Minnesota Communities We Serve: Fill & Download for Free

When Jon asked if I would join the Sheepdog team, my only hesitation was that I would have to write this essay. I suffer from terrible stage-fright, which is somewhat amusing because I've managed to make a living as a professional musician for several years. “Kristine, you look like you’re really uncomfortable” is something people say when the spotlight is on me - and that’s true.I’m from the beautiful state of Minnesota, and I've spent more than, half my life in academic pursuits. I am a physical chemist by training and have worked in industry as well. I’m a Christian (of the Lutheran variety - big surprise from Minnesota, I know). I’m active in my church and a number of community organizations, including the local theatre, and enjoy a number of hobbies, all of which I will write about at some point.In addition to living in Minnesota, I've lived in North Dakota, Texas, Washington (state), and California. I became interested in politics at that time because I ran a small business - and California is very small-business hostile. I joined the Republican Party at that time, and engaged actively in advocacy to expand opportunities and minimize government obstructionist regulations on small businesses. After moving back to Minnesota, I joined the MN Independence Party, even serving on the party’s platform committee.I passionately love America and the values on which it was founded. I have, I think, a clear-eyed view of how we have failed to live up to our aspirations - but view our ideals as ones worth living up to and fighting for. I believe deeply in the need for civil discourse and in seeing the best in each other even when we disagree deeply - perhaps most of all when we disagree at fundamental levels.I started reading Jon’s blog a long time ago because of the military content, as I come from a family with a lot of military members. Although I was not able to serve due to physical disability, I was a member of the US Coast Guard Auxiliary while I lived in California. That was the highlight of the years I lived in that state.When War Elephant started the Discord server, I joined with excitement. Thanks to being a lifelong gamer (1983, TI/99 4A counts, right?), I’d been using Discord for some time. I really enjoyed the community, and the encouragement with writing significantly improved my Quora experience. I love having a space to discuss conservative ideas in-depth and really debate things. In an era where respectful disagreement has all too often been jettisoned, the War Elephant community is a remarkable exception. I've worked my way up “through the ranks” as it were - helping out as an editor, researcher, welcomer, moderator, and have come to greatly value this community and its mission.People generally consider me easy to talk to - and I like talking to people!Please consider joining our War Elephant Discordhttps://discord.gg/T3KMDBAif you haven’t already. It’s really helpful for thinking through and writing answers. I’m very easy to reach here on Quora (my messages are open) or through Discord, and look forward to getting to know more people in the community as we grow.I consider helping safeguard our community an honor and privilege.Relaxed. Researched. Respectful. - War Elephant

I’ve been giving this subject a lot of thought of late. I’m about to go for a new job, and I want to have my research done, my thoughts ordered and all that so I can answer any questions well, and in line with my own thought process. So here it goes.As Jaden Michal said, TRAINING. Training is very important. But it’s expensive. You’ve got to pay officers, often at overtime rates, for their training time. Ok, but we need to figure out how to get those officers to training regularly and hold them to the standards we set.Revamp traffic enforcement. The goal is suppose to be a safe and orderly flow of traffic, not writing tickets. For the most part this means that unmarked and “ghost cars” performing traffic enforcement are counterproductive. The drunk driver, distracted drivers mostly don’t notice a fully marked patrol car anyway. (unmarked cars have a place, but I don’t believe it’s in traffic enforcement.)Community Policing. Officers need to get out of their cars and talk to people. Of course, this is damn hard to do when you are running from one service call to the next. Informing the elected officials that your department needs more officers so that the officers can be nicer doesn’t equate with most people, but it’s true. The more time two people spend together, the harder it is for either to dehumanize the other. The officer knows the person, and their family, and can use this to help sometimes de-escalate a potentially dangerous situation. When the community begins to trust the police, they are more willing to perform their own civic duty of assisting the police as witnesses, and in reporting of crimes. Then the police are better able to solve those cases and bring offenders to justice. As Sir Robert Peal said; “The police are the community and the community are the police.”Stop most no-knock raids. I’ve said this; “Hey, why don’t we just knock on the door and see if they’ll come out?” “Nope, that's too dangerous!” (And ripping a door off and tossing flash bangs is safe?) I did hundreds of raids in Iraq. (Something over 600 high-risk entries if my math is correct, but that might be on the low side, as we were very busy.) we entered buildings with real bad guys all of whom had an AK47 by their bed (everyone there does). But sometimes, we’d just knock on the door. You know what, it worked. Most of the time, insurgent dude would look outside, see