Shot In The Dark

We're Number 291! Or 345!

Saint Paul comes in #291 on the list of the safest cities in the US according to the NYTimes. Amy Klobuchar's Minneapolis comes in at 345 - behind stereotypically crime-ridden cities like Philadelphia (#343) and, funniest of all, Houston (#325),...

I Could Soften On The Death Penalty

"Mother" uses baby as cudgel:A woman used her 4-week-old baby as a weapon in a domestic dispute, swinging the infant through the air and striking her boyfriend with the child, authorities said..."Never, never, never. I can never remember anything like...

On Ice

Crime is up 20%...in Duluth'. In all categories but rape, crime is up sharply in cold, isolated Duluth, Minnesota's fourth-largest city. The perpetrators?Much of Duluth's new crime involves turf struggles and carryover bad blood among gang members relocated to Duluth...

Ill-Advised

The Strib says someone's acting suspicious in my 'hood:The warning comes after a man knocked on doors in the area and made non-emergency requests of residents. In some cases, the man asked for a glass of water, or to use...

Death

The rigorously consistent moralist in me opposes the death penalty for one reason only; the likelihood of killing the innocent. The father in me - especially the part that is father to my daughter - is telling that moralist to...

18 Speed Bumps?

Flash from Centrisity on the Ad-gate campaign: Noah Comes Clean Just saw Noah from Blanked-Out as the mystery blogger on 'CCO. He insists it was an open link not requiring password access.Maybe, and then again maybe not:Kunin posted an explanation...

Guilty

Rodriguez guilty of murder in the death of Dru Sjodin:Next, the jury in the case will have to decide whether the facts of the case are such that Rodriguez is eligible for the death penalty. If it decides that the...

A Thousand Days

It's been a thousand days since Dru Sjodin was kidnapped and murdered, allegedly by Alfonso Rodriguez. Today the case goes to the jury:Holding Dru Sjodin's ripped pink shirt before jurors Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley urged them to find Alfonso...

Not Advisable

An East Side theft victim retaliates by shooting the thief. The original alleged crime took place on a bus on the East Side when two louts snatched a chain from the neck of another man. The first victim followed the...

To Santa: Thank You. Signed, Tabloids

An arrest in the JonBenet Ramsey case. Just when you thought the whole ugly charade couldn't get any creepier......

I Hated Wham, Anyway

Ageing pop star and style icon George Michael has been accused of murdering a penned bear in a pen in northern Minnesota. Inside word - his next song will be entitled "Wake Me Up Before You Kill a Helpless Animal"....

Blowing the Case

Steve Chapman opines in favor of extending the franchise to felons who've done their time:We let ex-convicts marry, reproduce, buy beer, own property and drive. They don't lose their freedom of religion, their right against self-incrimination or their right not...

But He's Our Bumbling, Loveable Criminal

Dean Zimmerman - former Green Party member of the Minneapolis City Council - has been convicted of federal corruption charges:Zimmermann, who represented the city's sixth ward from 2001 to 2005, was charged in a federal indictment with four counts, three...

Procedure

I'll acknowledge all the usual caveats about this story in advance:I know - running a jail is hard. People in county lockups are not pleasant. Duly noted.Law enforcement is all about procedure. It has to be, or cops get raked...

Yates

Andrea Yatesfound not guilty due to insanity for drowning her children:After being acquitted by reason of insanity in her children's bathtub drowning deaths, Andrea Yates won't spend her life in prison - but she will be committed to a state...

Overwhelming Mistake

Radley Balko on something that's bothered me for years - the militarization of police in America:These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of...

That Smell

I'm as outraged by the death of 10 year old Jordan Gonsioroski - apparently by scalding, allegedly at the hands of her father and stepmother - as anyone else. And depressed, too. The story in today's Strib about her background...

This American Story

I listen to This American Life. Yes, that "This American Life". Hosted by the invincibly nasal Ira Glass, TAL is a weekly digest of thematically-sorted stories, from poultry to gender-reassignment, slathered with a thick coat of forced, trendy irony by...

The Fair Trial

While in North Dakota, it was impossible to miss the upcoming trial of Alfonso Rodriguez, accused killer of Dru Sjodin. Jury selection is under way in Fargo. The question: Can Rodriguez get a fair trial in small, insular North Dakota?Larry...

Mistaken Identity

One issue where I break with mainstream conservatism is capital punishment. Over the past thirty years, there has been a relative avalanche of people released from death row - after having been found guilty "beyond a reasonable doubt" in their...

Look What They've Done With My 'Hood

I remember when I first moved to Minneapolis, in 1985. My first neighborhood, down in the upper thirties along Hiawatha and Minnehaha Avenues, was the kind of Minneapolis I'd heard about since I was a little kid; a working-class neighborhood,...

Culture of Corruption!

What will we do about powerful men with bottomless pockets who use their old-boy-network connections to gain disproportionate control of elected governments? Who will speak against the culture of boundless, cynical corruption?...

Where Have We Heard This?

Yesterday's Strib editorial asks for something we plainly need...:Along with more enforcement, plainer talk is required and deeper questions must be asked if violence is to be reversed. So far so good. Why, for example, did crime increase 10 times...

Speech

I oppose the new law that bans protests at funerals. Learned Foot supports it. No, not comedically. And he has an excellent post on the subject:And here we have our competing interests: the state has its police power (i.e. keeping...

Fighting Crime: Not Up Minneapolis' Alley

Minneapolis is in the midst of an almost-record-setting crime wave that has bucked the national trend toward lower crime. One answer? Make it illegal to walk through other people's alleys:The proposal would prohibit anyone from walking in an alley who...

