Crime and Punishment

The recent demise of Rambix and the Red Star is a loss to information consumers all across the Twin Cities. This blog was somewhat unique in the blogosphere for actually fulfilling a specific need in the market place - an aggregation of crime reporting without the politically correct filters imposed by the monopoly newspaper in town.

Rambix specialized in reporting the facts of the rising crime wave in Minneapolis and its destructive reverberations in the surrounding communities. And for that he earned the respect and daily readership of a wide range of readers in town. Many of these who happened to be living in the center of those destructive reverberations and who came to endorse his work.

Of course, with blogging, that's about all you ever earn. I know Rambix spent a lot of time compiling information and writing, and that investment without tangible reward is hard to justify over the long haul, so his (her?) abandoning the post is understandable.

There is one other thing blogging earns you besides the admiration of the like-minded. That is, the vengeful spite of the unlike minded (especially if the unlike minded are from the Left). There was no shortage of grave dancing after Rambix announced he was done. For example, this from one of the kids at the liberal web site, MN Speak:

This was a blog serving expressedly racist and homophobic points, wrapped in a paranoid fantasy about social ist control of the cities. I suppose racists and paranoiacs will miss it, but those of ion the reality based community will be glad to continue to debate the subject without having it debased by lunatic screeds.

Name-calling, wild-eyed accusations, and celebration of the demise of someone presenting an alternate interpretation of the official crime story seems like behavior contrary to "continuing the debate." But I guess the self-professed "reality community" is free to define that anyway they like in their world.

Another criticism from the same source:

Rambix never seemed too concerned with corporate crime, or environmental crime, or fraud, or graft, or criminally unsafe construction work,or illegal wars, but if a gun went off on the North Side, you'd better be sure there was one blogger ready to report on it!

No one ever accused the Left of understanding such things as specialization and filling a market need, which is probably why this writer in unlikely to experience the success of a Rambix. You want news about environmental crime and illegal wars - start your own blog. And join the chorus of thousands of others on the Left screaming about (and being ignored or laughed at for) just that.

Good news though, from the ashes of Rambix another blog has risen: Minneapolis Crime Watch. It's being run by a person with a first person perspective on the matter, North Minneapolis's own Margaret Martin. When she's not busy dealing with her neighbors' houses being burgled and set on fire, or co-hosting Tax Payer's League Live! on AM1280, she promises to keep us up to date on all the crime news deemed not fit to print elsewhere.

I believe she is also looking for contributors. Interested parties looking to help "continue the debate" should drop on by and leave her a comment.