Connie Beckers wrote:
Anyone else in North Mpls, specifically the Folwell neighborhood, hear a lot of gunfire last night between 9 and 10 pm? ....
I was at work then, but I'm starting to hear gunfire again at night after a quiet winter.
I hear that. Sitting here watching sunset over the car dealers, having just heard from reliable sources that we are in for one dilly of a summer, hip deep in the drug trade fallout. I also understand that I'm gearing up for another of those battles I haven't had to contend with since about 2000, I think. I, too, am tired just remembering what all goes into combating this level of crap--again.
While our once fair city has yet to report crime statistics for later than last november, clearly crime is the only growth industry in the 'hoods of both the north and south sides. Here in Hawthorne we're approaching record numbers of boarded buildings again, and my block is maybe half full if you count all the homeless squatters. And as I write our firefighters just arrived at a call, but are waiting for our overworked police to arrive and secure the scene.
My foster son, now an adult who lives with us, was robbed at gun point on our front porch. In the last two weeks double the number of prostituted women have appeared, and they're not local women either. The number of drug dealers has skyrocketed and none of the newbies are local. (We had more or less come to an "accommodation" with the locals, but the influx of newbies began about 6-8 wks. ago, and these jerks deliberately alienate everyone for miles, to make it easier for the drug trade, while simultaneously recruiting our teenagers and pre-teens into the gangs.)
Connie and Wizard, clearly you good citizens have a better read on Minneapolis' crime trends than our police department and their politician bosses. The Strib has been keeping up to date stats on the murders at least, reporting an almost unheard of 13 in the first three cold winter months of this year. That number rose from 12 when bullet wounds were found in an elder who Minneapolis police thought had died of natural causes in his home. One wonders if perhaps other murders have been conveniently ignored to keep the tally down- when a house fire took the life of a child in Hawthorne a few weeks ago, police appeared to be searching the neighborhood for a suspect. That fire had a height, speed, and intensity of flame more typical of an "accelerant" than a wood frame structure. Was this our 14th murder? Are there others mislabeled as "accidental deaths"?
Word on the street and from youth outreach workers is that hoards of drug gang bangers are moving into the city from the west coast and Chicago for the summer, both bloods and crips, but others as well. They're moving in and setting up business and have no clue as to who the local bloods and crips are, and whose just a "cousin" but not quick enough to avoid the lure of gangs. There will be turf wars this summer among all these gunsels and all us people who live here will be the victims right along with whoever gets shot, fire bombed, beaten, robbed. The lucky ones will only be scared witless.
I continue to be amazed that our politicians cannot seem to understand the annual criminal migration to Minneapolis. It's damn cold here in the winter and damn hot and humid in the summer in Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City, or Chicago... so the criminals like snowbirds come back every spring. If our politicians really understood they'd be throwing everything they had at these migrant miscreants now. After realizing that Minneapolis is no "open city" for criminals they'd be outa town by memorial day. But per usual after the bodies are piling up at an embarrassing rate we'll get some action around labor day, maybe.
We are back to men whistling signals in the street at 3 a.m. Up and down the street our cars have been vandalized, not once, but twice for some and three times for others. Right now I have to rebuild and change the type of fencing in my back yard to create protected off street parking for car, bicycles, garbage cans, and recycle containers. Gang members, in order to intimidate people who might consider peeping out their windows and dialing 911, defecate in the recycle containers, steal the garbage cans to use to carry the loot from break-ins they commit (dumping the garbage around, of course), and steal and vandalize the cars. Not to mention that if they can make tracks through the yard, our quality of life is gone, and our likelihood of being broken into rises dramatically.
Sounds sadly familiar- here on the Northside any car that sits outside gets broken into.
Already the smallest and therefore most vulnerable of us, also a good looking young woman, can no longer walk down the block to the bus stop without hassle. One jerk circled around the area three times, then finally parked his car and came up to her on foot to insist that she "ride" with him. Johns just turn my stomach anyway, creepy troglodytes that they are. Wolf whistles, come ons, crap constantly from every male with a big mouth and a tiny brain. I feel very bad for her, the locals had quit trying that ploy.
The 'hood is tough on us older folks too- last week I ended up in the emergency room after damn near fainting. Turns out that due to stress my digestive system wasn't and I was essentially on a fast. I'm on acid blocking medication now and regaining my strength. And I'm not about to let our politician's ignorance of out of control crime here in the hood kill me.
What's even worse, I want to cut and run, and say the hell with it all. Been here, done this, got the t-shirt.
I'm just about outa here- I'm buying the place in Starbuck. I've got a year and a few days before I can retire, and with several months of accrued vacation and sick leave I can take off around the end of this year. This will hopefully be the last summer I will be imprisoned in one of Minneapolis' criminal containment zones.
BTW Connie and Wizard- there's plenty of underpriced homes and buildings left for you in Starbuck and other greater Minnesota towns- why not join us!
headin' outa Hawthorne,
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