Justice..what justice in the Killing Fields of Minneapolis

Last night we good citizens were treated to another set, yes, set of shootings in Minneapolis. On top of that we experience a sentence for the convicted murderer, Myron David Norcross, of 19 years. This man used a butcher knife on Sherri Lynn Schaumburger killing her, and only gets 19 years. How is that possible? Of course, the StarTribune trying to make the sentence sound lengthy puts it into number of months. Typical! If we continue to give cushy prison time we will never get on top of the crime problems in Minneapolis. Of course the temputure is starting to rise, so is the crime rate.

Light rail .. Transportation Planning or just a way to pay for Mayor’s visions

Light rail having any positive effect on relief of congestion has good solid evidence on both sides of the water cooler. However, the proof is in the putting. Just drive down Hwy 55 in south Minneapolis and you’ll realize it was a lot easier during the period between completion of the road improvements and the start of the choo-choo. I side on the relief of congestion is bunk crowd. The Minneapolis Shadow has been a supporter of the hub and spoke system of elevated rail transit for over a decade. That design would have taken care of all the issues on the transit table for many decades to come. But, of course, leave it to the political game players not to do the right and most logical thing. Instead we have a disjointed answer that is more about development around the transit corridors then it is about effectively moving people from point A to point B. Hence we are looking at getting a rail corridor down Washington Avenue. Remember it was the Mayor Speedie Rybak who has plans to turn Washington Avenue into a world-class tourist attraction. Of course the city budget wouldn’t allow that to occur, so he had to figure out how to get the state and federal government to contribute. Well here is how. I guess holding public office isn’t about serving the public’s interest, but building monuments to ones self. The Minneapolis Shadow isn’t against the idea of having a world-class attraction, however the city should pay for it on it’s own.

Lurking around every corner is a city council member with an agenda

Cam Gordon wants to repeal the lurking law on the basis that it is unfairly applied to minorities and doesn’t produce a high conviction rate. What is your real agenda here Cam, or are you just that crazy? The law is being applied to those that are breaking it no matter what race they are. Why repeal a law based on higher rate being committed by one type of person or another? Maybe we should repeal all shoplifting laws if we found that most of the arrests were of women. Let us repeal all of the speeding laws because we find that a great deal of them are dealt down to lesser charges (like unlawful acceleration). Stop wasting time Cam and get back down to the real business of the council. Maybe the real problem is that not enough of these cases get convictions, ever think of that? I would hate to see someone arrested for lurking who doesn’t get convicted and then attacks someone. Maybe, Cam, you don’t care about that?

Where is the War on Crime?

Minneapolis had its 15th homicide of the year and this figure is down from the same period last year. However, it is number 15 and as the temperature goes up so does the crime rate, according to statistics. This could mean Minneapolis has only Mother Nature to thank. Where is the effort to drive the crime rate down lower? You have troopers on the road and a media campaign against drunk driving, the war on drugs (successes and failures), and other assorted efforts. Why not crime? Minneapolis keeps putting forth a band-aid and bailing wire approach to drugs, gangs, killings, and thief; but nothing that is sustainable and effective. As an example, the idiotic idling law started out as an effort against vehicle thief. In the last few summers we had a increase in vehicle thief and the silly council’s answer was the idling law proposal. Now it’s turned into the “in” plan of the day against high gas prices and global warming. The silly council doesn’t address the root cause of problem, because it would require some real action on an issue instead of playing politics.

The number one rule to keep a free society free is to govern for what is needed and not rule by what is popular.

Minneapolis City Council not sitting Idle

Thanks to Sandy Colvin Roy the Minneapolis Silly Council, in the name of environ”mental”ism and saving us a few bucks at the pump and from ourselves, passed an ordinance disallowing cars to idle for more than 3 minutes. Doesn’t the council, police, and citizens have anything better to do than micro-manage car idling time? Now the already overworked 911 operators will get calls to the police to give tickets if I need to run into the house to get something and leave my car running.
This just points to the fact that this council doesn’t take its job seriously. The schools are crap, we are being taxed to death, people being murdered in their homes and streets, and they are worried about cars idling too long. Give me a stinkin’ break, their brains must be idling too long! This is one of the most ridiculous moves I’ve seen them make yet. What is next? People are farting too much? Oh I’m sorry I must have misunderstood … they are letting idle my car if the temp is below 0 degrees. What if it’s 1 degree above? Am I going to be fined? My God where is it that we live, Russia? I can’t even find a slice of rationale here, this is just plain crazy! You people are insane!
The sane people in Minneapolis should go park their cars in front of city hall and let them run for hours just to piss the mayor and council off! If gas wasn’t so dammed expensive I’d organize it in a heartbeat. You people are from another planet! Come the next election, citizens, let’s hire some earthlings to do this job because the ones there now are not from around here.

School out of control

Northeast Middle School in Northeast Minneapolis was the scene of a mob attack on a student from outside the school. One kid that was already out of school was outside NE Middle reportedly taunting some NE students after class was over for the day. A mob of NE students attacked the kid and broke his neck. The Minneapolis Shadow finds this incident appalling, however not surprising. As I have stated before the main problem with most Minneapolis Public Schools is one of discipline. When the kids run the schools nothing gets accomplished. The administrators take the discipline, or lack thereof, issue way too lightly. I’m not in favor of running a military camp, however some of these students may need that. NE Middle has had a history of problems with not only academics but one of discipline for years now, and the administrators have turned a blind eye to the problem. The current principal looks towards programs for answers, but the only program she needs is one to re-program the school system’s approach towards handling behavior in the classroom. Without a tougher stance on behavior in the classroom, and the school grounds, nothing will change on the academic side of the ledger and incidents such as this one will grow in frequency. What good is a school if the kids are under threat during and after the school day on or near school property? Remember the northside program “Safe Paths to School” or what ever they named it? The police standing guard as kids walk to school. This sickens me to no end, and the city and school board are as much to blame as the kids involved in this. Now you have a kid in the hospital with a broken neck because the school board refuses to take the steps needed to solve the behavior problems. Sickening, just plain sickening!