The Lesser Coleman

Thin-skinned Red Star columnist Nick Coleman is a deeply committed socialist and is generally on the wrong side of most issues. He is not to be confused with Senator Norm Coleman, a stalwart of the Republican Majority - there is no relation.

Local bloggers love to fisk the Lesser Coleman (LC).

In a Red Star article dated 2/14/06, the LC catches up to Rambix with the Minneapolis violence thing: "Gunfire is way too common on Minneapolis' North Side". Most people already know about the North Side; it's been going on for years. Nick's just a little slow.

It was 2 in the afternoon, bright and cold, and I was standing on a corner in north Minneapolis, talking to people about a rash of shootings in the area. A car pulled up and a woman inside rolled down her window: "You should be up on Broadway right now," she shouted.

Why, I asked. What's happening on Broadway?

"They just shot a guy," she said. "He's on the sidewalk."

The LC interviewed Capt. Rich Stanek of the Minneapolis Police Department. I'm not sure why he would give a quote to LC, but he did. And he didn't limit his remarks to North Minneapolis. He referenced (in so many words) the Minneapolis Quagmire that has been discussed on this blog for nearly a year:

It's hard to keep up with the gunfire in Minneapolis. Just ask the cops. "That's all we do -- run to crime scene after crime scene," says Capt. Rich Stanek. "Too many guns on the street. Some day, maybe the public will say 'Enough is enough.'"

Maybe the public will say "enough is enough" of Mayor Ryback, Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, and the Chief of Diversity McManus.

More and more, stupid stuff is getting young men killed. Around the country, even as violent crime is declining, the number of killings resulting from street arguments or mere dirty looks is rising.

Police chiefs call it "the rage thing."

"We're seeing a very angry population, and they don't go to fists anymore," Milwaukee's police chief told the New York Times in a report that ran Sunday. "They go right to guns."

Is that true here, too? I asked Capt. Stanek.

"Yes, yes and yes," he said.

Maybe we need to get these crackhead, dope-pushing, gangster types off the street and in jail where they belong. Maybe we ought to dispense with politically correct crime fighting and kick some behinds. Maybe we ought to clean house of the empty-suit politicians, like the Minneapolis City Council, who are more concerned with giving themselves raises than cleaning up their festering city.

"It's not the police who pulled the trigger," said Anthony Rashad, who came to the shooting scene from his house. "It's not 'the man' who did this. It's black men killing other black men. It's time to put the responsibility where it belongs. This is bad. It's real bad.

"And in broad daylight."

We'll be waiting for the Mayor's press conference and his plan to crush the Minneapolis Insurgency.

By the way, LC, you're welcome to check in with Rambix anytime. You'll find the truth here.