> This statement is contradictory and full or problems. Jaywalking and
> driving damaged vehicles are not "crimes," but mere legal violations.
<...>
> In addition, when stopping people for non-criminal violation in CODEFOR
> neigbhorhoods, the police regularly engage in intrusions that are only
> legally permitted for criminal violations. For example, in February,
> 1998, a month after CODEFOR was started, I was stopped by Minneapolis'
> finest for riding my bicylce through a red light at Franklin and Park
> Avenues.
So... Let me get this straight. If I drive my car through a red light, I
have not committed a crime?
Maybe none of the follow are not my rights but do I at least have the
expectation that our society will protect my family and the everyone
else in the neighborhood from some of the following:
- Having guns aimed at your daughter while waiting for the bus near our
home.
- Having a guns fired at a drug house when your spouse walks down the
alley near that house.
- Having you neighbors 14 year old son murdered by his brother's
unsatisfied drug customers. My family heard the last dying gasps of
this youngster while his sister cried that they had shot her brother.
- Having bullets pass through my living room 3 feet under my bed.
- Having a guy continue urinating on my garage in front of my daughter
and I as she drives up to the garage. After all he was just visiting
friends down the alley that "were minding their own business".
- Not being allowed to get to my garage because some of those friends
"minding their own business" blocked the alley.
- Having my house, squirrels, cats, various garage doors, pelted by
pellet guns.
- Having glass broken all over the alley by guys playing "baseball" with
at aluminum bat and a couple of empty 12 packs of Budwieser bottles?
- Having guys urinate on the sidewalk in front of and across the street
while my family is on the front porch.
- Having a peace making neighbor named Darell get stabbed and die in our
alley just because he was trying to break up a fight over a gambling
dispute. This happened while my daughter had a friend over. No wonder
parents were reluctant to let there kids come over to our place to play.
And yes running a red light is a crime - no matter what the mode of
transportation. It is just a minor crime known as a misdemenaor. Why do
we have such laws as "don't run a red light"? It is an attempt to make
the transportation system work by providing a common set of
understandable rules that everyone can follow. It makes it less likely
that we will accidentally kill each other.
The police need to be monitored and punished when they break the rules.
There are ways for this to happen. YOU have to do some of the
following:
- attend Precinct Advisory Committee meetings.
- Start a block club.
- Talk to your SAFE officer and your CCP. Let them know when you have
concerns about police or problems on your block.
- Get to know the cops so that you become a human to them and they
become humans to you. The police need to try to reach out and do this
too.
- Listen to the C4 meetings instead of protesting them. Bring up your
concerns at those meetings.
--
Rich McMartin
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bryant Neighborhood of Minneapolis
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