"Broken window" policing and graffiti

"In the local paper this morning, there was an article about taxpayer money being squandered just to keep up with the proliferation of graffiti artists. Young hoodlums in training, are 'tagging' anything and everything they choose to."

Before I get started on the subject at hand, let me first tell you about what I saw on the news this morning. It was an article about St. Louis, Missouri. You know, St. Louis - the Gateway City? The city with the humungous arch? Like most of the big, blue cities in this country right now, they have a huge crime problem. In fact, they just registered a 50 year high in homicides. 50 year! And the new liberal Democrat Mayor - what is her solution? Defund and re-imagine the police. Once again, the sane law and order types, are left just to shake their heads in total amazement. 

What about our little piece of paradise? The Mill City? Well, it was yet another bloody weekend. Little kids being shot, a young man just graduating from St. Thomas being shot, plus others killed and wounded. Our City Council believes that "violence disrupters" and "community influencers" are the solution. Good luck with that one! Meanwhile, crimes which are less severe than homicide are growing in scope and depth. In other words, "broken windows" policing is all but a distant memory. Many of the lawless, now have the run of the land.

When Rudy Giuliani was asked by the citizens of New York City to clean the place up, he started with a basic premise. Any law being broken, is law breaking. In other words, a broken window, done by a perp, is going to be punished. Start with enforcing the small laws, and then the more serious crimes will start to diminish. It worked. The crime stats in NYC fell like a rock under Rudy's leadership. 

In the local paper this morning, there was an article about taxpayer money being squandered just to keep up with the proliferation of graffiti artists. Young hoodlums in training, are "tagging" anything and everything they choose to. Hard to find any kind of railroad car, which does not have some kind of garbage painted on it. These are private property which belongs to a private enterprise. The tagging on I-35 infrastructure is a crime against all taxpayers. But it just goes on. No stopping these taggers. Just cleaning up their mess, on the taxpayer dime.

Minneapolis is on the super highway to become another St. Louis. Or another Chicago. No more sleepy little "cold Omaha". Now we want to be big league. "Murderapolis" we have been called in the past. Nice name, for a town made famous by Lou Grant and Mary Tyler Moore. It is a town now, that most sane people are staying a long way from. 

Back to St. Louis. This is a city which has not practiced "broken window" policing for just about forever. Some woman was interviewed on the news about the mess in St. Louis. "Most of us don't have to be too concerned, as we just don't go there. The suburbs we live in have police who are empowered. We do worry however, if we have to go into St. Louis to see a sporting event." 

Minneapolis, you are not dead yet, but are close to being on life support. People don't want to live there, work there, eat there, or go to sporting events there. What few cops who remain, are treated with total disrespect. Almost to the point of young thugs being abusive towards law enforcement.

Minneapolis is now reaping what is has sown. The town is littered with crime and graffiti. Driving in parts of the city is like being on a Hollywood set, filming a movie about a dystopian future. Only this is reality. This is Jacob Frey's and Lisa Bender's mess - their reality. As for the rest of us, we will stay in our universe, and out of this alternate universe, called Minneapolis.