Shot in the Dark

Sniped!

I don’t have a lot in common with former Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges. I took my fair, and justified, share of shots at her during her four years in office.

It seems the former Mayor and I share only two things: our mutual love of Darkness on the Edge of Town…

…and criticism of white “progressives’” unicorn-dust approach to social issues, especially racism:

As the mayor of Minneapolis from 2014 to 2018, as a Minneapolis City Council member from 2006 until 2014 and as a white Democrat, I can say this: White liberals, despite believing we are saying and doing the right things, have resisted the systemic changes our cities have needed for decades. We have mostly settled for illusions of change, like testing pilot programs and funding volunteer opportunities.

These efforts make us feel better about racism, but fundamentally change little for the communities of color whose disadvantages often come from the hoarding of advantage by mostly white neighborhoods.

In Minneapolis, the white liberals I represented as a Council member and mayor were very supportive of summer jobs programs that benefited young people of color. I also saw them fight every proposal to fundamentally change how we provide education to those same young people. They applauded restoring funding for the rental assistance hotline. They also signed petitions and brought lawsuits against sweeping reform to zoning laws that would promote housing affordability and integration.

Nowhere is this dynamic of preserving white comfort at the expense of others more visible than in policing. Whether we know it or not, white liberal people in blue cities implicitly ask police officers to politely stand guard in predominantly white parts of town (where the downside of bad policing is usually inconvenience) and to aggressively patrol the parts of town where people of color live — where the consequences of bad policing are fear, violent abuse, mass incarceration and, far too often, death.

Underlying these requests are the flawed beliefs that aggressive patrolling of Black communities provides a wall of protection around white people and our property.

Is there a certain amount of “I Told You So” on the part of a mayor who wasn’t rated a whole lot better on dealing with crime in those lazy, innocent days before Minneapolis became the new Los Angeles, Baltimore and Saint Louis? A little inter-party tit-for-tat?

That’s fine. Any energy they spend at each others’ throats is energy they can’t spare for the rest of us.

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Mitch Berg

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55 responses to “Sniped!”

  1. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Bring up the “Shots Fired” map of Minneapolis. Look at the areas where the most shots occur. Those aren’t White neighborhoods where White people are hoarding their privilege. Those are Black neighborhoods where young Black men are shooting at other young Black man.

    That’s why the cops aggressively patrol those neighborhoods: because that’s where the crimes are being committed by the criminals the cops are supposed to catch.

    Honestly, how hard is that to understand?

  2. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    OT. This is not a hijack, but Wow and had to share! Sorry.

    According to the poll conducted by the Washington based thinktank the Democracy Institute, President Trump is neck and neck with his rival Joe Biden on 47 percent. However, Mr Trump would win in the electoral college system by 309 to 229 delegates because he is on course to win the crucial swing states including Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin where he outpolls Vice President Biden by 48 percent to 44 percent.

    Now back to the regular programming.

  3. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Back on thread. Am I reading correctly that Betsy concedes demoncRats had been giving lip service to the city for at least the past 15 years and NOW is the time to turn it into a shithole?

  4. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Good find, Mitch. When I read that piece, I was immediately reminded of this video.

  5. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    Everyone – regardless of color – wants to live in a peaceful neighborhood, surrounded by “decent’ folks. Usually it takes a significant amount of money to afford this “privilege”, both in terms of buying the property and paying the property taxes – taxes that go in part to pay for the police. Someone paying a lot for protection, expects “peace” and if they don’t get it, the attention falls on the “peace officers”. These days, people of any color that can afford this are generally welcome. Part of the reason for the increased awareness of “liveability” crimes in downtown Minneapolis the last 5 or 6 years (when even City Pages is lamenting the number of aggressive vagrants and thugs in our “jewel” of a city) is because a lot of million dollar apartments and condos have been built in downtown (in formerly “bad” neighborhoods), and.the owners fully expect a “decent” neighborhood level of security, and the police know that, too. More law enforcement activity against behavior that might have been ignored before is a result. This isn’t the sole issue, of course, but it’s part of it.

    This is also part of the “Karen” effect. People with high expectations are quicker to demand more from the authorities and put up with less from their neighbors. Other people in those vibrant neighborhoods would like the same peace, but don’t complain or call the cops on their neighbors (or help in investigations) because they’re afraid of what that means if they want to keep living in that neighborhood.

