Post in Dyna-mite Hawthorne/Mpls Issues community BBQ

Aug 08 23:11 UTC

In the mid 1990s, the Phillips neighborhood was the epicenter of violent crime
and drug dealing in Minneapolis.  Today, my impression is the situation there
is much improved.  Crime has shifted to other neighborhoods.

Wizard Marks describes a similar situation where she lives.  She suggests that
hard work by cooperating neighbors, with the help of city and state officials,
turned her neighborhood around - and this is the model that Dyna Sluyter should
use in fighting crime in the Hawthorne neighborhood.

It seems to me there are two points of view - the neighborhood “pulling
together to fight crime” and those who want government to do this for them.  I
fall in the second category.  But if the other theory has produced good
results, it deserves to be considered.

Back in the bad old days of high crime in Phillips, putting pressure on city
government to take more aggressive action against criminals was always part of
the equation.  A woman named Donna Ellringer made it her  personal business to
run drug dealers and other criminals off her block. For this, she was
considered a supporter of vigillante-type justice. Some supporters of Sharon
Sayles Belton pulled her hair at a campaign event for carrying a sign that read
“A vote for Sharon is a vote for crime.”  The mayor’s own bodyguard - one of
the five gentlemen involved in the recent racial-discrimination lawsuit against
the police department - fired gun shots at a car driven by Donna’s husband,
Maurice, after he had rescued his wife from the hair pullers.

The “Park Avenue block club” (including the Ellringers) came up with the clever
idea of producing a brochure for a “Crack Tour” of Phillips to show where
criminal activity might be found.  Two landlords conducted more than twenty
such tours in a minivan.  The visiting dignitaries in the back seat (including
Congressman Jim Ramstad) could see how easy it was to buy crack cocaine on the
streets as Minneapolis police squad cars drove by.  The purpose was to
embarrass city government, and especially the police, into doing something
about the problem.  Finally, Gov. Arne Carlson became so frustrated by the
city’s “Murderapolis” reputation that he had National Guard helicopters fly
over the city and shine spotlights down into the streets.  The governor was
much criticized for this but he had made his point. Eventually the problem was
solved in Phillips.

The point is that the tradition of complaining, one way or another, about
inadequate police protection in Minneapolis is quite old.  It, too, seems to
have gotten results.  Dyna Sluyter is doing this quite effectively in her own
way.  She should not be shamed into abandoning her complaints because this
approach does not conform to the party line.

Wizard Marks suggests that heavy investment by government and business in once
crime-ridden parts of south Minneapolis helped to turn the situation around
there.  That’s well and good, but what do we do about the criminals? Should we
sit back and let them all kill themselves or commit crimes serious enough to go
to prison?  Should the mayor exercise his power under the charter to deputize
citizens to go after the criminals with guns?  I do think it reasonable to ask
the city to do something besides send housing inspectors to punish the owners
of buildings.

What should government do?  The carrot and the stick.  The carrot would be to
provide plenty of resources to help young people before they get into trouble
with the law.  The stick would be to punish those who commit serious crimes,
especially on a repeat basis.  That’s my opinion anyhow.  The crime problem
should be left mainly to government to solve. And the problem should be solved
as a whole, not merely be shifted from one neighborhood to another according to
the allocation of police resources.

But since we have a serious difference of opinion here, the issue needs to be
discussed and debated further.  Let people do this in the e-democracy forum,
and let them do this in person at a picnic.  And yes, we do need to have some
City Council members participate in the discussion.  It’s an important one.