Crime and (what) Punishment?
Both the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press are (finally?) reporting about the increase in serious crime in our fair cities, something Rambix has been sounding the alarm on for many months. While the Strib's sub-headline talks about a meager 13% and 6% increase for Minneapolis and St. Paul respectively, the article buries the fact that aggrevated assualt and robberies rose by a staggering 23 and 22 percent respectively! The Strib actually interviewed (gasp!) police officials in trying to "understand" how this could possibly happen in their progressive utopia!
"You're never going to get a grip on everything and hope that crime goes away," Assistant Chief Tim Dolan said. "The harder you push on narcotics, you're going to see a growth somewhere else."
Gee, that's positive...get used to it Minneapolis...with people like this in charge of catching the criminals, it's going to get worse.
What is even better is how the Strib spins the numbers.
"The real important thing to realize is that if you're 40 or younger, we're enjoying some of the lowest crime rates of our lifetimes," said Christopher Uggen, a University of Minnesota sociology professor. "These are the good times."
Minneapolis, which as of Monday had logged 49 homicides this year, down from 55 last year, compares favorably with any large city, said criminologist Jack Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Conflict and Violence at Northeastern University in Boston.
"Boston and Minneapolis have about the rosiest murder statistics in the U.S. for big cities," he said. "Minneapolis has always enjoyed a relatively low rate of crime."
Well either Mr. Levin has forgotten "Murderapolis" or he is ignorant of the history of Minneapolis. Things were so bad here in 1995 that the NY Times dubbed us "Murderapolis" - because gangs were taking over the poorest neighborhoods and were allowed to roam freely doing what gangs do. Fast forward to 2002 where 11 year old Tyesha Edwards was killed in her own home by gang crossfire! Fast forward again to 2005 where in the spring a 15 year old was pulled off of a Minneapolis City Bus by a gang of thugs who mistook him for a rival and beat him nearly to death. Fast forward again to December 21 where another teen was brutally beaten near a city bus stop for the crime of being white.
So what is the solution to this problem? According to the PiPress article, the Minneapolis Police seem to think that installing security camera's will do the trick! Here is a radical thought...why not arrest the wrong doers and put them in jail!!!!
The truly frightening thing is that when these crimials are finally caught by the Minneapolis Police Department, they are being released by the Hennepin County Court system! Rabix again is the definative site for all of the details, but the reason I bring this up is the 2006 Senatorial election. Amy Klobuchar, the current Hennepin County Attorney, is running for the DFL nomination for the Senate seat that Mark Dayton is vacating. Anyone who is interested in their safety really need to be wary of a candidate Klobuchar. Will Senator Klobuchar make the hard choices in order to make sure that they American people are safe? No one knows for sure, although Andy from Residual Forces and KvM is certainly trying to find out. It's a pity that the local press won't do their job and get those answers for us.
posted by The Lady Logician at 12:29 PM permalink
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