Some thoughts on the riot in North Minneapolis

by Ed Felien

It was ugly. Four reporters beaten or roughed up, two news vehicles torched and trashed. Windows broken out of a bus.
Was it justifiable rage or a drug dealer’s revenge?
Earlier, during a drug raid on a house at 26th and Knox Avenue North, police shot and killed a pit bull terrier and a bullet ricocheted and hit a 10 year old boy. The police found four $10 bags of marijuana and a legally registered handgun. The hypocrisy of our drug laws was made manifest by the Star Tribune. On Saturday it was writing sensationally about a “drug house” in North Minneapolis, when the amount found was less than personal consumption for two adults, and then, on Sunday, there was a sober feature article agonizing over whether a middle-aged male (obviously white and middle class) should tell his children he smokes a little marijuana.
A few weeks ago a young black man was shot by the police in North Minneapolis. Just a few months ago Abu Jeilani was shot and killed by police on Franklin Avenue, and a few months before that a black poet was shot and killed by police on Chicago Avenue. And, most recently, the Minneapolis Police Federation attacked Northside black City Council Member Natalie Johnson Lee for suggesting that people should have sympathy for the family of a black woman killed by the police.
Was the pit bull incident the single spark that set off the prairie fire? And, more important, has the fire burned out or is it still smouldering?
Clearly, the Minneapolis Police Department will not win any awards for improved relations with the black community. They seem to shoot first and, then, let everyone else ask questions afterwards. Of course, the police have an absolute right to defend themselves. But this right should never be used as an excuse to provoke violence. In the case of the black poet, they should have backed off. In the case of Abu Jeilani, they should have backed off. And, in the case of the advancing pit bull with a small child in the background, they should have backed off.
But, of course, that wouldn’t be macho. The MPD might lose a few points on their testosterone rating.
Is that what’s going on here? Is the whole Department acting out some kind of Arnold Schwartzenegger/Bruce Willis action drama where they’re the good guys and the rest of us are scum?
We know the world has gotten more violent. Hollywood and the President of the United States have told us so.
Hollywood competes with itself to make each new film more violent and bloody than the last. According to one count, television has gotten three times more violent in the last ten years, and two Surgeon Generals have told us there is a direct link between violence on television and aggressive behavior. Video games are even worse. The heroes are all white males and studies have found 89 percent of the games contain violent material. It’s a game! We’re training young people to shoot and kill instinctively. They’re heroes in a fantasy projection of good and evil. 
And the President has declared war on terrorism, which means war on anything that disturbs the flow of money and power to him and his friends. It’s a war between good and evil, and evil is anything that’s not like us: white, male, fat and comfortable—because the bad people want to take all our things away from us. They don’t like Americans or Christianity or Hollywood. It’s no wonder the MPD feels it has a special mandate to maintain their special brand of law and order.
Well, what’s to be done?
How can we stop this ever escalating cycle of violence?
How can we stop the violence of gang warfare on our streets? And how can we stop the violent overreaction of the MPD?
First, we need to have a serious discussion about drugs. No one has ever proven that marijuana is bad (other than smoking anything is not healthy). It is not smoking marijuana that is bad, it’s the buying and selling of an illegal substance that creates an unhealthy environment. Bootleg whiskey in the ’30s created the Mafia. Making marijuana illegal creates gang rivalries and turf wars. If marijuana were legal and available at drug stores and convenience stores over the counter, like cigarettes, then the social problems associated with marijuana would be eliminated. There might be a few more people walking around with silly grins on their faces, but that probably wouldn’t cause a permanent rip in the social fabric. Drugs like heroin and cocaine should be available with a doctor’s prescription. This is the only effective solution for getting drugs off the streets. Politicians are going to have to find some backbone and step up to the plate on this one.
Second, it has been proven that government cannot deliver essential services to poverty-impacted areas. Government alternates between throwing money at them on Monday and SWAT teams at them on Saturday. What is needed is political power coming out of these communities. We need to support the local block clubs. After the riot in North Minneapolis a group of middle-aged parents (no doubt concerned for their children) met and formed citizen patrols. These people are the genuine leaders of that community. These are the people who must be supported. These people are the authority on law and order. The City should work immediately to support these people by employing them as adjunct public health officers or block club captains or whatever you want to call them, but these people must be supported by being put on a payroll. 
In an ideal situation on very troubled blocks, block clubs should be able to hire an outreach worker who would make it his or her job to know all the people on the block, help direct them to social services, educational facilities and public health resources. They should know how to connect people to food stamps, rent subsidies, schools and jobs. They will also be the early warning system for crack houses and other social problems, and most of these social problems can be eliminated with attention paid right away by people in the neighborhood before they develop into something so serious that you have to call in the police.
If there could be a genuine commitment on the part of the City to these two changes, then, there could be peace in the valley tonight. If, on the other hand, the City continues to think white suburban cops can keep a lid on North Minneapolis, then we could be in for a long, hot fall and winter.