Sorry, but my day started and is finishing as a Moody Monday.

Click to read the not-so-great details...

My first workday alarm goes off at 5:55am local time. I heard gunfire not very many seconds after I woke up this morning. It seemed within the 2-block radius that I usually call it in to 911, but I was grumpy and still groggy and didn't want to participate in the too-familiar routine. A minute or two later, I heard a single police siren stop nearby. Later, I found these links about the event. It was almost exactly 1 block away, as the proverbial crow flies, and farther away by following the streets.

• Citizen.com: 5:57:52 AM CDT Police are responding to a ShotSpotter activation reporting 10 rounds fired.
• Citizen.com: 9:11:47 AM CDT Firefighters are assisting police with scene cleanup after a shooting.
• Facebook.com: October 19, 2024, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said a fight after a party escalated to gunfire, leaving one man dead. Just before 6 a.m., Fourth Precinct Officers responded to the 1700 block of 26th Ave N on a ShotSpotter activation. While officers were enroute, the call was updated to a shooting. When they arrived, officers found a man with apparent life-threatening injuries. Officers provided medical aid until EMS arrived. The man died at the scene.

I was not in top form at work today. Several small dumb mistakes. Nothing major, at least.

I went for my usual walk westward after I ended my work day. I saw lots of squirrels foraging. None of them were chunky yet. It seems late in the season to still need that much fat. Strangely, I saw 2 dandelions blooming. Not seeding out, but blooming with yellow petals. Almost every other plant is clearly giving up for this season.

Nearing my home on the way back, somebody stopped me to ask for $1. I got my warzone wallet (which always has a few dollars in it) and gave the too-skinny, too-downtrodden young adult woman $2 and continued on my way. It's been like this for years. I can't walk anywhere around here without being stopped and asked for money. I'm a walking money machine. I don't know if it's my white skin, white beard, long hair, or the magic combination of all three indicators (trifecta!), but it happens far too frequently for my liking.

I heard the "God bless you" as I walked away. I'm not in the mood for it today, honestly. Whenever I see suffering alleviated, I always see some human's actions behind it, whatever their personal motivation. I with my modest income keep voting for representatives and policies that will increase my taxes so that we can have systems (instead of strangers) meeting these humanitarian needs in our own country, state, county, and city.

Today, I'm just tired.

I've been saying at least since the Occupy movement that people "on the street" are distressed and need help. I've also said that Bernie Sanders (and Elizabeth Warren and Mike Gravel) was a populist answer to this need who appeared on the Democrat ticket for U.S. President. A new large-scale study appears to support my assertion that people want a populist leader during these trying times.

"Feelings of sadness, anger, and despair might hold the key to understanding the rise of populist leaders like Donald Trump in recent years. A large-scale study published in American Psychologist suggests that negative emotions among voters are not only linked to populist attitudes but are also significant predictors of populist voting behavior in major elections. This research, which spans over 150 countries and includes the analysis of more than 2 billion tweets, emphasizes the overlooked role of emotions like sadness and depression in driving the demand for populism."
- https://www.psypost.org/emotional-distress-among-voters-tied-to-trumps-populist-appeal-research-shows/

I also insist that similar reasons lead to the persistent trouble here in north Minneapolis. I woke early Sunday morning (and lost about 1.5 hours of sleep, being unable to return to sleep, even though I don't remember hearing the gunshots) around the time of some gunshots about 5 blocks southeast of my house. News broke later on Sunday that 5 kids received gunfire aimed at them at one of the blocks I travel through on my trips to/from the big Cub grocery store. They were found farther south, in a stolen Kia. They were shot by somebody with a fully automatic weapon. They're just kids, 11-14 years old, but one news report on tv said at least some of them had been arrested previously. I've seen multiple videos like this one of the brazenness of people in their stolen cars. I can't find it now, but I've seen video of actual children in these cars, driving through a red light at an intersection about 2 blocks southwest of me.

I don't know the answer here, but I still insist that the USA is not confronting its deep economic inequality. They say that USA inequality now is worse than during our historical age of robber barons, worse than during the Great Depression. I don't know what is keeping our systems together. I'll leave you with these 20 minutes of Bernie Sanders speaking on the Senate floor just 2 weeks ago.