the place was surrounded, and hold out their hands for the cuffs. (Sometimes it didn’t, as my purple hear will attest to, but I’d still knock today if given the choice 99% of the time.) Easy breezy. If they didn’t, well that was ok too, because we have the place surrounded. SWAT has a roll, and sure, bring the SWAT team to the warrant arrest, but don’t do a no knock without a good reason. Just knock, and the SWAT team can be outside leaning against their MRAP or whatever drinking Powerade. Suspect see’s SWAT and knows the game is up. But if they don't… well, you tried, and no one will fault you for that, and now the SWAT team can get their groove on. It’s important to have the tools for anything, as police, it’s our job to protect our community. But how those tools, that MRAP, are used will determine how the community views the police. If it is clear the police are using force only when necessary, the community will understand when the police do use force.Be predictable and fair. Give everyone a break if you can. But make sure that everyone knows that action A will result in police reaction B. Everyone should be equal before the law. This means not telling the officers to be petty. Don’t ask them for arrests, or tickets. There are plenty enough people committing real crimes that it’s pointless to make lots of little arrests. Sure, the stats look good, but what affects a community more, arresting one rapist or Murderer, or twenty people for loitering or possession of drug paraphernalia? But murder cases take time, and cost money. It’s easier for police administrators to claim they are “fighting crime” with lots of arrests rather than a few important ones. According to this report; “ISU team calculates societal costs of five major crimes; finds murder at $17.25 million” there are real impact on the community from violent crime.“While research attaching cost estimates to heinous crimes may appear may appear a bit cold in nature, DeLisi says it's actually conducted with prevention in mind."This area of research has really been run with prevention researchers," he said. "That's because what they find is that even if a prevention program is very expensive -- and most of them are actually shockingly inexpensive -- they're still more cost effective than allowing these careers to unfold.”I think that says a lot. Crime prevention matters. Again, let’s quote Robert Peal. “The effectiveness of a police force should not be judged by the number of arrests, but rather by the absence of crime itself.”Let’s put more police on the streets, focus more on talking to people not investigatively. Personally, I love taking my patrol car to a school and letting kids climb all over it, playing with the lights and siren. If I can make a positive impact on someone today, what impact will that have on crime tomorrow? I child growing up might trust the police more because of my actions today. They might report a crime, come forward as a witness, or tell me something that they heard. That same child might grow up and happened to be passing by when I’m in a life a death fight with a criminal, and they might come to my aid. I make mistakes every day, but I try to always show the public my best side (I don’t always, as I’m not perfect, but I try). I’d rather give someone a smile and chat with them. Sure, sometimes a situation goes to shit, and things happen. But I know of at least one person that is alive today because I gave them a hug instead of arresting them. I also know that person was always easy to deal with if I was around, because they trusted me and knew I would always respond predictably to them. Later, some officer didn’t use this approach with that same person. It didn’t go well, but thankfully no one died. (It was very close. the patrol car was damaged, the officer and the subject went to the hospital, and five cops had to fill out a ton of paperwork. Two separate taser deployments, mace, etc.)Corrections reform. What’s in a Prison Meal? It’s supposed to be called “corrections” not “reciprocity” If our justice system wants to harshly punish people, we can do it, but it won’t help anyone. With scores of misdemeanors, and felonies. (Anyone care to guess how many states in the USA that oral sex of any kind is still a felony? I don’t know, but it is still “officially” on the books in Michigan. Michigan Legislature ) We need to clean out those laws, because the legislature making stupid laws that police are supposed to enforce isn’t helping anyone. They only cause tension between the community and the police force when some wet behind the ears- wants to save the world from democracy type with a new badge arrests someone for some of this bullshit. My first day on the job, my Sergeant told me “no stupid tickets” If I pulled someone over for a broken registration light and gave them a ticket, I’d better hope there was a body in the trunk if I wanted to keep my badge.When people are in jail, they should be given a chance to renew their social contract. Some won’t, sure, but some will. How could we do that? Well, I can think of two ways. First, some correctional facilities had very good results with Prison Gardens. First, it gives the inmates something constructive to do while they are paying their debt to society. Second, more trees, plants, flowers, and bushes are a good thing. Want to fight climate change? Plant a damn tree. Then plant more. Let’s replace some grass around jails with vegetable gardens. The inmates can eat the food, saving money. Fresh food is healthy and has positive mental and physical effects on the body. Hey, why not, the jail likely has the space and labor anyway, why not? Ok, what about the