When the mayor, Sharon, set out to choose a chief of police, there was a
medium-sized hoo-hah about it. People of color and anti-racism, anti-police
brutality folks met with Sharon at Sabathani one night. I remember Sharon
saying, "Let me choose the chief of police." The audience did. Was he the
best choice of the candidates? Who knows. I've got a rather jaded attitude
toward chiefs, so I'd be hard pressed to try and choose one. He did have a
couple of "books", almost pamphlets about community-based policing to his
credit. Back door reports from the cities where he had been chief or a
ranking officer were that he was a schmuck, but since no one signs a name to
those reports, is it real or is it memorex?
I do know that his notion of community-based policing does not impress me. I
do know that his failure to keep his promise about Lake and Chicago really
honks me off. I know some other stuff that makes me really resist the idea
that this guy is a good chief. And, of course, we always have our next door
neighbor chief, Corky Finney as a constant reminder that there are strategies
which have the advantage of effectiveness.
Prominently, in my mind, is the absolute overkill of both the Highway 55
debacle and the ISAG paranoia. MPD based those strategies (at ISAG) on
reports from police in Seattle. However, there was a huge amount of e-mail
from people at the "riots" in Seattle which led me to believe that the police
instigated a donnybrook in Seattle. I remember thinking at the time that
Seattle reminded me of the way the 68 Harlem Riots began--Tactical Police
Force "practice" assault on Harlem--and I remember that the 68 Democratic
Convention in Chicago was finally, after many moons, determined to be a
"police incited riot."
My fear is that police departments all over are becoming more and more
steeped in an after-the-bomb/dissolution-of-civilization bunker mentality.
Further, however testing is done to choose new police officers, too many of
the people currently on police forces are people who are only comfortable
with people who think exactly like they do and very strong and para-military
trained to boot. That paarticular combination makes me much more than
nervous.
Wizard Marks, Central
ferma001 wrote:
> >Tim -- Thanks for commenting on the posts of Rich McMartin and Jack
> >Ferman. What really scares me is that there are probably many others in
> >Minneapolis who would echo their sentiments.
>
> So what is the problem - if no one likes Olson and he is dumped what
> makes anyone confident the next chief would be any better. My point is
> the MPD has come a long way. Did I infer anywhere that the MPD is
> perfect - I do not believe so.
>
> >And the sad truth is that I
> >might have been among them if it hadn't been for my move this past year
> >to the Phillips neighborhood. Prior to that move I lived in SW Mpls. and
> >didn't have a clue as to what was coming down in "poorer" neighborhoods
> >in Mpls. From that sheltered vantage point I simply couldn't 'connect
> >the dots,' so to speak. CODEFOR is just the sort of Orwellian policy
> >that we must be vigilant about because of the legitimacy it lends to
> >police actions that are abusive -- which have, and do, occur, regardless
> >of whether Charlie Stenvig -- or Charlie McCarthy in St. Paul, now THERE
> >was a character who loved taking the law into his own hands! -- or Chief
> >Olson is on the watch. There is a young black "salesman" who stands on
> >the corner of 16th Av. and 25th St., near where I live, almost every day
> >-- late at night and in the early morning hours -- looking for and
> >waving down those who look the most likely to be interested in his
> >product(s). Because I've seen him and his associates on or near that
> >corner for many months now, I'm perplexed as to how he continues to get
> >away with what he's doing without getting busted. I assume that either
> >a) he's an undercover cop, b) he has bought off the neighborhood MPD
> >patrols, and/or c) he has bought protection from someone else in the
> >MPD. Yet, right down the block from my home, there is a single mother
> >with 5 daughters ranging in age from toddlerhood to teenager, whose home
> >was literally broken into by five MPD cops who refused to show their
> >badges, and who, in fact, claimed they did not have their badges with
> >them because they were doing CODEFOR work, nor would they show a search
> >warrant when asked for one. They said they had received an anonymous
> >call about the home at this address being a front for drug dealers --
> >simply not true. They ransacked this woman's home for over an hour, all
> >the while making terroristic threats, terrifying her and her children.