That was a first. I made two calls this morning to 911 to report gunfire.

2:45am or so: I woke to the sound of a few gunshots. It was outside the 2-block radius I use to decide whether to make a call or not. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

3:08am: I heard 3 bursts of 3 very rapid shots. I couldn't determine direction, but it seemed at the edge of that 2-block radius, so I called to report it.

3:35am: I heard 9 shots again, but these were slow and evenly spaced like a traditional gun trigger. Also within 2 blocks, so I called again. I spoke to the same operator.

I'm not falling back asleep, so I figured I would tap a quick post from my phone. I wake soon for work. It will be a caffeine day for me.

The neighbor that I wrote about last week put up his USA flag. It's upside down, indicating a state of distress. This photo is taken from my front door.

It was many years ago when I saw him do that before. I think it was during a particularly bad rash of gun violence in the area. I'm not sure what the source of the distress is now. It could be:

• global (climate change, pandemic, pollution (plastic, PFAS)),
• national (fascism, economy),
• local (violence, economy), or
• personal (family) matters.

Or a combination of everything. There's no shortage of dire straights.

Ukraine is still fighting the Russian invasion. I saw the recent news that Russia was trying to rebuild its radar planes, but Ukraine used drones to attack one of their assembly factories. Good for them for continuing to survive.

Closer to home (less than a dozen blocks northwest of me), police said that 97 rounds went off and struck several houses in a recent incident. Many news outlets covered this story, notable not just for the sheer number of bullets, but also because they struck areas where children normally stand or sleep, but those children happened to be elsewhere at the time. Some children aren't so lucky.

This is why, when gunfire erupts very near my house, I climb the stairs to go sit in the bathtub to make my 911 call. Any upward-leaning bullet paths would more likely hit the bathtub, which is maybe the only object in my house that would actually stop a bullet. If I ever get a "next" house, I want it to have brick siding all around.

If you're ever curious, somebody is compiling this map of local gang territory here in the Twin Cities.

• Add the checkmark for "Minneapolis" to see shaded areas for the different gang territories.
• Add the checkmark for "Murders & Shootings", and you can see that north Minneapolis territory is deadlier than south Minneapolis, despite nearly the same number of gang turfs.
• Add the checkmark for "Alliances", and you can see the blue stars for the Highs and the Lows, on each side of the big grocery store where I shop. Broadway is the major street that separates them. I live about 2 blocks north of Broadway, which puts me in Highs territory.

In better news, one of the local Lows was sentenced to prison for possession of a machine gun. One less person out there ready to pull a trigger. It's better than no change at all.

There have been so many shootings lately that it's hard to keep up with them all. I've mentioned TheTrace.org before. It does make me feel better when outside monitors like them also notice the trouble here in north Minneapolis.

See the map and read the depressing news about local violence...

Each red star is a person hit by a bullet. I live approximately where the word "Jordan" is on this image, indicating my local Jordan neighborhood of the city, nearly the direct center of these data points.

Inexplicably, the recent shooting that concerned me the most isn't even on this 30-day map of north Minneapolis. That red star is missing. It was a shooting at the "Handy Stop" gas station a few blocks away that left someone dead. I've mentioned it before. It's where I ducked down to avoid bullets in 2020. It's where I walked to the veterinarian with my cat last August.

Here's audio from a more recent fatal shooting. I think it was this one, about 7 blocks southwest of me, but they're hard to keep straight any more. There's also the home invasion about 12 blocks northeast of me, the hit and run, the overhead planes, the late-night gunshots (Ring camera recording), and just a few minutes ago another shooting about 2 blocks east of the grocery store I ride the bus to.

It's almost nice, sometimes, to hear crime news from the rest of the metro, beyond my north Minneapolis home. Like the wifi jammers being used to rob the homes of rich people. When crime finally gets organized?

Maybe you'll understand I'm unimpressed that the rest of Minneapolis gets upset when my local representative snaps and curses at a resident about a liquor store license. On any other day, sure, that's bad. But we're living in a warzone here, and we all have PTSD while everyone continues business as usual in the city council chamber. I might snap too, and I think I'm still managing to keep some cool after nearly a decade of listening to gunfire.

