Photo and blog post by John Hoff
Some of the "hooker patrol" efforts undertaken by me and my girlfriend Megan Goodmundson have been documented on this blog recently, click here for an example.
One incidental side benefit of frequent "hooker patrol" has been a number of 311 calls made on OTHER problems we happen to notice in and around Penn Avenue North.
For example, in the photo above...
...the garage at 2700 Queen Ave. N. is looking pretty bad. Before sending a report to 311, following my own set of sensible criteria for what to report and what to let slide, I first checked to see if this was a hard-pressed home owner or yet another Northside rental property.
Oh, turns out it has a rental license, click here for more info.
Hello, 311.
This is only one example of "incidental 311 reports." We've reported graffiti, vacant lots full of litter, and soon enough we might start to systematically document the potholes. Wouldn't want any of the working girls to trip.
And when I say "girls," I mean that loosely in a "Deontay T. Duffy The Transvestite Hooker" kind of way.
Being the amazing, true-to-life adventures and (very likely) misadventures of a writer who seeks to take his education, activism and seemingly boundless energy to North Minneapolis, (NoMi) to help with a process of turning a rapidly revitalizing neighborhood into something approaching Urban Utopia. I am here to be near my child. From 02/08 to 06/15 this blog pushed free speech to the envelope, so others could take heart and speak unafraid. Email me at hoffjohnw@gmail.com
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17 comments:
It's "trail" not "trial", you looser.
Typo corrected.
Looser. Loser. Looser. Loser.
John, you're such loose loser. Way looser than any loser I've ever seen.
The loosest loser ever.
Thnx for checking on ownership before the 311 call. We need to help some of the wounded too.
Capt Jack
Megan,
I was making fun of you and John for your self righteous and hypocritical grammar nazi attitude. It looks like "do as I say not as I do" applies to all aspects of your lives, and not just what you do around the neighborhood.
@Anon 8:22pm,
your attempt at making fun of us did not come across very well. You just looked like you were pointing out a transposed letter typo while making a spelling error, which was pretty ironic.
Try making fun again, this time do it better.
You are a typical white person who says that they are friendly to blacks while you say the N-word behind our backs. White people with hidden agendas have been a dime a dozen through the years and you are late to the party but still insist on building your readership on the backs of poor blacks. Your arrogance is typical of white people that claim to be fair. Same old stuff.
You took a picture of a person who you suspected was prostituting, you gotta a lot of nerves doing that. What if i saw you walking down the street and said that you were out hooking? That's totally obsurd.
Instead of you picking out the hookers, have you once wanted to donate funds/volunteer to work at places or donate such as "Pride' and other organizations that work with women who are stuck in this situation.I'm sure that a lot of these people didn't choose their lifestyle.
what's with the homophobia/transphobia that's been popping up on your posts lately, john? why not stick to the actual issue, prostitution?
I don't have any problem with transvestites being themselves. I have a problem with prostitution on Penn Ave. N. and it just so happens some of the hookers are transvestites.
Will putting out the word that these hookers are transvestites help drive the johns away? I certainly hope so.
What the HELL is transfuckingphobia??? Is that discriminating behavior towards freaks that are simply plain fucking freaks??? Demented males who like to dress in women's clothes?? A duck is a fucking duck. YO,sensitve door Matt at 9:59 a.m., it isn't normal behavior so quit trying to be indignantly offended just because you are a gay guy. I am tired of all you fake asses no matter which way you roll. Quit making excuses for these psychotic, disgusting, miscreants who are nothing but irrelevant specks of dried feces waiting to get a handout from some dumb peach pigmented apologist. Fools.
I have to agree with Anon 7:38 PM that there are much better ways to go about fighting prostitution and it is not getting those girls arrested for the day. You really need to learn about what leads women into the situation and the average age at which they are exploited. It's really easy to tell a woman whose only 'love' comes from the John who found her alone at 12 years old to get off of the streets. It's much more difficult to provide a means to get out of prostitution and away from the johns. Volunteering for such programs makes a difference, calling the cops does not. It may be hard to see from the vantage point of a concerned neighbor, but those women are victims, plain and simple.
Molly and others, think of it this way. Is the right way to bake a sweet cake by only adding a whole bunch of sugar? No other ingredients? Just sugar because you want a cake that tastes sweet?
No, the cake needs other ingredients to come out right.
So think of anti-prostitution efforts (or anti-drug dealing or anti-home burglary or anti-copper theft or anti-shop lifting or anti-blahblahblah) as a cake that needs a whole list of ingredients to turn out properly.
A little this, a little that, a pinch of this, a dash of that and yes, a whole lot of sugar.
The great thing about Nomi is there is plenty of every ingredient to go around.
Some people are the sugar to entice the criminals to chose a better lifestyle and get help - this can be you Molly ( and others).
Some people are the salt. Some are the flour. Some are the baking soda (doesn't taste very good, but it's much needed, right?)
Everyone can chose what ingredient to be and go about anti-crime their own way so don't chastise someone for being the ingredient that they are - if you don't like it, just be your OWN ingredient even more, because that is what you think the cake needs.
But a great discussion we are having, right?
What incentive would the drug dealers/prostitutes/copper thiefs/shop lifters/dog fighters have to change if NO ONE was calling 9-1-1 and making their criminal lifestyle uncomfortable for them? The cake would not turn out right, in my opinion.
Trust me, I don't WANT to be calling 9-1-1 or making hookers feel uncomfortable, but I want them out of my neighborhood and off the streets. So it is what I can do when I am driving to/from work, school, church, dinner, meetings, and life in general. It's a much needed ingredient.
Very elegantly stated, NoMi Passenger. You are the commonsense icing(rare flavor) that tops the cake. Your way of defining the "situation" is admirable and lets the Boat float knowing that we have a very dilligent group of people with their melons, excuse me, meddulah oblangottas, full of the sweet juice of commendable knowledge. North Minneapolis should be fortunate that we have people with such dynamic conviction to go along with those who have incarcerated convictions. Good Day.
Johnny your focus may be better directed at the judges who give wrist slaps to the prostitues and johns. The police would arrest more prostitues if the judges wouldn't be so easy on them. I truely believe the northside is a hotbed of problems because the judges just see it happened in north minneapolis. If it happened in minnetonka, I'm sure there would be harsher penalties.
Name the lenient judges and cite examples, in detail, of their leniency.
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