Oh Happy Day

Whaddaya think, dear; should we take the dog for a walk? Wanna go on a picnic? A bike ride?

Reports of violent crime in Minneapolis rose 17 percent through Monday, compared with the same time in 2005, driven by a continued proliferation of aggravated assaults and robberies. The year-end number of homicides, aggravated assaults and robberies will be the highest since 1997. And the department's Fourth Precinct, which makes up the North Side, is again facing double-digit-percentage increases in overall serious crime reports.

However, the city's 17 percent increase in violent crime is a far smaller surge than the 36 percent spike reported through May.

Oh, well THAT'S good news.

In St. Paul, estimated-crime reports through November showed increases in rape and robbery compared with a full year of data in 2005. But homicides were at 16 through Thursday, compared with 23 in 2005. In Minneapolis, serious crime, which includes the violent crime categories plus theft, arson and burglary, increased 4.3 percent this year. So far this year, there have been 59 homicides compared with 49 in 2005.

Using the term "Twin Cities" will be a felony when I'm governor. All they have in common is a river and an interstate freeway.

Donald R. Johnson was one of the city's 3,040 reported robbery victims in Minneapolis this year. The 53-year-old North Side resident walked over to his niece's house on Christmas Eve to pick up some leftover Swedish meatballs and spaghetti when a teenager stuck a gun in his back at 14th and Emerson Avenues N. (Johnson said) he still feels safe in his neighborhood and joked that he should know better than "to walk around before Christmas because robbers think you have money."

This makes me so mad. I'm sick of hearing crooks, victims, mayors and cops all saying something to the effect of "that wouldn't have happened had the victim not been in that part of town at that hour blah, blah blah. Bullshit.

No one walking down any public street at any time deserves or is asking to get robbed, beaten, stomped, hassled, anything. Being safe in ones person is far more an important a civil right that some after-school program, neighborhood redevelopment coordination, or minimum-wage posturing otherwise so famous in Murderapolis.