My coworkers in Pennsylvania this afternoon were discussing the potentially dangerous situations that came to their homes this week. Trouble is following people everywhere recently. As the kids say these days, "Welcome to late-stage capitalism, everyone." This is life in the USA now.

Stay safe out there.

See the map and read the stories...

I made my first call to 911 for this new year. I heard 6 gunshots at 2:30am on Jan 27 Sat morning. It woke me up, and I groggily called 911 to report them, because I thought they were within 1/2 block of my location. Later, I never found objective evidence for the gunshots, where somebody else mentioned them online. Maybe it was because of the late hour, so most people slept through it.

Unrelated to gunfire, I saw a For Sale sign at another house on my block. Only once did I ever meet the guy who lived there. I was looking at the road under construction (see the bottom picture when it was complete) when they closed off our block, and he joined me at the sidewalk. He was concerned about gangs storing drugs at his outdoor property for later retrieval. I never saw him again. He was much older than me. Hopefully he decided to cash out rather than succumbing to stress or disease. I think I never knew his name.

One night last week, I think it was, I saw an ambulance pull away from my next door neighbor's house. The one with the older man and his even older mother, north of my house. I haven't seen either of them since then to ask if they're okay.

Overall, it's actually been more peaceful here in recent months. The ShotSpotter map for Minneapolis is less dense than usual. That's a very good improvement. A problem, though, is that the shots are clustered around where I live, rather than spread out more generally through north Minneapolis. I live near the bottom left of that blue blob at the top center of this image, which shows only the last 7 days of data. The red star on the bottom right corner is about 4 blocks east of the big grocery store I frequently mention. It's where someone was shot and killed recently. This map explains why I consider it "a big deal" when I walk home from the grocery store, because that's where I walk.

Oh, and the county sheriff's office confiscated a grenade launcher. I think rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) are new here?

But it HAS been better recently. Truly, it has. I credit the federal government with actually keeping violent people off the streets. I live near Broadway Avenue, which is the border between the Highs and the Lows. When I first learned those terms many years ago, they weren't "official" gangs, just loosely associated groups of other gangs in the area. The names weren't related to the products they sold. The Highs were north of the border, and the Lows were south of the border. Apparently that loose structure may have changed. Federal prosecutors stepped in, and they used federal RICO laws to charge 45 gang members, from the Highs and Lows (north Minneapolis, my warzone) and the Bloods (south Minneapolis). It seemed to help. They followed up with a few more indictments. The feds are keeping them in jail, in contrast to our local justice system which seemed to release everyone quickly. Again, it seems to help.

I don't know the perfect solution, but I appreciate any extra space between stressors to just breathe.

Stay safe out there.

I think today marks 2,023 consecutive days of gunfire here in north Minneapolis, according to someone who keeps track.

It has been a rough weekend here in Minneapolis. A few days earlier, this story made the news about the blood spatter still on the sidewalks near Aldi (the grocery store I used before it closed earlier this year), across the street from the hardware store where I walked to buy the paint for my house. People can't afford rent, so evictions are up in the Twin Cities. I mentioned earlier overhearing some guys talk about all of their work shifts being 10-hour shifts now. It seems we're in a race to the bottom of just how much suffering we can all tolerate.

The one good news item I saw from here recently is that someone who was beaten by Minneapolis police officers (who lied about the situation) has created a non-profit trying to encourage so-called "good cops" to step up. They need the encouragement, because they won't get it from their own police union or fellow officers. As I've been saying for a long time now, there was a time in history when everybody knew that the institution of policing across the USA was corrupt to its core. Locally, Minneapolis police are so corrupt that business owners are pressured to hire officers off duty, in spite of cops already earning more money than most of us. It's like that old trope from tv shows about gangsters, "That's a nice business you have there. It'd be a shame if something happened to it." In that vein, I saw recently that DEA agents at airports are searching passengers and taking their money without making arrests. Just because they can, apparently.

I'm looking forward to the new game Cities Skylines 2 being released tomorrow, but even it "simulates a homelessness crisis, getting laid off, and Gen Z going broke". More people are getting desperate, and it's happening for reasons that I've detailed many times over the years. The violence in the USA is so commonplace now, however, that people don't seem to realize any more that this behavior should be considered abnormal. Last night, I was sitting in front of the tv in my recliner chair, under some warm blankets. I opened up Google News on my smart phone, and I switched to the "Headlines / U.S." news tab. It was just story after story after story of gun homicides throughout the USA during the past few hours.