second way? How about giving inmates CPR training? Most police are required to have CPR certifications anyway, so they have the training aids and instructors. The inmates are a literal “captive” audience. CPR saves lives. Many jobs today require CPR, or at least look positively on someone trained. An inmate willing to help another person, to give CPR, is showing they are no longer thinking only about themselves, they are renewing the contract with society. And hey, as we saw, homicides are freaking expensive for a community. If even our criminals know CPR, how many homicides might be turned into Aggravated assaults? Even just one or two is well worth the effort we put in, Win and Win!What else? What about getting more K9’s? A K9, even when it bites a suspect, is usually actually reducing the force that is needed to arrest the subject. Sure, it looks horrible, and the Civil rights movement, showing police with German Shepherds snapping at protesters didn’t do anyone any favors. (It’s all about how any asset is used.)But… The dog only does what the officer tells it too. And police dogs are valuable for tracking lost kids, elderly that walk out of nursing homes, and finding violent felons before they hurt the community. Rescue K-9 Saves 2-Year-Old Found Shivering In Freezing TemperaturesBut that’s not all more police K9’s can do. Everyone should know that today therapy dogs are helping countless people. What if we trained some police k9’s as therapy dogs, and as tracking dogs? (dual purpose trained dogs are not uncommon.) What if we then used those dogs to help comfort sexual assault victims, making it easier for them to be a witness against their attackers? Well, someone did just that. (Warning, if you read the link, it is heart wrenching. I cried reading that story. Those poor kids…) Turpin Siblings Had Comfort Dog In Court To Help Them Face Abuser ParentsAnd since the police now have super useful dogs, that help comfort victims, it will build trust with the community. trust build with the community will better enable the police to solve crimes. Getting those offenders off the streets, (Because most crimes are committed by a very small, but active, number of offenders, usually less than 3% of any population is responsible for 80% of the crimes.) means officers have more time to spend doing things like helping find lost pets, and changing car tires. Or just spending a little time sitting a talking to someone. Yes, people call the police because they are lonely and just need someone to talk to. I’ve also be dispatched for “Witchcraft” “cat in tree” and “bigfoot” not to mention loose cattle, horses, pigs, and ferrets. I’ve gone to a call for a “Giant Bear” (there are bears in Michigan, but not very many “Giant ones” and almost none in the area I work.) But those calls, the ones that are time consuming and don’t seem to be important, are very important. They build a sense of ownership with the pubic feeling like their police really are looking out for them.I’ve kicked down I don’t know how many doors while I was in the military. Sure, kicking doors is fun. I love an explosive breach as much as the next guy. (ok, maybe more.) but knowing when, and more importantly, when NOT to use those things is important. You don’t make friends when you slap a water charge on someone’s door handle at 3AM. Sometimes the police should not be concerned with feelings. Getting a violent criminal off the streets is more important than the community complaining about the noise the blast from the breaching charge. (In case you are wondering, my current Department does not use breaching charges, and we don’t have explosives in our armory. And I’m the only officer on the department that knows how to use one, something that won’t change any time soon.)Pursuit policy. This one makes everyone get up and give their opinion. But here’s mine. chasing people for minor property crimes and traffic violations is stupid. There is nothing right, or just about endangering countless lives over a piece of property. Sometimes, you just need to let them go. Now, someone is wanted for a violent crime, they just committed an armed robbery, that is different. A murder suspect? Chase their ass, shotgun their tires, do what you need to do. But most of the people the run, they run for minor violations and traffic offenses. The actions of the officer must meet the standard of a reasonable person. the officer must accept that when they chase someone, people are likely to get hurt. The suspect will likely be hurt and crash. The community is in danger, it just does not meet the reasonable and prudent standard.Change the admittance standards. let me give you a great example of this. In my home state of Michigan, if you want to be a cop, you must attend a certified and approved Police Academy. Great, nothing wrong with that. Or… yeah, because those academies are only available… 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday. there is not a single night course, longer part time course in the entire state. So, what happens when we want more social workers, doctors, nurses, pilots, stay at home parents, single parents, and accountants? Well, those people can sod off apparently, because only people that can take six months of full-time business hour work can become police in Michigan. Um… yeah, who can you think of that is free during those hours? young, mostly single adults that just got the right to vote last year. So, that means that the overwhelming number of Law Enforcement postings are constantly trying to be filled. The officers we do have, well they often don’t have the life experience yet to be great cops. (Does anyone think they