  6. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    I very much like NW’s comment about paying the money required to live in a decent neighborhood. Especially when counterpoised against Hodge’s asserted solution comprising “sweeping reform to zoning laws that would promote housing affordability and integration“.

    NW’s comment makes perfect sense to me. Are there any data or studies that back up, in any way, Hodge’s asserted solution?

  7. This chopper for official use only Avatar
    This chopper for official use only

    White neighborhoods may be hoarding the privilege of not having shoot-outs on every corner, the privilege of not having crack houses set up in burned out, abandoned hulks. The privilege of being able to stop at a convenience store for a six pack without the fear they’ll get shot. We may be basking in the privilege of having friendly relations with our neighbors.

    We may be hoarding the experience of living with civilized people, but we’re not hoarding the opportunity for others to have the same thing; including Negro people.

    The problem in most urban, Negro neighborhoods is the majority of people living there are violent thugs, criminals, drug addicts and reprobates. They were raised to be criminals by parents who are criminals, and their own kids are criminals. They don’t see any upside to cleaning up the mess because it’s just the cost of doing business. Fact is, and I’ve heard this many times, they’re *proud* of living in the ‘hood.

    The Negro majority that has taken advantage of the awesome opportunities white people have laid at their feet don’t want to live with their reprobate cousins anymore than white people do…fact is, they want to live with white people, too. And they do.

    IIRC, Hodges is married to a Negro man. But she has made a career out of pandering to Negro people. She has ensured her own mulatto kids have the opportunities at the expense of Negro children in Minneapolis. She’s the very worst kind of racist.

  8. This chopper for official use only Avatar
    This chopper for official use only

    jdm, Hodges idea of “sweeping reform to zoning laws that would promote housing affordability and integration” is another word for “bring the hood to the ‘burbs”.

    She’s not in support of promoting the life decisions everyone else that lives in the neighborhoods she wants to destroy makes, she just wants to give criminals a more comfortable environment from which to conduct their criminal activities.

  9. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Thanks, Swiftee, that’s pretty much what I thought too.

  10. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    NightWriter;
    Buddy, you may be on to something. I recall a Bloomington hearing on property taxes that I attended about 10 years ago. My neighbors and I felt that our houses were assessed too high. One of these neighbors is actually a long time realtor that works west Bloomington and Eden Prairie. Thanks to her comp assessment from the MLS sales records for the previous year, we literally proved that our properties were assessed incorrectly. During the hearing, the city assessor specifically brought up what the taxes are for. As he laid them out, he specifically stated that Bloomington residents “expect and actually demand that the city maintain a well trained, professional police force, as well as a well trained fire department”. My sister worked in a city government related HR role for over 25 years and she told me that for many years, Bloomington had the highest paid municipal force in the state, but as of 2017, they were on par with surrounding communities. I know both Chief Jeff Potts and Deputy Chief Mike Hartley very well and also have a second cousin on the force, so I know the stringent requirements that are in place to become an officer here. All that said, maybe if enough Minneapolis residents attended the taxation hearing, then hammered the city on the dismantling of “a professional, well trained PD and replacing it with some 120 lb female social workers”, they could make a case for tax reduction.

    chopper;
    Kind of like closet racists Samantha Bee and her husband, who are of course, firmly in the socialist BLM supporter camp, despite the fact that they railed against efforts to pollute their children’s schools with lower income students. They then claimed that it was not racism. Sadly, they got away with it. I’m wondering if someone posted that blast from their past, if Samantha would get cancelled?

  11. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    She’s not in support of promoting …

    She’s in support of spreading the misery. The only ideology the leftist elite understands. And yet she would never subject the community she lives in to these same “fair” zoning laws. You see, some pigs are more equal than others.

  12. Mammuthus Primigenius Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenius

    “Hoarding” is a loaded word. As totalitarian socialists have used it, it means that group X is hoarding A, and if X did not hoard A, there would be enough A for everyone. “Wreckers and hoarders” were the usual villains in the USSR and Castro’s Cuba. There would be plenty for all, if it weren’t for the “wreckers and hoarders.”
    What Hodges is saying, explicitly, is that the “security” of the white liberals is payed for by putting criminals in jail. This is obvious, but Hodges seems to think that this deal is repugnant because criminals end up in jail.
    What can you do with a person like that? A person who wishes to inflict her damaged psyche on those around her?

  13. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    OT. Sorry lads, but had to share, so please spare the hate. This is from our friend, he is an ER doctor at one of the local hospitals (in Houston).