It's almost like everyone knows, deep down, that the status quo is ending. This cannot continue.

The beginning is near.

I called 911 yesterday after 5pm. I told them the gunshots (about a dozen total, in about 3 different bursts) were about 1/2 block from my house. Today, I saw these photos from the block behind my house. There were more gunshots later, a block the other direction from my house. I didn't hear that one, because I was already sound asleep by 11pm, thanks to a glass of red wine and half of a marijuana gummy.

Frankly, there's been less gunfire than I expected for this summer. It did get me thinking about another time this year that I called 911 to report nearby gunfire. I mentioned it here on Mastodon. Somebody replied to that message by accusing me of publishing copaganda. They seemed rather angry with me both for calling 911 and for saying publicly that I did it. That conversation thread is deleted, I think? At least, it's no longer visible to me when that person blocked me on Mastodon. Their profile at the time indicated they were some kind of transexual activist, but they seemed unwilling to hear any reason to call 911 because in their mind "911 = police", and therefore bad.

There are at least 3 important points I should make in response to their miscalculation.

1. 911 call data is used, somehow, to justify city policy priorities and spending. I can't point to the exact mechanism, but I remember early in my journey here in the warzone at a meeting of Jordan Area Community Council (JACC, my neighborhood Minneapolis city unit), when Cathy Spann (a black woman) specifically said that I should call in every single gunshot I hear, so the city would have numbers to prove the problem we were living through. As she explained it, yes, that justification could lead to actual monetary expenditure here that could help. So, 911=data, and that data could lead to financial policy change.
2. A few years ago, a neighbor across the street (a black man) walked over to my front yard to ask me to help him call 911 every time a car came down our street blaring music that shakes our walls. We both noticed that those cars often stopped at a particular house near the end of our street. So, a black man went out of his way to ask me to join him in calling 911 about another black neighbor household. Clearly, there is disagreement even amongst black men about the use of 911, when black men in the USA are too often ill-served by police interventions.
3. Sometimes, police arrive at the scene of a shooting, and they find someone needing medical help. Calling 911 in these situations has literally saved lives here in the city of Minneapolis. It's important to call 911 during emergencies. Yes, the police respond to many situations with unjustified force. Sometimes, though, they are first responders whose early action can preserve a life that need not be lost. Calling 911 could mean that good outcome more often, if more people would vote to change both emergency services and police in particular. Regardless, if you're not willing to personally investigate every shooting you hear to render medical assistance, then it's reasonable to call 911 so that someone else can.

I will continue to call 911 when I hear gunfire. I admit, though, that after my experience with police, I have called 911 less often than I should have. My radius of worry decreased, so now I tend to call only when it's within a single block of my home. 911 is an emergency service in the USA. Even when that service fails to provide life-saving aid, it still provides historical data. Do not deprive the future of data. Call 911 when appropriate.

I fully painted both exterior door frames of my house yesterday after work. The heat wave had already reached to Minnesota, but it wasn't terrible yet. I finally removed the newspaper covering the doors before the potential storm front that would arrive later. I didn't want newspaper ink on my doors if they got soaked.

I got up from bed about 5:30am today, as usual, when movement caught my eye from my bedroom window. It's raining today, so it's darker than usual this morning. I watched someone in a traditional yellow raincoat come to my backyard then go back into the alley. I thought at first that maybe it was a diagonal neighbor taking my paving stones to lay down a dry spot for their garbage cans. Today is garbage collection day.

But they kept returning again and again. I couldn't see a vehicle (it was dark because of the time and the clouds). I know people steal firewood from my backyard, and that's okay considering Minnesota winters, but I never thought anyone would steal brick garden pavers. I tried to record video or at least a single photo from my phone, but it was just too dark.

Eventually, after many more trips back and forth, I opened my bedroom window and said, "Don't you think you've stolen enough of them already?" They closed a hatch on a vehicle, started it up, and drove off. All I could tell is that the vehicle was black and large, like an SUV.

After work today, I'll need to go move that pallet of pavers to lay them on the ground at their intended paths. Even though the heat is supposed to be bad today. I don't want to lose more pavers, though.