were smarter at 21 than they are now? I sure wasn’t. Hell, I joined the army in a time of war in my 20’s if that tells you anything. As infantry no less. Did I ever look good in my Class A’s.) Change the way police are educated and certified and you will get better cops. Make it easier for people to change careers later in life and become law enforcement officers.The academy concept is part of the paramilitary aspect of policing that people are beginning to see as unhelpful. Let’s move more to a staggered level of police training. Let the departments hire people, then have those people advance slowly towards full certification process while learning from experienced officers. This also means that most patrol cars will have not one, but two officers. Two officers in a car reduces the chance of either officer facing a deadly assault. Fight one cop? “Maybe” Fight two cops? “No thank you.” (Check FBI data on this if you don’t believe me. Having two officers present reduces the chances that force will be necessary.) As the new officer becomes more trained, and attends more classes, they become better and more confidant in their skills. (Some classes clearly should be taken before the new officer goes onto the street, but they can be taken as credit classes, not a full academy.)Firearms training. yeah, police firearms training sucks ass. The standards are so low it’s sad. And there is ZERO enforcement of the low standards that do exist. No state that I know of does spot checks of Department firearms training records. (someone please correct me if I’m wrong here?) It's an honor system, and many departments do not actively enforce the standards on their own officers. Why not? Easy, a department has shifts to fill. If you take every officer that shoots like shit off the street for refresher training until they pass, who fills those shifts? The departments already have trouble filling open slots, and now they can’t use the officers they have because someone failed a shooting test no one checks? Guess how the police administrators are going to rule on that one?What happens then when officers who don’t know how to shoot use deadly force? They spray and pray, shooting towards a suspect 47 times, and hitting twelve parked cars, and the suspect once. Firearms training builds confidence in one’s ability. Shoot more in training= shoot less in a lethal force situation. I don’t know a single department in the United States that shouldn’t easily double their firearms training budget. (for paying officers and lots, lots more bullets.) A police officer is carrying a tool for deadly force on their belt, it’s serious, and it’s time that we treated it that way. But it won’t happen. Far too many pansy ass police boards and city commissions don’t like their police training with “BULLETS!” (OMG!) I wonder how that board would react if they knew that their disdain for police firearms training is resulting is not only more shootings, but more shots fired at each shooting? Those missed shots go somewhere, but I’m sure they won’t hit any innocent people… yeah right.It’s because of lax firearms training that some cops, like one former one in Minnesota, can’t tell the difference between the banging of a falling trash can, (or whatever that was, probably a stray cat.) and a gunshot. So, they shoot some Australian Woman who called them, killing her.In no other profession that I am aware of are people paid for continuing education training. Doctors are not paid their going rate to maintain their medical license that I am aware of. Lawyers are not paid to maintain their bar card. EMT’s and Paramedics are not, for the most part. Some I know are paid an annual fee for the cost of their license, but the CE credits are up to the medic in most places. So why is it that most cops insist on being paid to attend training to keep their skills up? Go to the damn range on your own time. But that system won’t change anytime soon, so departments are stuck trying to fill shifts, and paying officers to attend training courses. (Sure, departments can pay for the course, but not your wages while you are attending it also.) Ask your kids teacher is they are paid to maintain their teach certificate? Now that I’m thinking about it, I’ll be asking my kid’s teacher this very question.You asked; “How can police departments improve?”Well, in many, many ways. You might agree, or disagree with someone of my ideas, and that’s fine. But I don’t know anyone, cop, or not a cop, who thinks we’re doing it right now. Elect new legislatures, elect new senators, elect new city commissioners and county supervisors. Tell them to fix this shit. Because the way they are forcing police to police now isn’t working. It is getting cops killed, and it is hurting the communities we serve. Give us better training, give us more officers. Let us work with the community, we want to, but your insane rules and laws are not allowing it. Minimum sentences, mandatory ticket quotas (my department does NOT have these, thank God!), and silly stat games are not helping anyone. I don’t want to face off against some violent felon with nothing to lose and hatred of our justice system. One of us won’t go home. And when our system forces me into that situation, I must choose to go home.The answer then, I believe is this. Police departments can only improve with the help of the communities we serve, the help of the elected officials supervising us, and the laws passed by those elected to write them. The judges, the D.A.s, and each member of the community must help those of us wearing a badge to improve. We want to make our communities better; will you help us?(Sorry I ranted somewhat.)

