Area Denial
I'm usually not one to troll comment sections for material; I have more fun writing my own.
But for the second time in as many days, something popped up in a thread on PowerLiberal responding (in part) to a post in which I assailed Amy "A-Klo" Klobuchar:
The County Prosecutor is solely a REACTIVE position. Ideally, it's the job of the police to be proactive in preventing crime. Unfortunatley, the MPD is so understaffed and overwhelmed, that they're pretty much forced into a reactive mode.
Expect to see the Minneapolis DFL/Green junta toss a lot of this sort of rhetoric around in their attempt to get the worthless Klobuchar elected.
Let's tackle it a section at a time:
- The County Prosecutor is solely a REACTIVE position - That's right. And how the County Attorney "reacts" to crime has a lot to do with how crime trends in a jurisdiction. The most important factor in deterring crime is certainty of punishment. Hennepin County has been terrible in this regard for a long, long time; it's gotten a richly-justified repuation as a "catch and release" jurisdiction, one where the prosecution will plead away cases with far lighter penalties than in other areas.
- Ideally, it's the job of the police to be proactive in preventing crime. Unfortunatley, the MPD is so understaffed and overwhelmed, that they're pretty much forced into a reactive mode. - Right. And that's the DFL's fault, too. Back under the Fraser administration, the MPD decided to run the sort of department Darrell Gates ran in Los Angeles; undermanned, "lean and mean", lots of emphasis on brawny responses to problems. Minneapolis' PD was much smaller, per capita, than neighboring Saint Paul. Minneapolis opted also to have its department run by outsiders from authoritarian east coast police departments - New Yorker Tony Bouza, Suffolk County's Bob Olsen, Dayton's Bill McManus. And short-staffing one's police department, as successive DFL administrations have done, isn't something one fixes overnight; you can hire a cop tomorrow, but it'll be years before that policeman develops the experience and knowledge of the streets to really have an effect.
What do criminals expect? Given Minneapolis' execrabe record at sentencing felons, probably not a lot. The risk-to-reward comparison is pretty shallow.
Which is one key reason Minneapolis is so full of, y'know, criminals.
Posted by Mitch at
June 14, 2006 05:10 PM
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OK, its late, I'm tired, and this isn't my area but I did spot a couple of things.
...the most important factor in deterring crime is certainty of punishment...
Nope, if I recall some long standing studies right its the certainty of getting caught. Punishment was shown to have a low correlation, but I'm too tired to try and find citations.
Also, just two years ago (according to ... some quote from a police official in the Minneapolis paper two or three days back) crime was ... I want to say at an all time low, but I'm probably wrong. The sense was just two years ago the crime rate WAS something to write home about.
So. Radical swing in crime rates. Same people on the game board (more or less). That leaves money (for law enforcement), demographics, and/or a change in the street environment (new drugs, etc).
Or, we could just go with preconceived conceptions and search for convenient facts to validate our point of view, while ignoring those that don't fit.
Oh wait, it's blog. I'll take door number two, then.
Posted by: Bill Haverberg at June 15, 2006 12:13 AMNo, not the same people on the game board - 3 or 4 years ago, the chief made the decision to dismantle the juvenile unit, and transfer responsiblity for investigating juvenile crimes to the precincts. At the time, the people in charge of the juvenile unit warned that juvenile crime would go up, because kids would fall through the cracks in the adult system.
Sure enough, we are now seeing the predicted increase in juvenile crime. Fortunately, we now have (interim) Chief Dolan in charge, and he is restoring the juvenile unit. Unfortunately, just as it took some time to fall apart, it will take time for things to get better.
I commend Chief Dolan for getting to the root of the problem so quickly. I do worry about the Mayor's excuses about not enough money for more after school programs, though. Minneapolis has far more city-run programs than the rest of the metro - it isn't the lack of programs for kids that is causing this.
Posted by: Wendy at June 15, 2006 06:00 AMHmm...interesting. Why did they disband the juvenile unit?
Posted by: Bill Haverberg at June 15, 2006 08:02 AMDon't forget the impact the Citizen's Review Board has on overall police performance. Minneapolis police have to be wary of both the criminals and the people they are trying to protect.
Posted by: Kermit at June 15, 2006 08:22 AMFor a while, they were "decentralizing" everything. It was supposed to save money.
Posted by: Wendy at June 15, 2006 09:02 AMThanks!!! furniture Very nice site.I enjoy being here.
Posted by: furniture at July 7, 2006 09:42 AM