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Rash of burglaries reported

Once again, proof that you need to lock your doors and windows when away from home. We teach to keep them locked when home whenever feasible. If you are mowing the back yard, and your front door is not locked, you could easily wind up a victim. The average home burglary lasts 45 seconds to 2 minutes. Think of the normal, daily things you do that take you away from the main area of your house for that long. Never mind the risk that they may come in when you are present.

Story here.

Fake Police Officer stealing from drivers

These drivers are lucky that losing some cash is all that happened to them. This can be a tough one, you can’t just stop obeying the police on the chance it’s not a real officer, but you can educate yourself on the uniforms worn by your local department. Some departments use a number of unmarked vehicles, so if in doubt, keep your doors locked, give nothing to them, ask for a badge number and a name, call 911 and verify this is a real officer. Make sure to explain the reasons for your actions, or you can wind up in a rather tense situation, even arrested for failure to comply.

Story here.

Summer in the hood

So yet another shooting, 1 dead, 2 wounded, no one talks to the cops, and the cops have nothing to go on, so the trend continues.

Story here.

Man shot outside Mpls bar

Once again, a man shot outside a Minneapolis bar near close, this was a fatal shooting. Now even if you are not involved in risky lifestyles, keep in mind that many people out at that hour are. And that is often enough to result in an argument, fight, injury, or even death.

Awareness and avoidance, our core principles, are hard to follow when in a chaotic environment. This can be mitigated by advanced training to a degree, but the overall risk factor is still significantly higher.

Story here.

Politicians and statistics both lie like cheap rugs

I am going to avoid my personal bias on this as best I can and stick to attacking this article.

The esteemed PR dept at the Minneapolis PD has been taking lessons. Quoting Minneapolis Police Sgt. Michael Young;

  • Young credits dedicated officers for the drop in crime.
  • He believes their experience and determination to stop the violence is paying off.
  • He said Saturday nights are typically quiet. His officers know the hotspots and know many of the faces of those who have caused problems in the past.

Now the quotes about the crime in North Minneapolis;

> 15 of the city’s 26 homicides this year happened there.

> “Things can get very volatile, very fast up here,” said Minneapolis Police Sgt. Michael Young.

> “Every day there is something that you’ve never run into before. Every single day,” said Young.

>”Almost every night we’re getting multiple guns either off of vehicle stops or shots fired calls or at shooting scenes. They’ve got one already today,” said Young.

Way to go Sarge, I can sleep better now knowing that rape, robbery and arson are down “double digit” (I read as just breaking 10% or they would be touting it), I only have to worry about being killed.

Well isn’t that just dandy.

Veteran shot on bike path in Minneapolis

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can, to a degree, be avoided. Bike riding at 10:30 p.m. in North Minneapolis will carry some risks, and it’s too bad we can’t go out for a ride at night anymore, but this is the way of things in the inner city. I hope for a speedy recovery for this man, shot through no fault of his own.

Story here.

Family terrorized

One of the reasons we teach what we do is illustrated by the following, a family targeted with vandalism and arson, suspecting that it is directed at their son, but neither they nor the police have any idea who’s doing it.

If you do everything right, you can still be the target of crimes and violence, if you don’t, you can ensure it.

Story here.

Article on home searches by police

Not too bad for a media story on the matter.

Story here.

Abduction attempt or misunderstanding?

Wow. What a fine example of two sides to the story. Witnesses say he came up behind her, put his hand over her mouth (story says “behind her mouth”) and tried to abduct her. The sister of the accused says “her brother is nice man who would never try to kidnap anyone” and said the accused told her that “that he was trying to help her, to get her home”.

Makes you wonder what really happened. Needless to say, do NOT go walking alone at night, learn how to protect yourself, and follow your mother’s advice, do not trust strangers.

7 squads descend on 16 y/o with super soaker

So here is a fine example of police response.

On the one hand, you have the police, all they have to go on is “man is brandishing a gun”, and not surprisingly, responded with a 7 squad “descent” according to the news article.

On the other, a boy with a super soaker.

So is the party at fault the officer? The boy? Or the person who called 911? The dispatcher?

In this case, I am in a position to speak with some authority, as I have had an entire police precinct out looking for me with guns drawn, based on a 911 call reporting a “man with a gun”. Mind you this was a holstered weapon, carried openly in keeping with MN state law. Too bad the caller failed to mention that it was in a holster. My neighbor called me describing the person they were looking for, me. I told him to flag one down, and I would be out in 20 seconds. They were polite enough to keep their guns at low ready, as the neighbor said I had a permit, and we cleared matters up in very short order.

So to break this story down, A boy brandishes a large neon squirt gun, and the worst crime I would really accuse him of is distracted driving. Sure, he was being stupid, but not seriously stupid. Someone calls 911 to report the brandishing of a firearm, (which is not a crime in MN – you can get assault with a deadly weapon, public endangerment, and a whole lot else, but there is no brandishing statute). Perhaps this person was legally blind, as at least that would be an excuse.

The dispatcher apparently did not ask questions about the incident, so I would go with poor job performance there. They joys of government employment.

Finally, the responding officers. With the information they were given, a totally appropriate response.

We need to realize that allowing our cities to degrade taxes resources, and then quality of life suffers. Government cannot police us; we must police ourselves, and utilize police as they were intended – as assistance for difficult and extraordinary circumstances.