Scare tactics? So they will vote for you?
Tonight, while sitting in my kitchen going over delegates for the convention this weekend, suddenly there were approximately ten shots in rapid succession from what sounded to be a semi-automatic nine millimeter pistol. Three young men (two on bikes, one on foot) fled the scene down 21st street and turned at my house heading south while looking back. Going outside after calling 911 we could see a body being "bagged" by Police near Chicago and 21st Street.
Perhaps this was a scare tactic? Maybe a passion play to affect the City Convention? Or just maybe, just maybe we do have a crime problem, and some politicians are so removed from the rest of the real world of Minneapolis that they just do not see it. WE DO HAVE A CRIME PROBLEM!
It is not Peter McLaughlin's imagination that was being stuffed into a body bag like a piece of dead meat tonight at 10:00 PM. It was some mother's child. It was someone's brother! Someone's friend and lover! Do we have a crime problem? You are damned right we have a problem, and sticking a political head in the sand and ignoring it in political self interest is not going to solve that problem. Denial has gone on long enough, too darn long! Those bullets came down a street where my 5 month old baby granddaughter lay sleeping behind wooden walls that do not stop bullets.
How many more children, brothers, and sons have to die before we drag that head out of the sand? RT had a dream of becoming Mayor. OK RT, we helped you accomplish that. We also had a dream. A dream that we would get a Mayor that would not play politics as usual and bring us back our beloved City. Our dreams have not worked out as well as RT's. Am I mad as hell, you better believe it. RT Rybak would be to if those gang bangers (who he does not think are a problem) were shooting up his neighborhood. That he is not, means RT isn't too worried about his children. After all he lives in a better neighborhood. I wish all of Minneapolis' children were as safe tonight. Because of the inaction of some politicians they are not.
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On a happier note, Basim Sabri will face a long term in Federal Prison tomorrow morning at the Federal Court House in St. Paul. Sabri could bribe Minneapolis politicians, and have a friendly Mayor veto the City Council's "Inaction" on his behalf, but tomorrow Sabri faces a Federal Judge who will show him that American justice is not for sale.
Saturday that Mayor may find that crime has become a real problem in Minneapolis. A problem for his re-election.
Jim Graham, ducking bullets on my porch in Ventura Village
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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