Flickr PhotoI don't want to be guilty of false advertising. Two of the three North Minneapolis prostitutes I called 911 about (in the last 24 hours) were not as good-looking as the one here. And I say "good-looking" in a purely relative way.
So, in regard to Hooker No. 1...
...she was located in front of the old Wafana's store on Lyndale Ave. N., a black female with rather obvious indications of being crack addicted. That whole severely-malnourished thing happening.
She was also wearing incredibly white pants, which not only made her easy to see at night but was useful for a physical description.
I actually had the 911 dispatcher on the phone as I circled the block and she came right up to my car window. So I called that one in. That's all I managed to get on my night patrol. I checked out a suspicious moving van, but on closer inspection it looked legit.
This morning, two prostitutes (including Contessa) staked out the area near 3101 6th Street N., the Apartment Complex of Anarchy. That's fine. The do-gooders are happy to rack up as many calls as possible on 3101 6th Street North. Thanks for helping. The whole apartment complex will end up on the street soon enough. They don't even have enough sense to pick up their piles of garbage while the city is very open about the fact it is watching.
Anyway, I called in the other two hookers this morning, careful to note the address so it would make the record. The white prostitute--late forties, really sad and dumpy looking, white with straight, shoulder-length auburn hair--was somebody I hadn't seen in the area before.
Also, I notice the drug-dealing has shifted down to 4th Street N. and 31st Ave. N.
But when the drug dealers moved out, the hookers seemed to "claim the corner." And I notice the cops don't show up as quickly when it's the hookers instead of the drug dealers.
I'm hoping to have actual photos of the dealers and the hookers in the near future, using a sweet high-tech camera somebody in the neighborhood has offered to let me use. So I won't have to keep using these generic pictures from Flickr.com
No history of "block watchers" killed execution-style
Oh, also, another thing...I keep hearing all this stuff about how risky it is to be calling 911, to blog about it, all that stuff. Well, historically, there is no precedent of neighborhood do-gooders being targeted and killed.
Gangs kill each other. They kill innocent bystanders. They kill crime victims. Sometimes, rarely, they kill officers in a shoot out. There is, however, no historical precedent of do-gooder neighborhood types being targeted for a "hit." I am far less effective than even a single police officer who actually makes arrests, or a single truck that goes around putting up boards.
So I'm tired of hearing this cowardly crap. I am still alive, and therefore I am still proving my hypothesis as articulated in the Minn Post videos. You won't just--oh my--step out of your vehicle and buy a bullet.
Therefor it's high time for others to be doing likewise: documenting the crime on blogs--this one or others--submitting community impact statements (I just did one of those)--calling 911, 311, and engaging in securing the neighborhood under the legal doctrine of necessity.
Most of all, break free of the landlords and get yourself some equity.
9 comments:
I like your blog. Your an Applebee. Doin' good in the neighborhood. hahahha Or maybe their new slogan: It's a whole new neighborhood. Maybe one will move in and then you won't have to eat pig testicals anymore.
I'm going to be a lot more police officials, city officials and concerned citizens are reading blogs (like this one) and gang bangers, crack dealers, pimps, prostitutes, thieves and the like don't use computers as much to monitor their neighborhoods reputation... another great active clearinghouse for the northside is:
http://4thprecinctcare.org/
If you're taking the time to do 311 calls and snapping pictures you can submit that information and reach a whole different "built in" audience here...
Keep safe but keep up the great bloggin' -anonamous two
I'm your northside neighbor, down here closer to 27th/Penn. I have 2 comments on this post:
- some hookers get arrested 90 or 100 or 120 times plus in their career! can you believe that and imagine the drain on resources.
-as far as do-gooders getting in to danger, we have a neighbor who was calling 911 on some dealers, the dealers came after her, picked up a landscaping brick and proceeded to beat her on the head with it. She is alright, they were never caught.
be careful!
I wouldn't be worried about being targeted, but it seem to me that posting their pictures and calling them hookers is just asking for a libel suit. Granted, they probably will never see the site and if they did, wouldn't sue, but don't say you weren't warned. :)
I'm not sure how it's cowardly to have people concerned for your safety.
People don't want you to get hurt.
Then you take it a step further and imply that everyone should confront drug dealers and prositutes. Would you take reponsibility if someone were to take your advice and were hurt or worse?
All I can say is YUCK! How desperate do men have to be, to lay down with a woman that looks like that, and you say she is the better looking one????
