The one, single public official in either city that didn’t marinade themselves in shame in the face of the rioting last year was Saint Paul’s top cop Todd Axtell.
Don’t get me wrong – Axtell has been no less DFL-doctrinaire an anti-gunner than any other urban police chief. He knows where his next paycheck is coming from.
But as Jacob Frey went blank in front of the cameras (only to wake up to tear into a Trump tweet, as Lake Street burned west to Nicollet), as Lisa Bender mumbled about public safety being a sign of privilege, and Melvin Carter apparently went into hiding, Axtell had the great common sense to go on TV and send a message to the rioters that had scourged my neighborhood the previous day: “We’re not abandoning any part of Saint Paul” – which, tacitly, also said Yes, public safety is a privilege, one that every %$#@@ one of you taxpayers of every race and orientation pays for with your tax dollar. And the SPPD, which got behind on the count on Thursday the 28th, at least went on to prove it Friday the 29th, meeting the rioters on the Marshall-Lake Bridge and sending them scampering back to easier pickings west of the river.
It was one of precious few times I’ve been happy to live in Saint Paul in recent years.
It sounded a little like riot night in Saint Paul over the past weekend – three separate shootings, including one at a crowded house party, combined with apparently hundreds of street racers dicing up and down the freeways, gave the city that Black Hawk Down kind of vibe.
Axtell commented:
And I don’t doubt Axtell means it. If nothing else, he’s built up some confidence in some parts of the public, including this mere taxpayer.
But if the SPPD catches them, then what?
They get handed over to a Ramco prosecutors office that is about as tough on crime as Mitra Jalali?
All but the trigger men, maybe, will be back out on the street before the ink is dry on their arrest records. Which are digital.
At least, that’s the sense people get.
If there was ever a time Saint Paul needed to be something other than a one-party desert, this is it.
The DFLin the metro likes to chant “We OWN This Town” after they win lopsided and at least partly fraudulent elections.
Yep, DFL. You do. And like a trust fund baby with a car you didn’t really pay for, wrecking it has no consequences for you. The trust will just get you another. Roseville. Maybe Rochester.
Good luck, Chief.
Amy Brendmoen: “Ah, hello. Well first of all I’d like to apologize for the behaviour of certain of my city’s police force you may have seen earlier on Sheriff Fletcher’s television program, but they are from broken homes, circus families and so on and they are in no way representative of the new modern improved City of Saint Paul police force. They are a small vociferous minority; and may I take this opportunity of emphasizing that there is no violent crime in Saint Paul. Absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount, more than we are prepared to admit, but all new Saint Paul residents are warned that if they wake up in the morning and find any bullet holes at all anywhere on their bodies, they’re to tell me immediately so that I can immediately take every measure to hush the whole thing up.”
The “party house” involved has been a long-term public irritant, despite the ongoing (and often open) drug-dealing and aggressive behavior. The City seems to be at a loss (or a loss of will) as to what to do or how to enforce laws.
Idea: surround the place and force everyone there to get vaccinated, and promise to keep coming back every night until everyone’s had their two shots. It’s for public health, and no one gets arrested!
The issue is simply that the elected officials are afraid to crack down on black criminals. It’s nothing more than that.
The issue is simply that the elected officials are afraid to crack down on black criminals. It’s nothing more than that.
Afraid? Possibly. Unwilling? More likely. By “unwilling”, I mean “I am willing to turn a blind eye to crime committed by BIPOC folk”.
The darker the skin color of said “leader”, the more I lean towards “unwilling”.
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The cops can catch them but Choi’s office let’s them go.
It’s gotta suck knowing that when you arrest a recidivist criminal not much is going to happen.
The only reason to have a police force, is so that the cops can kill the bad guys. If that isn’t acceptable, then get rid of the police force and let the citizens take care of their own security, which is an idea that I support fully.