surge in summer violence

On Saturday afternoon, two kids and their adult relative were robbed at gunpoint just seconds after I left them.

I was walking the dog at the local pond. At one corner, we crossed paths with two children (who live across the street from me) riding their bicycles in the park. I stopped to let them pet Dominic. They decided to climb into a tree so that their uncle could take a photo of them. So I continued around the corner with Dominic. It's hard to see into that corner because it's at a low elevation and hidden by trees. Apparently it was shortly after I was out of sight that a young man with a gun came up to them. He got only the keys and phone of the adult. They had nothing else with them. Their uncle was apparently rather shook up about it, which is entirely appropriate. He's not accustomed to life in Jordan community of Minneapolis. This is what I call the #WarzoneInMinneapolis on G+.

Earlier, as I was approaching the park, I remember someone pulling up and parking their car right at the southern entrance, which was unusual. They were still there as I left (and dropped a bag of poo in the bin by their window), although they drove away shortly afterward. Apparently it was someone in a white van who was the "getaway car", but I think they had this car available as an alternative exit?

I wish I had a headband that would continuously record quality video and transmit it to a nearby server. I wonder if Minneapolis wi-fi could be granted an exception for free bandwidth for such usage to help curb local crime? Hand out the headbands to everyone who asks for one. Leave it up to the Jordan community council (or deputized citizens who could perform this task, from young adults to senior citizens) to review relevant footage when someone reports a crime to police.

At 26th and James (3 blocks east of me), is this house. Apparently their home and a car were recently sprayed by 30 bullets. They put up this sign that I photographed this morning on my walk with Dominic. Here's a better photo taken by someone else.

"We are new residents.
Stop shooting at our kids."

People have also been fighting at 27th and Sheridan (6 blocks away).
There's been residential fire at 29th and Newton (3 blocks away) next door to a local church that feeds people every Thursday evening.
A 2-year-old found his mom's meth and overdosed at 29th and Logan (3 blocks away).
It happened again a few days ago that media reporting on earlier crime then heard gunfire while reporting, this time at 12th and Morgan (14 blocks south).

But mostly... I'm annoyed that someone would pull a gun on neighborhood kids at the local park with an adult among them "in broad daylight", as the saying goes. When I talked to these neighbors afterwards, they said that a few days ago, someone went down our street and smashed car windows. Somehow I escaped that one too.

Besides camera headbands, I'm ready for putting up concrete barriers around the whole area and using security checkpoints where cars may enter/exit while recording identities of everyone inside. There would still be foot traffic through the area, but at least the car races would end, and fast getaways would be harder to accomplish. With that precaution and citizen surveillance, maybe we could get it under control before we become another Chicago. We might be there already. Minneapolis stopped publishing their ShotSpotter maps for unknown reasons.

I'm very disappointed that our new Minneapolis council (elected because locals demanded change in this violence) are producing no real policy changes that might affect it. One of the "projects" (owned by Minneapolis Public Housing Authority) is spending $825,000 on security for a 4-building complex. Why do they get so much political love? The plausible explanations so far are very unkind to think, but I'm having a hard time finding alternative reasons.

We know that the USA is sick with gun violence, far out of proportion with other societies. But we are prevented even from gathering detailed data about it because of Republicans who are afraid of losing their NRA support. What data we do have is terrible.

Republicans are politically losing a generation of Americans to their inaction. Commenting on the sad state of gun violence in the USA, one recent high school graduate (and shooting survivor) comments:

"Treat every election like it’s the last one you’ll ever have."

That's how sad this state of perpetual violence has become.