Radical Islam right here in the Land of 10,000 lakes (Minneapolis: 2014, crime rate)

[Thedosius]

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

What kind of a community is this, folks? Silence is consent. Silence is an ethical choice that puts you on the line every bit as much as putting yourself out there and saying something.

[Lodestar]

It isn't necessary to prove anything to your satisfaction, Thedosius. I've lived here for thirty-four years and have participated in local government. I have friends in the police force, social services, the churches, the school system, the entertainment community and business community. So I'm well aware of what happens here and how local politics shape these events to provide the impression the city wants to project.

In local affairs I can speak with confidence. The research I do into national statistics is in no way provable to my satisfaction. But I see a definite trend in changing the ways we categorize and report crime and I'm not sure that the reason is to enlighten the public.

You seem to be on some kind of crusade. It's all very noble and appeals to everyone who has a good heart. And it should. But I'd like to be a voice of moderation and reason here. And a voice of self-preservation.

If this issue doesn't raise any questions in your mind of the magnitude of ill-will some people have for Americans or the number of them that we are supporting and assisting, (IIRC, ISIS was trained and equipped using our tax dollars) then your instincts for survival and reason have been compromised by your noble cause.

Balance in all things is a measure of health.

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by Thedosius

I didn't attack you, my intention is to get you to think about this:

Considering what you let pass without comment in this thread, and what you felt you had to object to: do you feel that 'becomes' you? Is not LACK of action or comment equally important?

Fundamentally, I feel that racist/xenophobic posts are worse than sarcasm/'thinly veiled personal attacks'. Do you agree or disagree? What do your responses so far indicate?

The way the topic is discussed is of more interest to me than the topic itself, though it seems clear that we have a lot of bad actors in rout midst.

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by Lodestar

It isn't necessary to prove anything to your satisfaction, Thedosius.

Of course not. Then prove it to any reasonable person's satisfaction and not to mine.

I've lived here for thirty-four years and have participated in local government. I have friends in the police force, social services, the churches, the school system, the entertainment community and business community. So I'm well aware of what happens here and how local politics shape these events to provide the impression the city wants to project.

Yes, you have a perspective on the matter, that is understood.

You seem to be on some kind of crusade. It's all very noble and appeals to everyone who has a good heart. And it should.

It's a 'crusade' to get people to re-think their crude first impressions and base their perspectives on something more concrete than experience filtered through confirmation bias.

But I'd like to be a voice of moderation and reason here.

'Reason' does not exist without a willingness to offer proofs: that is the very definition of reason- to come to a conclusion from supporting evidence. I asked you to share your evidence, you declined.

If this issue doesn't raise any questions in your mind of the magnitude of ill-will some people have for Americans or the number of them that we are supporting and assisting, (IIRC, ISIS was trained and equipped using our tax dollars) then your instincts for survival and reason have been compromised by your noble cause.

I'm deeply, deeply opposed to al-Quaida, ISIS and the Taliban. I've supported military operations and assassinations against them. They, however, have nothing to do with whether or not the wave of east African immigrants ought to be here or not, or if they have proven detrimental to our community. The fact is, they have not been proven to be detrimental to our community to any true voice of reason. Rumor and innuendo are simply insufficient.

Balance in all things is a measure of health.

I would disagree with you where the balance lies.

[Thedosius]

Originally Posted by Glenfield

The way the topic is discussed is of more interest to me than the topic itself, though it seems clear that we have a lot of bad actors in rout midst.

I find this profoundly objectionable and just plain sad. I'm sorry if you perceive that as a personal attack, but such quibbling seems so morally bankrupt to me, and it completely elides over what is important. Many people here seem to want to support each other in a downward spiral of ignorance and prejudice with no truly mature concept of reason and evidence...and you chose to spend your time crabbing about methodology? That is becoming of you? I have a hard time believing that.

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by Thedosius

I find this profoundly objectionable and just plain sad. I'm sorry if you perceive that as a personal attack, but such quibbling seems so morally bankrupt to me, and it completely elides over what is important. Many people here seem to want to support each other in a downward spiral of ignorance and prejudice with no truly mature concept of reason and evidence...and you chose to spend your time crabbing about methodology? That is becoming of you? I have a hard time believing that.

Are your posts supposed to be this overwrought or is this the whole series satire? "Profoundly objectionable?" LOL!

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by randomman

The federal government purposefully relocates Somalians to Minnesota because you all are supposed to be midwestern and nice and orderly and therefore able to provide the services to them without too much hassle.

Just as it relocates section 8 renters to better suburbs and neighborhoods in order to spread crime out thin rather than have it concentrated in just one area.


But, reject me if you like, continue to believe in the goodness of America and the government if you so choose.

NO! We are not nice!!!

Originally Posted by Stillnew

Sadly, the guy was born in MPLS and converted to Islam.....probably because of treatment by people here in MN. A child becomes what you tell them they are.

Could be, the Internet radicalizes many people too. these people probably spend a little too much time on Google, and they click "the wrong" link and boom they are brainwashed.

Originally Posted by Thedosius

This is an excellent idea- you are clearly a sharp thinker! The only problem is that this doesn't go far enough!

We should really be taking a look at all the waves of immigrant communities, and look at sending back those who- like the Somalians- have a small portion that have been radicalized. Of course, we clearly need to start with the Germans. Few other nations have ever been actually ruled by their radicals the way the Germans were. They should all be sent back, including myself unfortunately due to my German background. Still, it is a small price to pay for the kind of purity you so rightly seek. Fox News much?

And you're dead on about southeast Minneapolis being ruined! I remember 15-20 years ago, Cedar Riverside was kind of a seedy, dirty, dangerous-feeling neighborhood. Now, it's a seedy, dirty, dangerous-feeling neighborhood!

It's weird how Minneapolis' crime rates are actually at historic lows despite the influx of east-African immigrants. It's almost as if facts don't seem to square with your and my clearly legitimate and non-racist concerns about them!

Do International Falls a huge favor and stay there! Demographers have been talking about a 'brain-drain' in greater Minnesota and posts like yours above gives me iron-clad certainty that you and people like you are on the front lines of keeping the gray matter alive out there in the hinterlands. You are a credit to your race!

Yes crime rates are low, luckily these radicals fly across the ocean where they go full insane.
we should be worried about them going insane here... our home.

[folkguitarist555]

Just my opinion, and an assumption, and I am not sure, ...but I notice this trend whereby Lutheran Social Services thru out the Midwest and plains states seems to relocate huge numbers of folks from the African and Middle eastern countries to their cities, and I guess the agenda is to alter certain regions with other ethnicities, in order to diversify their communities, seems like something that predominantly Scandinavian regions of the USA aim to do, for whatever reason, and It appears that the locals are happy and fine about that, in general. Just my opinion and view.

[slamont61]

We Minnesotans should all band together behind one common issue. We don't need to be divided in any way shape or form. I suggest we all support Global Warming. Who's with me?

[Gunluvver2]

In the early 1940's two relatives (both brothers and pilots but not military) joined the Flying Tigers to fight with the Chinese against the Japanese. This was a year or two before Pearl Harbor. They both saw combat before Pearl Harbor. Technically they forfeited their U.S. citizenship when they did this. The difference between what these brothers did then and what the U.S. citizens fighting with terrorists now is almost all of us know these Radical Islamists are the definition of terrorism. By the standards in place in 1938 the U.S. citizens fighting with these terrorists would be guilty of treason. AFAIK treason is a capital crime.

GL2