probably already get more attention from the police than anywhere else in the city. Adding more police would certainly allow there to be more arrests. We could arrest the same criminal element twice as much as we are arresting them now. So instead of having 100 arrests on their rap sheet and still being on the street they could have 200 arrests. If we are not placing any of them in jail or mandatory long term treatment than what does it matter how many times the police arrest them? The fact that they are continually allowed to get away with a variety of crimes and placed right back on the same streets they commit them on is the problem. Show me one gangbanger that commits a murder with no previous arrests for anything. Show me one! Yesterday, well-meaning citizens and the politicians held yet one more candle in a vigil. They grabbed one more media moment proselytizing. (although I have to say I liked what Natalie Johnson Lee had to say) For two hours the group found comfort knowing there are others like them that feel scared and unsafe in their homes but don't know how it can possibly change. People cried and yelled and screamed. But what change will come from this vigil? What change came from the last 100 vigils? We head into yet another summer with no plans to address crime in "impacted" "inner-city" neighborhoods and no talk of developing a concerted plan to address it except to demand we add more police to arrest more people who won't go to jail or treatment. There are fractionalized groups unwilling to work together to develop a plan for fear that credit for the work will be ripped from them. There are elected officials running in every direction trying to take credit from the actual people doing the work because this is the year the public gives them their performance review. There are others trying to become elected officials giving good sound bite about adding more police because that is what good law abiding citizens want to hear. According to professional election pundits you have 7 seconds to reach a citizen on political mail to constituents before they pitch it in the garbage. ADD MORE POLICE! and VOTE FOR ME! and a smiling mug takes about 7 seconds. Again, as in previous posts I mention that we have a group called the CRIMINAL JUSTICE COORDINATING COMMITTEE of the city and county that is supposed to be coordinating crime issues. The committee membership is made up of the police chief, the sheriff, judges, parole and probation officers, the mayor, county attorneys, county commissioners, city attorneys and city council members. I thought I had discovered gold when I heard about this committee that had supposedly been in operation for over 10 years. That was 5 years ago now. Oddly enough, the council member representatives on this committee represent wards that have very little of the violent crime that occurs on the northside or in parts of the southside. Why is that? For that matter the majority of membership on the CJCC committee sleep in communities where you can hear a pin drop at night. The fear of a stray bullet piercing their house is as foreign an idea to them as a bomb from Iraq. I know that this committee has a l ot of power in it's membership and I have a hard time believing this committee cannot be used in a more productive way to coordinate meaningful efforts. This could and should be the nucleus for coordinating a plan to bring about real change in how the city and county manages crime. It needs citizen membership, it needs the council members from high crime areas and it needs someone besides me talking about it. It also appears to need a good kick in the......... How about adding more long term treatment and transitional housing facilities NOT located a 1/2 block from the place they were dealing or doing drugs? Ya know MADDADS is doing great work but V.J. Smith and his cadre of people need more money and more help. How about more jail cells but making jail a place where the criminals can get an education or develop an actual job skill and making performance in these programs conditional for release? How about a real plan to desegregate impacted neighborhoods by providing real opportunities for economically and socially disenfranchised people to live in neighborhoods all over the city not just be clustered in a few of them. A CVI could be more successful on Lake Calhoun than it is on Franklin and Elliot. ( It is a proven fact that children who live in stable neighborhoods do better in school) This can be accomplished through long term plans for where housing projects are sited and zoning code changes that would support those long term plans. How about working with the school board to establish well communicated programs for volunteers to come into the schools during and after school hours to work with students who may need the extra help because they don't have a family support system that values education. There is some of that now but not nearly enough. How about the churches opening their doors to kids every day so they have safe havens all over the neighborhood? There are some that do a great job but very few. I see a lot of vacant churches in the city that only open their doors on Sunday mornings or for small periods of time during the week. Isn't there federal money now for churches to reach out to at risk kids? Is it impossible for someone at the city or school board to help commandeer a coordinated effort on this? Again, it's all part of a well developed plan and we have none and no one is stepping up to the plate to coordinate one that has the power. Until then, the candle makers are going to do very well. And summer is coming soon! Stay tuned for the sequel. Barb Lickness Whittier
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