    Long, long few days at work. Lots of trauma and lots of trauma deaths. People going stir crazy, unemployed and underemployed. Abuse, assault, gunshot wounds, stabbings, car crashes and more. The “cure” can’t be worse than the disease…

  14. golfdoc50 Avatar
    golfdoc50

    Want to give opportunities to black teens in the hood? Get rid of minimum wage laws. No one will hire 16 year olds at $15 an hour. Personal note: my recently retired wife worked as a receptionist for 15 an hour. She was way under paid, but that’s life.

  15. In The Mailbox: 07.10.20 : The Other McCain

    […] (Or The Media) Shark Tank: Shamed FL Democrats Hide Under Rock Shot In The Dark: Sniped! STUMP: Public Pensions Primer – How Discount Rates Work The Political Hat: Firing Line Friday […]

  16. passout76 Avatar
    passout76

    Ah yes, Betsy, the mayor who rushed a certain police recruit through training so she could get a photo op with the first Somali policeman in Minneapolis. Then he shot one of my neighbors and her former constituent. My neighbor’s life is over and the poor young man’s life is ruined. But there was a great photo-op that came out of it.

    As an aside, I am responsible for introducing her to her current husband.

  17. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    well she’s gonna be canceled and sent to leftist re-education camp for having independent thoughts.

  18. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    jdm;
    Saw that video a couple of weeks ago. It’s just as funny today! Thanks for posting.

    Mitch;
    Haven’t seen your NARN show updates in a couple of weeks. Who’s on the show this week?

  19. This chopper for official use only Avatar
    This chopper for official use only

    I see Drumpf has declined to pay for Minnesota’s decision to elect feckless dimwits to positions of responsibility.

    Excellent.

    As Nancy Pelosi says, people are just going to do what they’re going to do. And you will pay.

    I also see that upwards of 150 Minne coppers have filed for permanent disability, for which the city’s taxpayers will pay.

    Excellent

    $10 says y’all will have new choo-choo’s, bike paths and a George Floyd statue before the first burned out building gets rebuilt.

    I also see that Drumpf has commuted the sentence of Roger Stone. Leftist reprobates are losing their minds.

    Most excellent.

    So much winning.

  20. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    The problem in most urban, Negro neighborhoods is the majority of people living there are violent thugs, criminals, drug addicts and reprobates. – Swifty

    To be accurate, that description applies to less than a third of the demographic. The felony rate for black males is 30% and less for females. As for reprobates…the black unemployment rate in Minnesota, prior to covid was 6.1%.

    While one can quibble with these numbers, it is no more accurate to suggest the majority of black people living in urban neighborhoods are reprobates than it is to accuse the majority of white suburbanites of being bigoted racists.

    The reputations of both groups suffer from the reprobate minorities among them.

  21. This chopper for official use only Avatar
    This chopper for official use only

    Sorry golfdoc, but most businessmen wouldn’t employ a hood rat for free.

    They would have to conform to a modicum of civilized behavior and appearance, and that rarely happens until they’ve served at least a dime in prison.

    Hell, few can read or write English above a grade 4 level of mastery; some can barely speak it. I’m not being facetious; just the facts.

  22. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    That’s why the cops aggressively patrol those neighborhoods: because that’s where the crimes are being committed by the criminals the cops are supposed to catch.

    Speaking as the guy who wrote many of the systems bringing you this information, allow me to reflect.

    The fastest way to increase the crime rate is to hire more police. The fastest way to increase crime in an area is to saturate it with patrols.

    More cops, more crime reports. More patrols more crime detected.

    On one hand, that is a good thing, on another it is not.

    Maybe I have written this before in this blog, but it bears repeating. Imagine you work weekend third shift in a neighborhood that has a concentration of bars. Also image because of local complaints, law enforcement has instituted programs to suppress drunk driving in your area.

    Suppressing drunk driving is a social good.

    But you get stopped. Sometimes every Friday and Saturday night. That is not good, it is dangerous, but you cooperate with police orders and remain polite during stops.

    Still, aggressive policing means aggressive policing. You get ticketed for “failure to come to a complete stop” or “failure to signal lane change” which is the justification for stopping you. These are moving violations and your insurance goes up. Too many of these and you cannot afford to drive or get to work.

    Though you are polite and respectful, some officers are not. Some treat you like shit just for driving to work.

    Then you find out that the city has been using your traffic fines as a revenue source.

