Eastside Defender

Over at the Mpls Mirror, Terry asks Mayor Rybak a question:

Maybe there is a reason why no focus is being put on what is going on around us. Is it to concentrate on other states problems? Is it not to bring any negativity to our fair city with the Republican convention headed our way? Local activists are focusing on yet another issue they seem unable to change, the war in Iraq.

In today's email update R.T., did manage to mention last week's graduation of 32 new officers from our Police Academy. He made no mention where we stand against his 2006 promise of 893 total sworn officers. We hear so often of the financial shortfalls at City Hall, yet the lead item in today's Mayoral update was a laundry list of green and sustainable programs the City has funded. Apparently R.T. cares more about protecting trees than humans.

R.T. does have a priority list. Safety is the last thing on it. As part of his tough-on-crime cheerleader act, the Mayor has lauded the ShotSpotter surveillance system. Here's another bit of Terry's post:

A check of the ShotSpotter map shows from March 4th thru the 31st, there were 64 ShotSpotter activations and 12 shooting victims. Between April 1st thru the 14th, the ShotSpotter was activated 45 times with 17 people being shot. The math is pretty simple on this one; that's over one shooting victim per day in the first two weeks of April. Three of them were the murders that occurred on 41st & Park, 6th & Cedar and 36th & Queen.

The “investment” we've made in technology doesn't seem to be stopping crime. Perhaps if 29 trees had been hit, our Mayor would find it important enough to live up to his promise of hiring cops.

Fortunately, on the Eastside shootings are infrequent. Since R.T.’s eyes are on other things, it's up to us to keep it that way. Join a block club, walk with the NECP, or at least keep an eye on your street. Crime goes where nobody is watching.
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