Pawlenty’s Crime Record Part II

Yesterday we reported on how Tim Pawlenty’s dismantling of the Minnesota Statewide Gang Strike Force hurt Minnesotans across the state.  The Gang Strike Force used to have offices in Moorhead, Duluth, St. Cloud, and Rochester but those staffers were all let go when the Governor merged the Gang and Drug Strike forces.  Now, unfortunately, we’re beginning to see the ramifications of that decision. 

Yesterday an article in the Star Tribune detailed how crime in Duluth, a city in which a Gang Strike Force office was eliminated, has risen by 20% due to increased gang  activity, drugs, and fewer cops:

DULUTH – Jennifer Randa didn’t need to see the official numbers released this month by the Duluth Police Department: crime up nearly 20 percent from 2004 to 2005, with drug crime more than doubling and violent crimes up by 32 percent.

…

Much of Duluth’s new crime involves turf struggles and carryover bad blood among gang members relocated to Duluth from the Twin Cities and beyond, Chief Hanson said.

Minnesota Law Enforcement Officials begged Tim Pawlenty not to eliminate these offices and now look what’s happening.  Mike Hatch’s statement, right before the merger legislation was to be voted on, seems all the more prescient in light of the news from Duluth: “It makes no sense to dismantle an organization that is effective and unique in combating gang violence, especially at a time of increasing problems in the war on gangs.”