    So yes, not losing a loved one to an idiot drunk is a good thing. Your wife and kids have to drive on weekends, so you are grateful for that – but that is only half the story.

    If you ask me, this problem can be solved by a profiling system that I will call LHTFA for “Leave Him/Her The F**K Alone”, essentially, it would work by flagging lack of criminal record, the number of contacts with no violation detected and a few other variables.

    I know, I know…it is big brother on steroids, but maybe that is what is needed.

    Short of that…..how about simply instituting a “no chicken-sh*t tagging” policy in highly policed areas?

  23. This chopper for official use only Avatar
    This chopper for official use only

    To be accurate, that description applies to less than a third of the demographic. The felony rate for black males is 30% and less for females

    I won’t quibble with those numbers Greg. Ive estimated the criminal population consists of 40% total, so at any given time, it’s not unlikely that 10% haven’t copped their first felony bust.

    But as I said, most of the 60% of the Negro population that has allowed themselves to be pulled into civilized society do not live in the hood.

    That is to say, of the 30% Negro felon population in MN, 80% live in North Mpls, with the balance spread between Brooklyn Park, Richfield and St. Paul.

  24. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    The fastest way to increase the crime rate is to hire more police. The fastest way to increase crime in an area is to saturate it with patrols.

    More cops, more crime reports. More patrols more crime detected.

    Greg, I am sorry if I missed the {sarcasm} tag, and conceding you get more of anything when you increase detection, but surely you are not suggesting that cause of more crime is more police? Because that is exactly what you are saying.

  25. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Greg, I am sorry if I missed the {sarcasm} tag, and conceding you get more of anything when you increase detection, but surely you are not suggesting that cause of more crime is more police? Because that is exactly what you are saying.

    I get your point. I should have been more clear.

    Crime rates depend on reported crimes. When you have more police, you get more reports.

    There is always a gap between reported crime and instances of crime, we try to measure that with victimization surveys. A lot of crime is simply not reported, why bother, the cops won’t do anything about it.

    But guess what? More instances of building code violations occur than are reported. Same thing with health and safety violations at restaurants and bars. So what happens if we triple the number of inspectors?

    Two things: we get more violations detected and more pissed off restaurant and bar operators.

    The object is to protect the public by suppressing egregious violations, NOT to enforce laws to the fullest extent. We don’t want buildings falling down or bursting into flames nor do want E-coli in our food, nor twelve year olds buying shots – but look at Ferguson or in some cases Minneapolis. The saturation of police patrols to suppress violent crime by stop and frisk techniques turns into a money mill or an annoying and rage inducing over-reach of government force.

  26. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Greg, I’d like to know how you feel about the policies that stem from the Broken Windows theory.

    NYC experienced an “astonishing crime drop in the nineties” (from City Journal) which was attributed the Broken Windows theory. From Wiki

    The broken windows theory is a criminological theory that states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking, jaywalking and fare evasion help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes.

    I don’t know if the effect was immediate, but now that these Broken Windows policies have been reversed, crime is going up in NYC again (if I understand correctly, perhaps there are other more significant factors).

    Perhaps, like the Laffer Curve, there is an optimal level of activity when implementing the Broken Windows theory beyond which it becomes “a money mill or an annoying and rage inducing over-reach of government force”?

  27. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    My take on it, better, and by extension more better, is an enemy of good. So any power-hungry entity, especially goobernment and related critters who do not know what brakes are, never stop at optimal but continue to go past the peak and slide down the other side. Oblivious as long as their power-hungry tastes are satisfied and cash continues to flow into their pockets.

  28. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Minneapolis implemented William Bratton’s model for the Broken Windows style of policing with CODEFOR. I (blush) did the programming.

    It worked, but I would hesitate to say that it was the only factor working at the time. Crime went up all around the country and crime went down all around the country at about the same time. It went up faster in some places and down faster in other places. Murderapolis was especially hard hit.

    Removing the worst of the worst off the streets was instrumental, suppressing the carrying of firearms by thugs helped, but demographics and the currents of culture also played a big role.

    But programs like Stop And Frisk or Broken Windows (minor crime enforcement) come with a serious social capital price tag.

    The cops can arrest the thugs that harassed your daughter, save your mother when she goes into cardiac arrest and coach your son’s baseball team – but all of that good will rapidly deteriorates when a rude aggressive cop tickets you for failing to stop at a four-way when you know for a fact that you did, then he gets in your face because you’re talking back to him, when you explain that you actually did come to a complete stop.