> >And I want to assure you that this sort of action by the MPD is not rare
> >in my part of town. Why does this happen in Phillips? Why does it NOT
> >happen in the Linden Hills or East Harriet neighborhoods? Connect the
> >dots... poverty = powerlessness = easy prey. These people, for many of
> >whom English is a second language, are the least likely to understand
> >the U.S. justice system, least likely to know their rights as citizens,
> >and least likely to have the financial means to go to court to sue their
> >case against an organization that claims to "serve and protect" them.
> >Needless to say cynicism abounds in my part of town regarding the agents
> >of civic obedience. Wake up my fellow citizens of Minneapolis: the truth
> >is that ALL of us have seen a steady erosion of our civil rights over
> >the last decade, but it has been in small enough increments and in
> >"other parts of town" so perhaps we have not noticed like we would if
> >there are had been an all-out assault. AND, it's taking place in
> >neighborhoods that many people find easy to ignore. Am I saying that
> >real crime does not exist in Minneapolis? No. Am I saying that a
> >consortium of actions and services need to be brought to bear against
> >the underlying causes of a lot of this crime? Yes. Is one of those
> >actions CODEFOR? A resounding NO is my answer. My urgent, my fervent
> >hope, is that enough of us will wake up, in time, in all the various
> >racial communities, in all the various faith communities, in all of the
> >various social service communities, to help our neighbors, and
> >ourselves, reclaim not only our rights, but our dignity, and our lives.
> >
> >Jenny Heiser
> >East Phillips
> >Ward 6-8
> >
> >timothy connolly wrote:
> >
> >> A couple comments relative to posting by Rich McMartin
> >> and Jack Ferman.
> >>
> >> I too remember the days of Charle Stenvig. Just
> >> another evening I ran into the Police Chaplain, Terry
> >> Hayes, at GJ's on Hennepin. I was surprised to see him
> >> there with some officers. I would have thought he was
> >> long since retired.
> >>
> >> I remember that he used to hang out around midnight at
> >> the old Fair Oaks Motel with the guys from the
> >> infamous TActical Squad soaking up free coffee and
> >> pie. They never paid much attention to me. I was just
> >> the guy who cleaned the kitchen and cafe. But I paid
> >> attention to them or rather the things they said. A
> >> cruder, more racist bunch of knuckle draggers...well
> >> you get the picture.
> >>
> >> I remember how they laughed telling stories of how
> >> their dogs, Rex or Caesar,etc., took bites out of this
> >> and that niggers ass down at Lake Calhoun. Mind you
> >> this was on 4th of July night. Ah, America! Ain't it
> >> great. Some things don't change much.
> >>
> >> Our police force is still overwhelmingly male and
> >> caucasian and I suspect has many of the same attitudes
> >> which might explain anecdotal evidence of profiling
> >> which appears to have increased under Chief Olson's
> >> reign.
> >>
> >> I get a kick out of comparison's to Stenvig and
> >> comments like "he's probably one of best or second
> >> best chiefs in history. That's called damning with
> >> faint praise, sort of like saying Hitler was better
> >> than Stalin.
> >>
> >> As to Rich McMartin's comments relative to Lyndale
> >> neighborhood and its improvement I must point out that
> >> CODEFOR did not come on line until 1998 and by then
> >> murder and crime rates had already dropped from the
> >> all-time highs of '94-'95.
> >>
> >> The fact is that the carnage of crack addiction and
> >> the ensuing wars and turf battles, like most things,
> >> came late to Minneapolis. Years before the coast
> >> cities saw what exploded in Mpls i the mid-nieties.
> >> The fact is that crime statistics throughout the
> >> country have dropped over the last eight years and
> >> sociologists of all stripes don't seem to be able to
> >> agree on a consensus as to why they rise and fall.
> >>
> >> Sure drugs are a factor as is law enforcement but for
> >> the Chief or anyone else to point at CODEFOR and say
> >> "this is the reason" is just a bunch of hooey!
> >>
> >> __________________________________________________
> >> Do You Yahoo!?
> >> Yahoo! Photos - Share your holiday photos online!
> >> http://photos.yahoo.com/
> >
> >
>
> John Ferman
> Harriet Avenue
> Kingfield Neighborhood
> Minneapolis
> Ward 10 Pct 10
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
