It seems to me the latest example of mayhem in Minneapolis has the potential to be the most destructive yet in creating bad impressions and changing minds across the metro area. An innocent by-stander, out with friends for a night on the town in the entertainment Mecca of the city was shot in the head and killed by a man apparently shooting randomly into the crowd for kicks. An incident which occurred right after an unrelated melee broke out in front of the Block E movie theater.
The power of this event goes beyond the infuriating, tragic circumstances of the murder. It's the location itself, 1st Ave. N. and 6th Street S. in the Warehouse district. That's right across the street from the Target Center, the basketball arena which hosts all the big concerts in Minneapolis and is the home of the NBA Timberwolves. It's also the center of a bar scene which any Minnesotans who have sought out the glitz and glamour of urban nightlife in this town (as it were) have frequented for the last 20 years. According to the Bleat, even the normally domestic James Lileks was hanging out on and near that bock a couple times last week.
That's the power this incident holds for impressions of safety Minneapolis. We've all been on that corner many times. Going to a game, to a concert, to get a drink, in short, pursuing happiness. It's an iconic location in our memories, much more so than the site of the equally tragic and infuriating Uptown murder of James Zebuhr a few weeks ago. And our behavior was no different than the murder victim's, except he was there at that cruel moment in time and we were not.
I think this will be on the minds of a lot of Minnesotans, next time they have the option to go to a Timberwolves game or when they're considering where they'd like to spend a night out pursuing happiness.
It's more than just the circumstances of the murder itself. It's the impression that the streets of Minneapolis are out of control and there's no one in the city's leadership (as it were) taking it very seriously. Check out the only quote attributed to Mayor RT Rybak from today's Star Tribune article:
"You can't stop a very troubled individual from taking an arbitrary and deadly action," said Mayor R.T. Rybak, who also attended the news conference.
Ah yes, it was God's will, there was nothing they could have possibly done. Maybe that's true, maybe not (we'll have to wait and see what opportunities the government had to stop this "troubled individual" based on any past offenses). But it doesn't give one much confidence that this won't happen again when the executive in charge of the system is more worried about making sure blame isn't cast his way than making sure he can secure the streets from further acts of violence.
Other Rybak quotes about the violence in his city erode confidence further. Regarding the Zebuhr murder:
Rybak said the recent increase in crime in Minneapolis is being caused by juveniles. Up to half of the city's robberies were committed by teenagers.
"My heart is broken when I see 13-year-olds with guns," he said.
And while his heart is broken, and no doubt bleeding, for the perpetrators of these crimes, we can't forget his message last summer for the victims of crime in his city:
"We need to remember that these recent murders have been driven by people living high-risk lifestyles: kids buying and selling drugs and guns. Minneapolis is a safe city for people who are not engaged in buying and selling drugs and guns," Mayor Rybak said.
With the Zebuhr case and last night's murder in the headlines, Rybak is not going to be able to blame the victims this summer. We'll see how long he can get away with blaming it on troubled individuals taking arbitrary actions that can't be stopped.
Incidentally, Rambix scooped all news media with details regarding last night's murder in Minneapolis. His sources were first hand accounts posted on local blogs. Not normally sources I'd even trust as reliable. But his instincts and judgment to print these were, as usual, quite correct. He's been focusing on the problem of crime in Minneapolis and its implications for longer than anyone else in town and is a must read for those who care about the future of that city.
No comments:
Post a Comment