This is a fascinating question.I was asked to answer it, and, though this may feel like a cop-out answer to some, the best I can do is to say it's unknown and unknowable. My belief is that this machine--the one we call Planet Earth or Human Society--is so complex, it's a chaotic system. Which means we can't predict what will cause lasting societal change or, if it occurs, what the change will be.It's hard even on the local or personal level. Sometimes, when we narrow things down to one person or community, we can make semi-accurate predictions: "If we give Johnny a time out, he'll stop hitting his sister." "If we put more cops on the NYC streets, the crime rate will drop." But we've all seen plenty of scenarios in which even these sorts of predictions fail.What is Johnny? He's not a simple machine into which you can plug a time out and be guaranteed an output of "no hitting his sister." He's a complex organism, driven by a tangle of impulses, ideas, habits, and desires. But if you know him really, really well, you may have a better-than-chance ability to predict an outcome.Just knowing Johnny well takes years of study. Knowing the world well is impossible. No one knows it well. No one can know it well. If you push one of the world's levers, all you can say for sure is "Something will happen." And even that's not true if you're hoping for (or dreading) "Something that matters." Because sometimes the system we're living in absorbs shocks and, on the human level, things wind up pretty much the same before the shock as after it. Famously, people called World War One "The war to end all wars."This idea that the world is chaotic and unpredictable is sucky. It sucks. It's not what we want to be true. So (consciously or unconsciously) we make up stories. We can often do this by extrapolating in a really rough, poetic way from the past into the future. "Look at Rosa Parks! Look at what one woman accomplished!"We are still the same people--we still have the same brains--as those ancients who believed that dancing certain dances causes rain to fall. That's much easier to grasp than a complex, chaotic whether system. And, looking back, we can see that sometimes the rain did fall after we danced. Sometimes it didn't, but our brains are good (if it's a good thing) of forgetting that, just as we forget all the Rosa Parkses that failed to achieve social change.Remember, I'm not saying human activity is pointless. I'm not saying no one ever causes change. People--even individuals, like Rosa Parks--sometimes wind up causing great change. I'm saying we can't predict if and when it will happen and, when it does, what the nature of the change will be and how long it will last.Please note that I'm not saying there's action and activism are pointless. (Everything we do matters and nothing we do matters are both cartoon versions of reality.) Actions often, over time, achieve ends, especially when many people collaborate together. But here we're talking about one specific event and what we can predict about the changes it will bring. Those time travelers, the ones who stepped on the butterfly, had no idea the havoc it would cause. (But there was another guy, one you didn't hear about, who stepped on an ant. Nothing noticeable happened.)Sometimes, when a huge number of forces conspire together to cause a social change, we create an origin myth about it, in which that change was caused by a single event. Some changes are caused by single events, but most of them are caused by the accumulation and interaction of many events. But since we understand and relate to the world through myth and narrative, we look back and think Rosa Parks! Darwin! Lincoln! The Boston Tea Party!So, my disgustingly unsatisfying answer to this question, which I believe is nonetheless true, is that the public shaming of the Minnesota dentist will result in some sort of noticeable or unnoticeable change in the world, which may or may not be what anti-hunting activists want, and if they get what they want, it may or may not last for long, and it may or may not have some bad (or good) unintended consequences.