"Until we let cops be cops again, until we practice broken window policing again, until we use the hated 'stop and frisk' again, until we have sentencing with some teeth in it again, get used to it."
Big blaring headlines in the paper today. "17 shot in 5 days of metro mayhem". I thought for a minute I was reading the Chicago Tribune rather than the Star Tribune from Minneapolis. But alas and alack - it was the home town newspaper. It seems the current trend of shooting people for the hell of it in the hood is really catching on here in the City of Lakes. And why not? We have protected hoodlums and vilified the police. You know - kind of like what has happened in Chicago years ago. And now Chicago is more dangerous than a war zone.
I kind of feel sorry for the chamber of commerce in Minneapolis. First they have been yipping about the burdensome non-business friendly regulations that the Minneapolis City Clown-cell has imposed on them. Then the shooting gallery. They had the audacity to tell the starry eyed Mayor that her city was no longer safe. That the out of control crime was driving away visitors. Betsy as much as said shut up and sit down - we have to get ready for the Super Bowl this winter. And a good time will be had by all.
The Cedar Riverside part of town is now known to many as Little Mogadishu. Why? It is the hub of chain migration in the Twin Cities. There are times when driving through that area is truly like being overseas. Well Little Mogadishu - we would like to introduce to you to the developing Little Chicago. It lies a tad north of you, and is located up by Lowry Avenue. Or as some like to call that area, the near north side.
For you folks in Little Mogadishu who were fleeing a war zone, guess what? You have landed in another one. Only this one is not controlled by ISIS or the Taliban. This one is controlled by our out of control drug culture and the gangs who benefit from the proceeds. How bad is it? One of the people shot was a female who was just stopped at a traffic light. Some thugs rolled up next to her and opened up with gunfire. Why can't the cops do something to stem this senseless violence? Because the city leaders have insisted on the evisceration of their authority.
Some developers are thinking about pouring scads of money into the old Dayton's building and making it into a "destination location". Good luck with that one. By the way developers - check out the bus stops close to your location. Only the bravest of the brave dare visit one of them. The "Minneapolis Miracle" is rapidly becoming the "Minneapolis Mirage".
Until we let cops be cops again, until we practice broken window policing again, until we use the hated "stop and frisk" again, until we have sentencing with some teeth in it again, get used to it. All I can say to the subjects who live in the once lovely city of Minneapolis is the old familiar saying - we get the government we deserve. Remember that next month when you vote for more of the same.
Even I couldn't hold my nose long enough to vote for one of these. You are on the button about the future of the city.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why the GOP can't find a candidate to save the city. Lot's of rich people in Southwest Mpls, but not one that is willing to take on the entrenched establishment.
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
Raymond Dehn, State Representative
Al Flowers, community activist
Jacob Frey, City Council Member
Tom Hoch, former President of the Hennepin Theatre Trust
Betsy Hodges, incumbent Mayor
Nekima Levy-Pounds, civil rights activist
Jeffrey Sterling Olson
Aswar Rahman, filmmaker, businessman
Gregg Iverson, Retired employee of Minnesota Department of Transportation
Farmer Labor Party
Troy Benjegerdes
Basic Income Guarantee
Captain Jack Sparrow, Urban Housing and Occupy Movement activist
Socialist Workers Party
David Rosenfeld
Libertarian
Charlie Gers
Rainbow, Butterflies, Unicorns
David John Wilson
and the daily 45 comment............
ReplyDeleteRepetition is part of 45’s arsenal. The bone-spur bozo residing in the Oval Office, surrounded by terrified sycophants, has sinister talents. Turning the solemn rites of loss in the line of military duty into a squalid, race-tinged scandal is some achievement. And Kelly, a once honorable military man, defending 45, lost all credibility.
I will say again, your hatred is only hurting you. That is how hate works. We were due to get an Obama like President after Bush. Obama was the product of both sides of the aisle. After 8 years of Obama, people on both sides wanted a change, so we got a Trump like President. After Trump, both sides will call out for something else. Free your heart. Accept the fact Trump will be here for a while. Things will change again in either 4 or 8 years.