    Then you get stopped two nights later for failing to signal a lane change and your insurance skyrockets and the tickets cost you more than the sofa your wife has been bugging you to buy for three years.

    This is not normal policing. It is concentrated policing and you are collateral damage. It is easy to say that is the price we pay, unless it is you who is paying the price.

    So why not move?

    I asked my grandmother that after the second time her home was invaded by thugs who put her to the hospital. For some people that is not an option; their identity is in large part determined by place.

    Amplify that by 30,000 and you have a big, big problem.

  29. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Perhaps, like the Laffer Curve, there is an optimal level of activity when implementing the Broken Windows theory beyond which it becomes “a money mill or an annoying and rage inducing over-reach of government force”?

    Exactly, but how do you measure that?

    Quantifying crime is easy. All you do is tally incidents, and maybe if you are really sophisticated you dig down into the who, where, what details.

    But how do you measure oppression?

    How do you measure the loss of goodwill and community trust?

    A good place to start is by mapping fines and forfeitures. Here is a national map that focuses on small towns. Addicted to Fines: Small towns in much of the country are dangerously dependent on punitive fines and fees.

    This could be done in Minneapolis by overlaying crime maps with fine maps. I mean, gosh, the purpose of Stop and Frisk is to suppress gangs, drugs and illegal guns….not piss off the population and raise money for the city council.

    One could easily measure crimes against fines and pick a tipping point.

  30. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Greg, your analysis is thoughtful but I’m not sure I’m following the logic train to the conclusion you reached.

    The Shots Fired map shows where shots have been fired. That’s not the result of cops writing chicken-shit tickets, that’s a function of bad guys shooting at each other. Should cops not respond, because they might harass the wrong guy?

    On the other extreme – George Floyd died because he was passing bad paper. That guy in New York died because he was selling loosies. They’re both against the law: should the cops decline to enforce the law? Then what are cops for?

    I dunno, it seems to me that no enforcement leads to anarchy and too much enforcement leads to tyranny so somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot. Determining where is the issue and I suspect the problem is the cultural norm.

    In my culture (middle class old white man) it is not considered “normal” to drive to the store to pass counterfeit money while stoned. People who do it should expect to become “justice involved.” Apparently, in the Minneapolis Black community, that’s just ordinary normal behavior so the cops shouldn’t be hassling the guy for it.

    I don’t think the cultural divide can be resolved. Either a young Black man can drop out of school to live in authentic Black culture and take his chances on poverty, crime and gunshots; or he can stay in school, get a job, wait for children until married, become an Uncle Tom and “act White” so he can live in safe, prosperous, responsible White culture with the rest of us hoarders.

  31. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    I’m a little busy at the moment, but I thought I’d drop by and see if Greg answered my question. He did and then a nice little discussion broke out. The kind of which one might have if there weren’t any trolls involved. Looking forward to catching up. Later.

  32. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    They’re both against the law: should the cops decline to enforce the law? Then what are cops for?

    Problematic. Should there be a “loosie” law in the first place? How about we start with an honest law reform and toss the BS laws off the books. And then make it clear that cops are there to enforce all laws, not just the ones they pick and choose, or the ones that net them most money in fines.

  33. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Joe, the motivation to acquire the Shots Fired system had more to do with dumpster lids than firearms. In the old days, every time someone banged a dumpster lid, dispatch would get flooded with calls and a couple of squads would go flying.

    Once the system was in place, we could tell the difference between a dumpster lid, a cherrybomb, a backfire and a pistol shot. It cut down on false reports and allowed the squads to dig deeper into the call stack of real stuff.

    But the object is to prevent shots, not respond to them. Stop and Frisk made the illegal carrying of firearms hazardous. Like Bratton once said, “After the program, if someone called your old lady fat and ugly, you had to run to the bodega to get your piece. By the time you got there, you realized they were right.”

    I dunno, it seems to me that no enforcement leads to anarchy and too much enforcement leads to tyranny so somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot. Determining where is the issue and I suspect the problem is the cultural norm.

    Bingo!!

    That is where we agree and that is where conservatives need to focus to claw their way back to power in the cities.

    We cannot do much about (as Swiftee says) the reprobates, so we need to come up with rational programs to balance safety over tyranny. IMHO, it is not that hard.

    Off the top of my head, here are some simple rules:

    1) If you saturate an area with cops, don’t ticket.

