Gathering the Movement: Community Unites to Fight North Side Gun Violence

Moratorium on violence We certainly need moratorium on gun violence in north Minneapolis.

I couldn’t agree more. I think that’s a great idea, although I don’t think there’s any reason to leave those of us in south Minneapolis out of it — can we arrange for the criminals there to stop hurting and killing people, too?

Why… is race even mentioned in relation to Dru Sjodin in this story? Is that relevent or are you just trying to invoke something?

There’s an inadvertent (I trust) stutter in the story. ..gun violence prevention groups Million Mom March and Protect Minnesota…
Without getting into characterizing the Three, err, Million Moms, “PROTECT Minnesota” is, simply, the local Three, err, Million Moms and the formerly Joyce-funded  “Citizens for a ‘Safer’ Minnesota” having branded themselves collectively. 

See the admission on the CSM website: 

…PROTECT Minnesota is a multi-year campaign which will combine the efforts of the Twin Cities and Duluth Million Moms Chapters and Citizens for a Safer Minnesota…

I know that the folks in the CSM crowd do like to try to inflate their apparent size by constantly slapping on additional labels, (in the past, we’ve seen them do that with “The Repeal Conceal Coaliton,” “Minnesotans Against Being Shot”, etc. — still it’s just been Rebecca and Heather and now Judy and their small van filled with pink ladies), rather than the hard work of grass roots organizing . . .

. . . but there’s no good journalistic reason to play along.

Hmmm… there are advantages — both ethical and organizational — to an activist portraying himself, honestly, as, well, just a guy.

JR
(just a guy)

Operation Exile If you really want to reduce gun violence in Minneapolis use the Federal laws already on the books.

Ask the Hennepin County Attourney why these laws are not being used.  There is no hesitation to use Federal laws against those involved in Drug crimes.  So the question is why doesn’t Hennepin County use the same advantage against criminals caught with firearms?

The implication … is that the Governor cares more when a cute white girl is murdered by a sexual predator than when a cute black girl is murdered by a gangbanger.

If that were true — and I’m not saying that it is or isn’t — I’m not sure what the implications of that would be, as I don’t see (from the story or from anything else) how the Governor’s emotional state, whatever it might be, would lead to a reduction in the numbers of people (of whatever race or attractiveness) murdered by sexual predators (far too frequent, obviously, but still rare) or by gangbangers (more more frequent than the former).

The gang problem in the Twin Cities has long been out of control, and while better policing strategies (some sort of ROP targeting) can possibly reduce it, it’s here to stay, and probably going to continue to grow and spread, alas.

Moratorium on violence We certainly need moratorium on gun violence in north Minneapolis.

I couldn't agree more. I think that's a great idea, although I don't think there's any reason to leave those of us in south Minneapolis out of it — can we arrange for the criminals there to stop hurting and killing people, too?

Why… is race even mentioned in relation to Dru Sjodin in this story? Is that relevent or are you just trying to invoke something?

There's an inadvertent (I trust) stutter in the story. ..gun violence prevention groups Million Mom March and Protect Minnesota…

Without getting into characterizing the Three, err, Million Moms, “PROTECT Minnesota” is, simply, the local Three, err, Million Moms and the formerly Joyce-funded  “Citizens for a 'Safer' Minnesota” having branded themselves collectively. 

See the admission on the CSM website: 

…PROTECT Minnesota is a multi-year campaign which will combine the efforts of the Twin Cities and Duluth Million Moms Chapters and Citizens for a Safer Minnesota…

I know that the folks in the CSM crowd do like to try to inflate their apparent size by constantly slapping on additional labels, (in the past, we've seen them do that with “The Repeal Conceal Coaliton,” “Minnesotans Against Being Shot”, etc. — still it's just been Rebecca and Heather and now Judy and their small van filled with pink ladies), rather than the hard work of grass roots organizing . . .

. . . but there's no good journalistic reason to play along.

Hmmm… there are advantages — both ethical and organizational — to an activist portraying himself, honestly, as, well, just a guy.

JR

(just a guy)

Operation Exile If you really want to reduce gun violence in Minneapolis use the Federal laws already on the books.

Ask the Hennepin County Attourney why these laws are not being used.  There is no hesitation to use Federal laws against those involved in Drug crimes.  So the question is why doesn't Hennepin County use the same advantage against criminals caught with firearms?

The implication … is that the Governor cares more when a cute white girl is murdered by a sexual predator than when a cute black girl is murdered by a gangbanger.

If that were true — and I'm not saying that it is or isn't — I'm not sure what the implications of that would be, as I don't see (from the story or from anything else) how the Governor's emotional state, whatever it might be, would lead to a reduction in the numbers of people (of whatever race or attractiveness) murdered by sexual predators (far too frequent, obviously, but still rare) or by gangbangers (more more frequent than the former).

The gang problem in the Twin Cities has long been out of control, and while better policing strategies (some sort of ROP targeting) can possibly reduce it, it's here to stay, and probably going to continue to grow and spread, alas.