Archive for the ‘General’ Category

I am going to avoid my personal bias on this as best I can and stick to attacking this article.

The esteemed PR dept at the Minneapolis PD has been taking lessons. Quoting Minneapolis Police Sgt. Michael Young;

• Young credits dedicated officers for the drop in crime.
• He believes their experience and determination to stop the violence is paying off.
• He said Saturday nights are typically quiet. His officers know the hotspots and know many of the faces of those who have caused problems in the past.

Now the quotes about the crime in North Minneapolis;

> 15 of the city’s 26 homicides this year happened there.

> “Things can get very volatile, very fast up here,” said Minneapolis Police Sgt. Michael Young.

> “Every day there is something that you’ve never run into before. Every single day,” said Young.

>”Almost every night we’re getting multiple guns either off of vehicle stops or shots fired calls or at shooting scenes. They’ve got one already today,” said Young.

Way to go Sarge, I can sleep better now knowing that rape, robbery and arson are down “double digit” (I read as just breaking 10% or they would be touting it), I only have to worry about being killed.

Well isn’t that just dandy.

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can, to a degree, be avoided. Bike riding at 10:30 p.m. in North Minneapolis will carry some risks, and it’s too bad we can’t go out for a ride at night anymore, but this is the way of things in the inner city. I hope for a speedy recovery for this man, shot through no fault of his own.

Story here.

One of the reasons we teach what we do is illustrated by the following, a family targeted with vandalism and arson, suspecting that it is directed at their son, but neither they nor the police have any idea who’s doing it.

If you do everything right, you can still be the target of crimes and violence, if you don’t, you can ensure it.

Story here.

Not too bad for a media story on the matter.

Story here.

Wow. What a fine example of two sides to the story. Witnesses say he came up behind her, put his hand over her mouth (story says “behind her mouth”) and tried to abduct her. The sister of the accused says “her brother is nice man who would never try to kidnap anyone” and said the accused told her that “that he was trying to help her, to get her home”.

Makes you wonder what really happened. Needless to say, do NOT go walking alone at night, learn how to protect yourself, and follow your mother’s advice, do not trust strangers.

So here is a fine example of police response.

On the one hand, you have the police, all they have to go on is “man is brandishing a gun”, and not surprisingly, responded with a 7 squad “descent” according to the news article.

On the other, a boy with a super soaker.

So is the party at fault the officer? The boy? Or the person who called 911? The dispatcher?

In this case, I am in a position to speak with some authority, as I have had an entire police precinct out looking for me with guns drawn, based on a 911 call reporting a “man with a gun”. Mind you this was a holstered weapon, carried openly in keeping with MN state law. Too bad the caller failed to mention that it was in a holster. My neighbor called me describing the person they were looking for, me. I told him to flag one down, and I would be out in 20 seconds. They were polite enough to keep their guns at low ready, as the neighbor said I had a permit, and we cleared matters up in very short order.

So to break this story down, A boy brandishes a large neon squirt gun, and the worst crime I would really accuse him of is distracted driving. Sure, he was being stupid, but not seriously stupid. Someone calls 911 to report the brandishing of a firearm, (which is not a crime in MN – you can get assault with a deadly weapon, public endangerment, and a whole lot else, but there is no brandishing statute). Perhaps this person was legally blind, as at least that would be an excuse.

The dispatcher apparently did not ask questions about the incident, so I would go with poor job performance there. They joys of government employment.

Finally, the responding officers. With the information they were given, a totally appropriate response.

We need to realize that allowing our cities to degrade taxes resources, and then quality of life suffers. Government cannot police us; we must police ourselves, and utilize police as they were intended – as assistance for difficult and extraordinary circumstances.

Proof that you can obey the law, be an upstanding person, but have the decay in our urban areas still take your life.

Story Here.

We need to stop pretending that the government can protect us, and take responsibility for our own neighborhoods, cities and states. The people who believe the police will protect them ignore a few points.

The police have no legal duty to protect you, they are there to “Protect and to Serve” the interests of the corporation called the city/county/state of ______________.

In Minneapolis, there are around 500 people for every sworn officer. Now divide by 3 shifts. thats 1500 people per officer. Now take in account desk jobs. The reality is the chances of a cop being anywhere near you when trouble starts are way past slim.

I have always preached awareness and avoidance, and this story is a reminder to be cautious in where you go and what you do.

Again, the only elements we know for sure are that being in a sketchy part of town at 2 am is not safe. Not anything against the establishment, but downtown Minneapolis is just not a good place to be, especially at that hour.

Lucky for this gentleman, he was only hit in the hand, he is very lucky to be alive.

Story here.

The story is a bit thin on detail, but it seems that this woman, on her way to meet her hubby for dinner after school was shot while sitting at a stoplight. Granted, this particular intersection is a rather sketchy part of North Minneapolis, but it shows that being in the wrong place at the wrong time is enough. If she is working on a master’s degree I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was not involved in wrongdoing.

Story here.

This is an example of what sometimes happens when street crime occurs, reminiscent of the uptown robbery a while back where a man was shot in the head after cooperating. Granted, most of the time if you are robbed, and you give them your stuff, this is not the likely outcome. But you never know.

This is why we teach that every situation is different, and that skills = options. If you initially cooperate and then like in this story, that is not enough, at least you have a chance to reduce your level of injury.

Whether it’s a permit to carry a firearm, or simply basic hand to hand skills taught by our sister company Force Management Academy, the more you know, the safer you are.

Story here.