    2) Read your F’ing computer. If it says the driver is over 30 and has no criminal record, Leave Him/Her the eff alone.

    3) The job of the police is to protect and serve……uh, that means the “bad guys” too. You don’t have to kneel on the neck of a guy who is handcuffed and comatose.

    4) Get rid of bullshit laws or refuse to enforce them. Eric Garner was approached for “suspicion of selling single cigarettes from packs without tax stamps”. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING. Chasing down hawkers selling “loosies” is a job for city inspections, not cops. We don’t send the flying squad into MacDonalds when they fail to mop their floor.

    5) Monitor fines and forfeitures, if your revenue is coming mostly from poor high crime areas,……that’s messed up.

    6) Record and monitor your contacts. In other words, if you are catching more dolphins than tuna, you’re doing something wrong.

  34. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    They’re both against the law: should the cops decline to enforce the law?

    The fastest way to shut down Western civilization is to enforce all laws equally, therefore every enforcement agency from the EPA to the FBI practices discretion.

    The object of law enforcement is not to enforce laws, it is to suppress illegal activity, though the two things may sound the same, they are very, very different.

  35. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    nice little discussion broke out

    OMG!!

    It did!

    Quick somebody call somebody else HITLER

  36. Pig Bodine Avatar
    Pig Bodine

    “I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.” – Ulysses S. Grant

    This would work if modern politicians saw any advantage in removing a bad law once it is enacted. Today’s crop of political vermin see the bad law as an opportunity to promise a result they have no intention of delivering meanwhile using it to raise campaign funds. This propensity to exploit their base is a key feature of modern RINOs. Trump’s dictum to remove 2 old regulations for every new one that is established keeps the flotsam and jetsam of both parties awake at night.
    A couple decades back a much publicized effort was made to clean up the blue laws on the books but after much straining and posturing and debate only a few were actually expunged. Just as doctors will never take you off a drug once its prescribed, politicians are similarly loathe to repeal any law no matter how execrable. Police are tasked with threading the needle of enforcement and taking the heat for the failure of laws they had no hand in making.

  37. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    It strikes me that the policies that stem from the Broken Windows theory are, in essence, a next best way to create, as NW, put it above, “peaceful neighborhood[s], surrounded by ‘decent’ folks“.

    As he also wrote “Usually it takes a significant amount of money to afford this ‘privilege’, both in terms of buying the property and paying the property taxes – taxes that go in part to pay for the police“. But I think this undervalues the commitment those people, the ones that have money, make to creating or continuing the behaviors of decent folks in peaceful neighborhoods.

    And it seems that those areas that need the police (ie, Broken Windows policies) are not nearly so committed to that ideal. Now it may be that they are unable to commit because of circumstances. It may also be by choice. It is my understanding that there are studies that indicate if not show that poor people remain poor through consistently bad choices. And this is even more true for those who are poor and criminal.

    The Chris Rock video “How To Not Get Your A$$ Kicked By The Police” (I can’t believe it is still available) is an amazingly comic but also revealing work that shows hows things have changed in 20 some years. It is revealing because of makes fun of these very consistently bad choices.

    None of this is intended to excuse or even ameliorate the choices and actions made by governments and their agents. The Mpls police have had a bad (or at least somewhat shady) reputation going back 100 years and the Mpls governments have looked the other way when they could.

    And yes, Greg, there are are far too many laws. I believe it has been said that there are now so many laws that no one can go through a day without breaking a law somehow, someway.

  38. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Should there be a “loosie” law in the first place?

    It took me the longest time to remember what a loosie is. I would agree with you except that I know that loosie laws are among the most important laws of all. Any action that might in some way, shape or form, attempt to circumvent or
    prevent the government from getting its cut is a Very Bad Thing.

  39. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Keep in mind that The Broken Window Theory is just that, a theory.

    It holds that small signs of chaos like a broken window in an abandoned building are a signal that social dysfunction is tolerated, therefore counteracting those signals by focusing on small quality of life crimes, prevents more serious behavior.

    But also keep in mind that a close cousin of that theory drives the quasi-authoritarian Karens who plague Home Owner Associations.

    The goal of HOA rules is to keep the neighborhood looking nice – but don’t be surprised when you find a Karen clutching her citation book while she measures the height of your mail box post.

    So you have to ask yourself, what is it that we are trying to accomplish here? How can we measure it and how can we tell if we have transformed a virtue into a vice.

