What’s the worst part of this ordeal for you? For me, a big negative is listening to politicians talk about it. It depletes my soul. In an election year, we hear a lot of candidates sweeten their description of our current problems, but I think most would agree, we’re not where we want to be…or could be. And that was all BEFORE the one multiple shooting, the other multiple shooting, the horrible mass shooting, and the other fatal shootings just in the last 6 days. It’s too much to keep up with.
We hear politicians and govt. officials talk and we all sense that, after everything that’s happened, words about how bad we feel, and how wrong it is seem pretty worthless. Because we all know, and it’s already being proven, that nothing is changing, or getting better. Additionally, it feels as if, now we’re being asked to decide if we should care more about this murder victim, or that one. This victim was closer to my house, these victims were the same race as me, these 2 were the same age as my own kids. Are we obliged to pick and choose which murder victims to mourn, and which ones to forget about? This one we can accept, this one should never have happened, this one, sort of had it coming. It’s all very confusing, awkward, and off putting.
Politicians say “love each other,” or, “we’re strongest together,” as if, just tearfully speaking the words somehow improves our mindsets. I’d like to offer an alternative perspective…it’s all wrong, it’s all unfair and none of it is reasonable, necessary, or acceptable. We all know, not in America, not in Minnesota and certainly not in Minneapolis can we expect to live crime-free or murder-free. This is a nation embroiled in gun violence and there’s no coming away completely clean from it all…no matter where you live. But the level of violence we are living with in this city today is a direct result of a failure of our local government to properly protect and secure us, and that is a truthful statement no politician will make.
Politicians talk, but they don’t come out and say what we all know. “We do not have enough police!” It’s been that way for OVER 5 years now. The police we do have are not able to properly operate and efficiently challenge, investigate, and prosecute crimes. They are literally prioritizing which crimes to address and which crimes to allow. Their operational strategy has been handicapped to a degree that has created the very out-of-control situation we find ourselves in now. A downward spiral of worsening results. Despite what anyone might try to explain using statistics, we all see that things are far worse today, than they were 5 years ago.
More than words, we need actions, deeds, physical changes, results. We need a comprehensive plan to overhaul our police department and public safety system. Not another new spokesman, not a new second or third in command to distance the mayor from his responsibilities. Not some light tinkering on the outside edges of some fringe policy or regulation. A bold set of new-era ideas that can properly and permanently solve this problem and take us out of our 1960s style policing and into the 21st century. A plan that decidedly ends rampant crime and unsafe conditions threatening to turn this entire city upside down.
While policing is not my experience or mastery, luckily, it’s also not rocket science. We have proven solutions. Cities have turned these problems around. Successful examples abound for us to draw from and utilize. We know what we’re doing wrong, and we know there are simple steps that we can take to begin making it right. Luckily, it’s not a question of money, because we all know, we can afford to solve it, but to NOT solve it will cost us EVERYTHING. It’s been done before, and now, we need to be the ones to do it again.
Public safety is everything. Without it, we have no businesses, no transit, no downtown, no uptown, no neighborhoods, no schools, no churches. We have to be safe to be a city, and right now, we are not feeling safe. Some people are only just now feeling unsafe, but many of us have not felt safe for a long, long time. We must stop allowing politicians to get away with just talking about it, and demand action. Demand change. Demand to hear about this bold new plan, with deadlines, commitments and results that will turn our city around and immediately begin the process of creating the very real safety and security that we all know is possible and that each of us, no matter who we are or where we live, justly deserve.
Something needs to be done for sure, but this post offers no evidence that just adding more police will fix the problem, which is nationwide. The outstanding difference between all the other industrialized nations, which have much less mass killing than the US, is that we have extremely lax gun control laws and the other nations have strict gun control laws. You can add more police if you like but I am quite sure that it will have no effect on the frequency of mass shootings and may very well introduce other problems such as a return to the racist, almost mob, culture that dominated the Minneapolis police department for decades in the past. Avoiding that return, while improving law enforcement, is a tricky problem and the solutions are neither obvious nor easy but efforts are underway to do it.
Woods Halley
Woods Halley- Thank you for your thoughtful input. I would like to point out 2 small issues 1.) This post is primarily in regards to politicians talking instead of acting. I believe most people, especially in a city that has seen more than its share of gun violence and violent crime, are tired of political talk that leads to nothing. 2.) While it’s definitely true that the city of Minneapolis is grossly understaffed when it comes to police officers, nowhere within the context of this post is there any claim that “more police will fix the problem”. That is something you wrote, that does not exist in the context of the article I wrote. Although I did not include details of police reform, departmental changes or general public safety solutions, which as I mentioned was not the primay focus of this article, I did specifically state “we need actions, deeds, physical changes, results.” And “We need a comprehensive plan to overhaul our police department and public safety system…A bold set of new-era ideas”. Hardly a simple call claiming that “more police will fix everything”. I welcome your comments and critiques, however, to be honest and effective I think they should reflect the actual claims and context of the article.