Originally Posted by
gimmethesimplelife
Hi SteveinMN!
I've been thinking about your post here for part of this afternoon and two things come to mind for me. The first is that I am a little surprised you posted this in the sense that you list your location as St. Paul, MN - in the midst of the Twin Cities Metro Area. I don't understand why but Minneapolis/St. Paul has a great quality of life BUT for the past few years has had, and I'm sure you are aware of this, more than it's share of police officers engaging in less than commendable actions and there have been killings - the latest high profile case was the 40 year old Australian national killed by an Officer Noor of the Minneapolis PD.....I would imagine (?) that Twin Cities folks might be more in the mood to seriously question their police departments. I for myself engaged in long distance activism against the Edina, MN police department not too long ago for their harrassment of an African American man committing no crime other than walking down a street in an upscale white suburb and I actually was able to get ahold of a city council member and chew them out for allowing such to take place. At any rate, not living in your area (to be fair) I'm wondering what the climate is like there as to distrust of the police overall? The Twin Cities the past few years have been near the forefront of cases as to why it's wisest not to trust the police, KWIM?
That all said, about the paragraph above replacing the word "Muslim" for police - THE BIG GLARING PROBLEM WITH THIS (capitalized not out of disrespect but to call attention to my point and I do tend to be long-winded, no?) is that the police (let's go back to this word again, please) are supposed to be public employees doing some good and not causing innocent citizens fear and terror. They are not supposed to kill us for flimsy reasons or no reasons at all - or am I missing something - did I sleep in late one day and not get a memo (no sarcasm intended here, I know this sounds a bit sarcastic and you have always been decent to me Steve so I don't mean it this way) - would you not agree that there has been a proliferation of cases of police shootings of a highly questionable nature the past few years, in the Twin Cities and otherwise? Furthermore, the police often suffer no consequences for killing for flimsy reasons or no reasons whatsoever, which to me at least completely negates both your point and the original point of TooMuchStuff. I don't see your points as equal to my point here in the slightest - not that you both can't get points across and not that you both are not articulate people - for me it's the acceptance you both display of the police killing people for flimsy or non-existent reasons. This fact elevates the issues with the police to an entirely different plane. And of course makes it impossible to trust them. At any rate, SteveinMN, please stay safe from your police! I would be afraid to set foot in the Twin Cities now until such a date as changes are made to police departments there and I don't mean this as an insult in any way - I would seriously have some concern for my physical safety and general well being given the recent issues with Twin Cities police in more than one Twin Cities Metro Area municipality.
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