  40. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Greg, I think your example just proved the theory is correct.

    Karen measuring your mailbox is taking care of the little things, before you begin greater violations such putting up as a nasty-looking chain link fence, or tying a pit bull to a doghouse, or parking a boat in your driveway, or – horror of horrors – painting your trim a color that is not on the Association-approved color palette.

    One might argue the entire concept of an Association-approved color palette is ridiculous and offensive. Fine. Don’t live here. Move to some s*(%hole neighborhood in North Minneapolis, take the hubcaps off your car, hang around on street corners drinking from a bottle in a brown paper bag, clutching your nethers, and shooting at people. Nobody is forcing you to live in a nice neighborhood. But if you choose to live here, then follow the rules to keep the place nice.

    This, by the way, explains why nobody cares about 27 Black people shot in Chicago over the weekend. They live in a s*(%hole neighborhood. They shoot at each other (and if they’re not pulling the trigger themselves, they’re providing cover for the trigger pullers). That’s what people who live in a s*(% hole neighborhoods do. They don’t care about broken windows, they’re the ones breaking the windows.

    This has nothing to do with race. This has to do with behavior. There are White Trash of all races, and N()*&s of all races. They’re the loudmouths, the knuckleheads, the troublemakers, the people society wouldn’t miss if they fell into a deep hole and never climbed back out. They’re the ones who turn nice neighborhoods into s*(%holes.

    As Mayor Hodges now insists we must do.

  41. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Every year, every law enforcement agency dutifully tallies its arrests by race, gender, age and offense and submits them to the FBI to compile the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR).

    IMHO, race and gender are utterly meaningless. Yeah, we know that minority males are badder boys than white females are good girls, but what does that tell us?

    Not much.

    It might be fodder for politicians and grist for poverty pimps but it does little to address crime.

    Crime is behavior and it speaks to character. What I would like to know from a crime prevention stand-point is what is this character’s history of criminal behavior?

    Age is important, not demographically, but individually. We know that stupid kids do stupid stuff, but we also know that kids grow up and when I talk about kids, I am talking about human beings whose brain (pre-frontal) cortex has yet to mature… about 28 years old in the human male.

    Reporting crime, categorized by criminal history would tell us a lot, like WTF!!! What is a robber, rapist or murderer doing back on the street robbing, raping and killing?

    And like WTF, how can you have 29 felonies and still be walking free?

    And like WTF, why are 40 year olds, who are paragons of virtue, losing out on career opportunities because they were a dumb-f**k at 21? Isn’t most everyone a dumb-f**k at 21?

    I sure was.

    If we had this data glaring in our eyes, a number of criminal justice changes would be obvious.

    1) The three strikes rule is just plain common sense, but we have to make sure it actually means three strikes and we differentiate between dumb kids and career criminals.

    2) Police agencies should focus on their customers the same way that businesses do. When I worked in the private sector, we classified our customers by A, B and C. A being our high profit group and C being the guy who wanders in the door and never returns. You want to pay special attention to the A’s. Especially the top 10.

    3) When the brain matures, so does behavior. Certain crimes committed before age 28 should be automatically expunged after 5 or 10 years of a clean record. The best way to turn behavior around is to offer a way to earn the good graces of society by good behavior.

  42. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    I agree with your 1, 2 and 3, however disagree with your take on demographics. Profiling works. What you are saying, it is perfectly OK to frisk a grandma from Norway at the TSE screening, but let a niqab-wearing person with mustache picking out, pass. Demographics point out areas which need more focus. Now, definition of focus is up for debate.

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  44. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    however disagree with your take on demographics. Profiling works. What you are saying, it is perfectly OK to frisk a grandma from Norway at the TSE screening, but let a niqab-wearing person with mustache picking out, pass.

    The odds of a grandma from Norway engaging in criminal behavior is astronomical, so there is little need to frisk her…..generally, but airplanes are a high risk environment and yeah, if a terrorist wanted to slip a small bomb into someone’s carry-on, she would be target #1, so in that instance, frisk granny. Along with anyone else.

    Profiling by demographic characteristic is really not that helpful. Like stated above, 30% of black males have a felon record, so if you shake down black males….70% of the time, you are just pissing off an innocent kid.

    Best focus on the people you know who are bad. Scan a license plate and the driver’s criminal history pops up….gosh, now that is far more interesting and informative.

  45. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Best focus on the people you know who are bad.