Almost Inevitable

A few developments on the story of the TV shows that are stinging online predators:My misgivings had teeth: a court has ruled that the charges won't stick, at least in a Phoenix case that might have wider ramifications. There actually...

End The Quagmire

The "War on Drugs" has killed more Americans than Vietnam. There is evidence that it kills more people every year in the United States than have died in Iraq in three years - or than died on 9/11. Every year....

School Shooting Foiled

School shooting in Kansas - on the anniversary of Columbine and Hitler's birthday - foiled by internet busybodies.Five students were arrested today in a foiled shooting plot at Riverton High School in southeast Kansas. The arrests came after details of...

A Little Help, Here?

Rambix is trolling for ideas to deal with the quagmire in Minneapolis:What's the solution for violent crime in Minneapolis? No one seems to have the right answer, although a lot of people have opinions. Maybe it's time to solicit ideas...

Vick Verdict

The jury has reached a verdict in the Vick shooting case. As of noon, we're still waiting. Says the Strib:The verdict reached by the jury is expected to be announced within the hour in a courtroom at the Ramsey County...

Involuntary Consent

Minnesota's drunk driving laws - like those of mot of the United States - are an abomination; draconian to the casual drinker who catches the wrong cop's eye on the wrong night, with a blind eye turned to the habitual...

Now You Know Jack

First Ringer has just about the best thing I've seen about the Abramoff scandal. Money (heh heh) quote:Abramoff’s Republican connections are no secret. After all, the conservative lobbyist helped give $478,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee and $436,000 to...

Wouldja Believe...?

Just the other day, I was thinking about the '87 World Series, and wondering whatever happened to various members of the team - including Jeff Reardon. Sorry I asked:Former major league pitcher Jeff Reardon was arrested Monday on charges he...

The Rammer

Ramsey Clark - former "Attorney General" of the United States - has, as is his frequent wont, flown to the defense of another dictator, in this case Saddam Hussein. In the trial's most recent session, Clark criticized the Iraqi court...

The Grandfather Paradox

As lilliputians who wouldn't have been fit to carry Lieutenant Commander Randy Cunningham's clipboard 33 years ago come out to dance on the legal and political grave of Congressman Randy Cunningham, Wretchard has the best comment yet. He compares yesterday...

Capital Punishment: Another Nail In Coffin?

Yet another high-profile death sentence is in the news; the SCOTUS threw out the overturning of a death sentence against Kenneth Richie, but also...:...directed an appeals court to reconsider whether Kenneth Richey was wrongly convicted of the blaze in Ohio...

Ooops

For all of you who think the right-wing alternative media is an echo chamber; welcome to school. Conservatives part ways on many, many issues. There are many "9/11 conservatives" who are dovish-to-apathetic on spending and social issues; libertarian conservatives (as...

Neatniks: Public Menace

Neatniks are a scourge upon our society:A Coon Rapids man was charged Monday with shooting his father-in-law to death after complaining that the older man was too lazy to clean up a food container left on the kitchen counter.How many...

Compare, Contrast

May, 2005: Chris Dykstra, in New Patriot, on Norm Coleman's investigation of the Oil For Food scandal:British legislator George Galloway ran Norm Coleman around in circles Thursday. Gallowway spared no one, especially are very own Normy, who could only muster...

Barone on Fitzgerald

Michael Barone on Fitzgerald's efforts:It is a general principle of law that when the government wants to criminalize acts other than traditional common law crimes like murder or theft, it must set out with great specificity the conduct that is...

Pay No Attention To The Code Behind The Curtain

The war against drunk driving long since slipped the surly bonds of reason, and became a holy quest; to the supporters of groups like MADD, like supporters of any holy war, no excess is too excessive, no atrocity is too...

A Pattern

Which of the following doesn't belong?A friend and political associate of Mike Hatch - a county attorney in southern Minnesota - files charges against former MNGOP chair Ron Eibensteiner based on a "scandal" in which Hatch himself would seem to...

The Nation: "Accuracy Is For Peasants"

No slander is quite as dull-witted as the "chickenhawk" slur that some on the not-excessively-gifted wing of the American Left are frothing over - the notion that some supporters of the war didn't, or aren't, serving in the military. (Never...

Viking Sex Cruise

Last night, I broke (to the best of my knowledge) the story of the Vikings Sex Cruise. KARE11 has the story this morning; they have some more details:The Hennepin County Sheriff's office is investigating reports that a party on a...

Duluth Justice

A while ago, a couple of kids vandalized a new building at the U of M/Duluth. As the buildings are completed - with millions of dollars in repairs due to the vandalism - Swiftee notes:The new science building at UofM...

Civilization: 1 Scum: 0

Commenter Gideon notes Minneapolis homeowner shoots burglar" href="http://kstp.com/article/stories/S10585.html?cat=1">this story:A south Minneapolis homeowner shot a man suspected of breaking into his house, according to police. The shooting occurred on 16 th Avenue South. One witness overheard three men arguing outside the...

Casualties Of Media

A Washington man is accused of killing two convicted child-rapists.A man arrested in the shooting deaths of two convicted child rapists tried to plead guilty Tuesday before he had even been formally charged. Police say that Michael Anthony Mullen might...

Yet Another Exception

The prosecution in Idaho plans to ask for the death penalty for Jeffrey Duncan, accused of murdering three people in a plot to abduct kids for sexual gratification, Before the hearing, Douglas said he believes Duncan can get a fair...