Given the description of the intended role of the acquifer, I'm surprised the city isn't taking the initiative to get the word out. This certainly isn't something one would want coming out AFTER ignorance caused some sort of damage.
Porter
"However bleak the mayor's position may be, the biggest winners and losers ultimately will be the MPD and its many longtime critics. The Porter case has finally brought to the foreground years of trouble and controversy surrounding the conduct of Minneapolis police. And--fairly or not--its disposition will ring as a verdict in the public mind. If federal investigators conclude that there are grounds for criminal charges against police in the episode, there is a chance that the department could be placed under federal control and reorganized under the auspices of the Justice Department. Already, a federal mediator is working with the MPD and minority communities to change policing practices. And full-blown federal takeovers have occurred in other cities with a long history of police abuses, including Detroit and Cincinnati.
Conversely, if Porter's claims prove to be even partially trumped-up, it will be a long time before anyone in a position of power is obliged to take MPD misconduct allegations seriously again."
City Pages, "Behind Closed Doors"
I quoted a bit more of the end of the article because the inflammatory thing at the end looks a lot LESS silly when the phrase "fairly or not" is tacked on before. Now I happen to still think Anderson and Mosedale are still wrong. Police are ALWAYS obliged to consider misconduct allegations. THESE GUYS CARRY GUNS, and also when in pursuit of alleged lawbreakers, they can run stop signs, with the risk of killing innocent people who are unlucky enough to be near. They must ALWAYS take these matters seriously. And if there's a pattern of doing otherwise, then Minneapolis voters must see that our council passes the necessary ordinances so that the decision is not in the HANDS of the MPD. Remember, it is "to protect and serve". Beating on unconvicted people is neither "protecting" or "serving".
MPD
Every time I turn around, I hear or read someone saying that Minneapolis is egregious in something. I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it. I am sure it is fun to say it, considering how people ALWAYS want to knock Minnesotans of their high horse, but the conclusion doesn't fit the data I know. The latest is from correspondent Gross who assures us our police department is egregious for its brutaility. Now, I want it clear that I go along with most of her points. The department has NOT been conscientious in disciplining its own. That has been very destructive to community trust. But try to remember Rodney King, Malice Green, and a couple dozen other instances where police roughness resulted in DEATHS. I find it disgusting to think a cop could ram an object up someone's rectum, but assuming it is true (which we can't yet do), it still doesn't rank alongside the flashlight killing of Malice Green. So, yes, MPD has room to improve and patch up its community relationship. But don't tell me it is the worst. Hyperbole simply isnt a good polemic device, at least not when the bad examples abound. Where my brother lives, five police cars surrounded a car with a teenage boy and his girlfriend in it, and they proceeded to shoot something like 56 bullets into the car. When they were done, the girl, who was a tragic bystander in a conflict between the boy and the police, had 19 bullets in her body. A year and half investigation totally excused ALL the police at the scene of this massacre. You want to tell me MPD is worse than Mesa in police brutality? That's absurd.
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Jim Mork
Cooper Neighborhood
It is when power is wedded to chronic fear that it becomes formidable. Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983), The Passionate State of Mind, 1954
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