No, you won't buy a bullet, but you do risk having your car broken in, your bicycle stolen, being solicited (I guess I look like a hooker when I come back from the grocery store?), and your house broken into. My roommates and I stayed pretty clear of publicly-known do-gooding while we lived in Phillips/Powderhorn in South Minneapolis, but all those things still happened to us within six months. We didn't know what we were getting into until it warmed out and hookers and other shady characters started hanging out on our corner.
The police didn't care about the photos of hookers and pimps that our neighbors had taken, and certainly didn't care about all of us calling 911. If you call too much, they just ignore you. I had to call twice to get a damn cop out when the house was broken into and it took 20 minutes for them to show up. They just have this attitude of, "You live in a shitty zip-code, deal with it or move."
To cool cat: I'm pretty sure I didn't say it was "cowardly" to be concerned about somebody's safety. But telling somebody else to be afraid and not do things because of fear is just "cowardice-mongering."
There is a distinction. I stand on the distinction. And no, I'm not responsible for anybody else and I don't want anybody to get hurt.
I may have been a tad bit harsh in my criticism. It is simply how I was raised. Cowardice is unthinkable. Worse than being stupid, or reckless, or dishonest or, well, almost anything. And one distinguishes "cowardice" from "fear."
Fear is normal. Fear is that delicious, utterly-addictive adrenal feeling. Better than heroin. Not that I'd know. But reportedly NOT better than crack.
Again, not that I'd know.
I just won't tolerate "scared-y cat talk." It harms morale. People need to know they don't have to be so afraid, or they will worry about even dialing 911.
In regard to the "landscaping brick incident" described here...names and dates, please. It's an urban legend until further proof.
In regard to the idea somebody might sue for "libel" for being labeled a hooker or a drug dealer on a website.
Well, I'll manage to avoid that. I'll label the known hookers and dealers/users as known hookers and dealers/users, if they have a record I can access and connect.
Or I'll say "Gee, what's going on here looks really obvious." And so forth. I will avoid libel. Libel suits are relatively rare, yet everybody worries about them. If I'm wrong, oh gee, I'll alter and print a retraction.
"Libel talk" is very close to "scared-y cat talk." I'm sick of "what if" and I continue to ask, "What if good people are afraid to do anything? WHAT THEN?"
It appears the internet is the only major advantage we have in the fight to "secure the North Side" so new home owners won't be afraid to buy homes. These blogging tactics are working, and making progress, and I'm going to use these tactics.
As far as the comment about how I won't have to eat pig testicles anymore if an Applebees moves in, I reiterate that the "Thai organ stir fry" is delicious and testes are a fine cut of meat. Don't knock it until you try it. I don't want an Applebees! Arg, another corporate clone?!!
Of course, if it came down to Applebees or a vacant lot, then I say, hey, it's time to be "feeling good in the neighborhood." But I'd still eat pig testes from Bangkok Market over anything at Applebees.
Seriously.
Some really great plays on words are possible with the pig testes and Bangkok Market, but I promised Peter Teachout I'd try to keep it clean and take some of the salt out of this blog.
So take a moment to quietly enjoy the thoughts of your own naughty and clever minds.
To Julie...
That is one of my favorite names! I have a lovely little niece who uses it as her alter-ego name, and my wonderful real estate agent is named Juley Viger.
Anyway...
It is time to change that whole "you live in a crappy zip code so deal with it" mindset. This is not how we live in Minnesota. Ghettos and crack houses are not Minnesota values. Furthermore, Minneapolis is growing and the North Side real estate is too valuable to let some areas (not all by any means)fall into such a bleak state.
There is a difference between taking pictures of the hookers and asking police to give a rip versus putting the pictures up on a blog, and blogging repeatedly about lack of official responsiveness, if that is indeed the case.
I'm sorry things didn't go well for you. I have to try, however.
I'd love to get some good "sample photos" of Powerhorn hookers so I could use "local talent" for my pictures, until I get images of the dealers and hookers on my own block.
So if you have some--close up, with a kind of artsy flair would be preferred--please send them to my email at hoffx106@umn.edu
I have to keep trying. For one thing, I'm a writer. So even if I wrote about a hopeless swirl into a dark toilet-void of chaos, I would write about it. With or without hope, I would write.
But I have hope coming out of my ears. I refuse to give up. For one thing, I enjoy the battle.
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