Another officer involved shooting. Another tragedy. More media coverage of excessive force by police. This time it’s Minneapolis on the hot seat. We’ll talk about it in Minneapolis Police Shooting Exposes Training Questions-Podcast 650.
Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor shot and killed Justine Ruszczyk Saturday Night July 15th, 2017. The 40 year old South Minneapolis woman had called 911 to report a disturbance in the alley behind her home.
Details are sketchy so far, since the officer isn’t talking. Speculation is running rampant. Rogers asks some questions about the level of training for officer Noor and police as a whole in Minneapolis Police Shooting Exposes Training Questions-Podcast 650.
Despite assertions that Minnesota ranks high in standards for police training, Rogers says the standard may not be high enough. He questions whether officers are getting enough training in dealing with the difficult situations they encounter, and thus revert to their firearms. In Minneapolis Police Shooting Exposes Training Questions-Podcast 650.
Have you been to downtown Minneapolis lately? These days some don’t feel safe there. In Friday Night On Mean Street Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis-Podcast 648 we run the gauntlet on Hennepin Avenue.
After Billions Spent, New Questions About Safety Downtown
The Crisis in American Cities has been grabbing headlines for a hundred years. From The Gateway District to Mayo Square it’s the same formula. Use taxpayer dollars to Demolish. Rebuild. Repeat. Has it been worth it?
Robert Moses and Richard Daley Would Be Proud
Light rail and mixed use condos. Expensive restaurants and Hipster art districts. Bike paths. Safe spaces. Higher Minimum Wages. Political fights about redevelopment and economic inequality. Tax Increment Financing to bring in big retail and big companies.
When these efforts produce mixed results, the process starts all over again. More money. Newer stadiums. More buildings. More condos that are sold as ‘affordable’ but cost at least two hundred thousand dollars. Higher rents. Traffic Jams. Crime.
Downtown Minneapolis was never a ‘thing’
The neighborhoods and retail business were located in North Minneapolis and North East, Uptown, Lake Street in South Minneapolis and Saint Paul’s ‘Midway’. Sure, Hennepin Avenue always featured bars and hotels, places to eat and entertainment. But downtown was for warehouses, light industry, office buildings, city and county government. And drunks.
Want to start a business downtown? Want to buy a condo downtown? Better be juiced into the money or have a lot of money. No wonder people are concerned about the nitty gritty nature of Hennepin Avenue. Walking down this street you’re mixing with the great unwashed. Unruly, scantily clad, vulgar, of different races and often from the poor side of the cities. And it’s really, really fun.
Is the solution really more cops downtown. Another Light Rail line? Subsidized office space? Another redevelopment of Nicollet Mall? More incremental taxes added to the bills at the Smack Shack? Who lives down here? Not the servers. Nor the kids hanging out at the LRT station.
Spend Daddy’s Money Downtown
Downtown Minneapolis is a place for trust fund babies, lawyers and corporates relocating. People who are used to having things their way. No wonder they think it’s unsafe. Sadly, they’re making everyone else pay for their own personal Epcot Center. It’s a con.
When you think about how much of the taxpayer’s hard earned dollars they’ve spent, one wonders when the Downtown Council and the real shadow power in Minneapolis will be held accountable.