    LOL, that’s the definition of “profiling”! Glad to see we are on the same page.

  46. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Profiling by demographic characteristic is really not that helpful. Like stated above, 30% of black males have a felon record, so if you shake down black males….70% of the time, you are just pissing off an innocent kid.

    But it’s OK to frisk grandma from Norway. Who cares if she’s innocent and pissed off?

    I’m not sure I like the direction this is taking.

  47. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Karen measuring your mailbox is taking care of the little things

    Hmmmm, the BTK serial killer (Dennis Rader) who terrorized Wichita Kansas was control freak “compliance officer in Park City. In this position, neighbors recalled him as being sometimes overzealous and extremely strict, as well as taking special pleasure in bullying and harassing single women. [wikipedia]”

    So much for taking care of the little things. 🙂

    Good governance, be it in a city or in a HOA requires common sense and not a small bit of discretion. The #1 complaint about HOA’s is over-zealous enforcement of petty rules.

    But if one does not wish to live there, they can leave. One can say the same of Venezuela too. Sadly, one cannot say the same about the People’s Paradise of Cuba.

    Move to some s*(%hole neighborhood in North Minneapolis, take the hubcaps off your car, hang around on street corners drinking from a bottle in a brown paper bag, clutching your nethers, and shooting at people.

    Well…..the gates of HOA hell do not immediately swing open to Hades. There is a lot of turf in between.

    As are there reasonable people who live in HOAs and law abiding people who live in gang-infested hellholes.

    What bothers me about the ever-empathy-ooozing Betsy Hodges and the Obama HUD authority is that when they shuffle people out of hell holes, they do not discriminate. They shovel the good with the bad.

    Again, criminal records could help. A couple of housing projects actually forbid anyone with a criminal record from living there. A marvelous first step….again based on behavior.

  48. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    So much for taking care of the little things

    I’m not sure I quite understand how a serial killer who takes/took great pleasure in bullying and harassing single women can be used as a vehicle to demolish the utility of the Broken Windows theory. Especially when you suggest the solution immediately after

    Good governance, be it in a city or in a HOA requires common sense and not a small bit of discretion.

    Complete agreement.

  49. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    I’m not sure I quite understand how a serial killer who takes/took great pleasure in bullying and harassing single women can be used as a vehicle to demolish the utility of the Broken Windows theory.

    It was more of a good-hearted jab at Joe’s description of an HOA enforcer.

    My critique of Broken Windows uses the overzealous HOA code enforcer as an example of good intentions gone astray.

    Again, vice is nothing more than virtue taken too far.

    For instance, building codes are a virtuous thing but they soon turn into the hell of captured regulation when building suppliers lobby to have legislatures force people to use their products.

    In our area of the state, Friends of the Earth are working with lobbyists who represent contractor who install septic systems to systematically inspect and condemn “out of compliance” septic systems and force homeowners to spend 30K to 40K on a new system.

    Broken Windows fines, forfeitures and enforcement quickly degrade into a revenue stream for cities that amounts to nothing more than a cruel regressive tax on the people who can least afford it.

  50. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Greg, I think we’re singing from the same music. We agree the absence of rules is anarchy and we got a taste of that in Minneapolis last month – no thanks. We also agree too many rules can be infuriating (HOA Karen) or even deadly (Cuba). Admitting there is a spectrum from “none” to “all” allows us to focus on a harder question: where’s the ideal spot on the spectrum?

    For Japan, with a homogenous population conditioned to obey, the ideal spot can be further towards “total” and nobody will object. For residents of New York City, maybe pull back a little. For ranchers in Wyoming, swing the pendulum as far the other way as it can go.

    I think Minnesota blue county residents tend to be a tiny bit less liberal than New York City residents, whereas Minnesota red county residents tend to be a tiny bit more liberal than Wyoming ranchers, and that’s creating a problem where the two groups meet, in the ring of suburbs around the cities. Defunding the police is a great idea in Minneapolis, since that’s what the loudest voices want and those areas can’t get any bluer if they tried. It also will frighten suburban soccer moms in the ring counties and that will move them redder, a win-win.

    Ideally, I should move to rural Stearns County where my ideas are more in line with the local population, or better still, take Governor Dayton’s advice and leave the state entirely. Financially, that’s not possible right at the moment but it’s definitely coming. Already bought the park model in a seniors only retirement community in Texas. After Covid and Defund, White Flight is looking sweeter every day.

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