Well, you all knew I'd chime in sooner or later so I'll be as brief as I can.
To be honest, I never bought in to the charges of corruption against Brian
Herron or Joe Biernat either, and being a staunch opponent of Minneapolis
Police behavior towards anyone who is black or counter cultural in anyway, no
one wanted to see Joe Biernat defeated more than me.
But it didn't happen during the course of an election, it happened, ironically,
as a result of abuse of power by law enforcement and as a result of what I
still believe was an attempt by the Bush administration to erode confidence in
their natural political opponents. The much publicized FBI wiretapping of
Philadelphia Mayor John Street's office, just before his own election confirmed
this in my mind. This sort of thing has also happened in Detroit and San
Francisco.
I may have been the only one rooting for Joe to beat them and serve out his
term.
Yet, interestingly Bernard Kerrick was no longer police chief when he finally
faced corruption allegations. I'm very suspicious of all of this and here's
why:
I challenged Dean Zimmermann as a candidate, both within the Green Party and
later in the general election. There are many legitimate criticisms, but he's
just too damn stubborn to be influenced.
According to the Star Tribune article, he voted against the position he was
allegedly bribed to take. Dean HAS been the lone vote on many issues, he's not
afraid of looking ridiculous because no one agrees with him...I think he sort
of enjoys it. To me this doesn't really add up.
Robert Lilligren generally agrees with police federation positions on law
enforcement issues, Dean Zimermann almost never agrees with them. The
Federation Has been more pro-Republican lately.
In both FBI investigations that occurred before a primary, Robert Lilligren was
the main opponent, and he did become Vice President very shortly after being
elected.
Corruption or not, If I lived in the 6th ward, I would be supporting Dean
Zimmermann for ideological reasons. I don't buy in to the crime demagoguery and
I do not want the MPD to have more power in this city.
Speaking of political corruption, it may be Zimmermann who's accused of being a
crook, but it's Lilligren and Peter McLaughlin who are using Richard Nixon's
political rhetoric.
So the next politician who comes up to me and says that crime is sooooooo bad
that we need to go back to the way Jackie Cherryhomes ran Minneapolis, when
police could shoot and kill people who were mentally ill, and close down the
Hard Times Cafe because some idiot sold a dime bag to a cop in his apartment
and happened to also work at the cafe,....the next politician who talks about
the silent majority and generally says other code words for "we need to keep
Black folks, hippies, punks and bums in line"........
....this person will be handed my autographed Richard Nixon campaign button,
and be told, "there. That looks more like you!"
Tamir Nolley
Now in Longfellow (i think)
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