The divide between the citizens and the police grows a little wider (Editorial by JNS blog guest author "Forseti")

Stock photo provided by John Hoff for this blog post by guest author, the officers
depicted are actually St. Paul police officers. 

Blog post by guest author "Forseti"

While there are many frustrations with the police on the north side, I find many of them should belong with the city management (council, mayor, police chief).  Recently however, I observed something that was a complete lack of judgment on the part of the responding officer.  Several calls to 911 had been placed by residents reporting a loud party complete with 4 people in a vehicle parked in front of the house next door. Several people came from the party with glasses in their hands, got into the vehicle and were lighting and passing something around. There was one individual who urinated in the middle of the street. 

When the police showed up around 20 minutes later (not a bad response time for that time of night on a non-violent incident), they proceeded, from their squad to tell the people from the car that they “should go back inside as their neighbor was pissed at them.”  Now since the speakers in the party house were on the side of the house they were parked in front of, they quickly placed the blame on that neighbor for making the call...

I would think that anyone who makes it to patrol officer should have the intelligence to not act as a stooge for criminal activity. Instead of dealing with a long time problem property with countless 911 calls for a variety of issues, getting what likely would have been a number of easy arrests for open container, drug, and possibly other charges, they chose to lend them a hand and then, drive on by.

There has been a lot of anger in the community over “drive-by policing” where the officers respond, but never bother to get out of the car. I have witnessed this recently over a violent assault that involved someone’s head getting bounced off of a mailbox. This is a serious offense and should certainly merit the officers getting out of the car to check things out, summon medical assistance if needed, and arrest if necessary. 

This resulted in a very angry, rather large man pounding on the neighbor’s door the next morning. I am not quite sure that the officer had the slightest idea how things really work up here, but citizens take a certain risk by calling the police. I have personally overheard people talking about shooting up one of my neighbors houses for less than a 911 call. 

If the community is to make any headway against the crime and violence that have become far too commonplace, a working relationship between law enforcement and their true employers, the citizenry is a must. They are losing that trust and I wish them luck regaining it.