DeleteThe day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled, closing at 21,414.
DeleteGeneral Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $8o billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest.
While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11.
Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.
He drew down the number of troops from 180,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000, and increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He launched a program called Opening Doors which, since 2010, has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans.
He set a record 73 straight months of private-sector job growth.
Due to Obama’s regulatory policies, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 12%, production of renewable energy more than doubled, and our dependence on foreign oil was cut in half.
He signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women to sue employers for unequal pay.
His Omnibus Public Lands Management Act designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, creating thousands of miles of trails and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers.
He reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016.
For all the inadequacies of the Affordable Care Act, we seem to have forgotten that, before the ACA, you could be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition and kids could not stay on their parents’ policies up to age 26.
Obama approved a $14.5 billion system to rebuild the levees in New Orleans.
All this, even as our own Mitch McConnell famously asserted that his singular mission would be to block anything President Obama tried to do.
While Obama failed on his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that prison’s population decreased from 242 to around 50.
He expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research, supporting groundbreaking advancement in areas like spinal injury treatment and cancer.
Credit card companies can no longer charge hidden fees or raise interest rates without advance notice.
Most years, Obama threw a 4th of July party for military families. He held babies, played games with children, served barbecue, and led the singing of “Happy Birthday” to his daughter Malia, who was born on July 4.
Welfare spending is down: for every 100 poor families, just 24 receive cash assistance, compared with 64 in 1996.
Obama comforted families and communities following more than a dozen mass shootings. After Sandy Hook, he said, “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.”
Yet, he never took away anyone’s guns.
He sang Amazing Grace, spontaneously, at the altar.
He was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two terms without personal or political scandal.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
President Obama was not perfect, as no man and no president is, and you can certainly disagree with his political ideologies. But to say we suffered?"
What has 45 done? Divide, alienate, isolate!
DeleteLiberal progressive Democrats are destroying MPLS. MPLS has become a monolith without any political diversity. Our son and his young family is so very happy that they moved away from MPLS to a better school district, a more safe community and a community that is more politically diverse.
ReplyDeleteJeff Flake speech was outstanding! If more GOP were like him, I would convert.
ReplyDeleteI will be commenting with excerpts from his speech for the next 3 years.
a true conservative without radical positions, not many left
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ReplyDeleteDo you really think a reduction in corporate taxes from 35 to 20 percent will encourage companies to return 3 trillion bucks to US. No chance! Why pay ANY tax on monies not needed to operate businesses! They can borrow monies for 2%.
DeleteFrom Jeff Flake speech............
ReplyDeleteIt is clear at this moment that a traditional conservative who believes in limited government and free markets, who is devoted to free trade, and who is pro-immigration, has a narrower and narrower path to nomination in the Republican party -- the party that for so long has defined itself by belief in those things. It is also clear to me for the moment we have given in or given up on those core principles in favor of the more viscerally satisfying anger and resentment. To be clear, the anger and resentment that the people feel at the royal mess we have created are justified. But anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy.
There is an undeniable potency to a populist appeal -- but mischaracterizing or misunderstanding our problems and giving in to the impulse to scapegoat and belittle threatens to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking people. In the case of the Republican party, those things also threaten to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking minority party.
We were not made great as a country by indulging or even exalting our worst impulses, turning against ourselves, glorying in the things which divide us, and calling fake things true and true things fake.
And we did not become the beacon of freedom in the darkest corners of the world by flouting our institutions and failing to understand just how hard-won and vulnerable they are.
This spell will eventually break. That is my belief. We will return to ourselves once more, and I say the sooner the better. Because to have a healthy government we must have healthy and functioning parties. We must respect each other again in an atmosphere of shared facts and shared values, comity and good faith. We must argue our positions fervently, and never be afraid to compromise. We must assume the best of our fellow man, and always look for the good. Until that days comes, we must be
unafraid to stand up and speak out as if our country depends on it. Because it does.