28 Comments

Mike, thanks once again for the act of journalism. Your efforts are appreciated.

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Lived in Philadelphia for 20 years; I used to love the city, its amenities and the richness of a city that is vibrant with a large black population. The Philadelphia of now seems worse than the years of redlining, with hyper-gentrified neighborhoods made up of mostly white transplants trying to assert dictatorial control while the outer neighborhoods suffer the homicide spikes and are draining residents again. Philly had finally arrested its population decline but now it is accelerating again. So many of my friends have now moved out and I am on my way out as well. The skyrocketing taxes and crime crisis that few want to acknowledge are the primary drivers.

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Apr 30, 2021
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We have the same here in NYC. BLM signs all over the place ... in Forest Hills Queens and Fieldston. They 'care' from their perch in the Private Streets, where you're not even allowed to do driver's education class. I have to respect their let them eat cake gangster.

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Keep in mind that medical technology has vastly improved in the last several decades meaning people who were shot decades back and died, now live. (I think that may account in part to the lowish soldier deaths in Iraq....but huge maiming.)

Don't know how to factor that medical improvement into shootings/homicides, but if it weren't there, death rates would be probably higher. Is that a possibility?

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I responded to Mr. Tracey's quote tweet of this. But fwiw, I'm an Army PA with some overseas experience. Biggest factors there were (are) ubiquity of body armor, robust air MEDEVAC (since enemy didn't have shoes, much less air superiority or effective AA / MANPADS), forward deployed surgical elements, and improved point of injury care (something called TC3 guidelines, plus better trained / equipped medics).

Not sure how much can be replicated in American urban settings. Helicopters expensive, can't land on city streets, and no one calling them in. Neighbors won't have tourniquets or TXA or first responder training. Surgeons already at hospitals...put mobile teams in crime hot spots? That's just not sustainable. Numbers / areas too much. With military operations, we can predict requirements better and leverage limited resources efficiently.

Armor biggest reason we saw maimings that survived. Best option to adopt from the military then is maybe public body armor issue instead of stimulus checks. But that probably isn't feasible or acceptable.

There are definitely medical advancements in trauma care that are independent of the military, and you're right that might have improved survival rates of violent crimes here. But I don't know how significant that is. Most trauma will either probably survive with cursory effort or will not survive regardless. The third category is a small minority who will survive only with exceptional, extraordinary care. It's just not a huge percentage to begin with, so even if medical advancements doubled it, I don't think it who mean that much.

This is all anecdotal though, and I have limited civilian medical experience, so maybe not even accurate.

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This is just great reporting, a world removed from "mostly peaceful protests" with fires burning in the background. EMBs comment and extended comment is just awful and gut-wrenching. As a father myself, I find myself hoping they grow up and get jobs as doctors of fireman in some small town of a few thousand, away from the rapid decline of western democracies, at least as far from it they can get for as long as they can.

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Did the smarmy Brooklyn Journos heap praise on you for giving voice to actual civilian residents of Minneapolis, or nah?

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"If you want to stay employed and you don’t align with mainstream liberal takes on almost everything, it’s best to keep quiet and hope no one calls you out for it. In his words, “There’s too much risk.” He said we shouldn’t talk to journalists about this."

One of the best ways to lose your livelihood is to publicly share anything that may be perceived as wrong think. Those who use their real name on social media or those who will go on the record with a journalist are insane or blissfully ignorant.

I wouldn't have said that 5 years ago. Things have declined rapidly and it is continuing to escalate in private and public sectors. If you value anything that you have built in your life, you will stay off the grid to whatever degree is possible. No one is on your side except for you and yours.

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Love the moniker “Cool Kid Brooklyn Journos”. Very fitting.

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The increase represents around 4000 murders. Totally a worthwhile price to pay for Derek Chauvin to be in jail.

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When I read your last post, I though the caveat about police perspective felt out of place. I now understand why. Journalism is in a sad place.

Minneapolis has Mayoral and City Council elections this fall. It will be interesting to see if the people vote for change. I wouldn’t bet on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Minneapolis

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This is what you do best. Put you head down to the wind and keep pushing ahead. Really valuable work.

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Mike, thanks for your reporting on this. It's so easy (and lazy) for so called journalists to sit in studios or newsrooms in Altanta or NYC or DC and "report" without bothering with inconvenient things like facts. You are so right that they DO NOT CARE about the alarming increase in murders and other violent crimes. I wonder how many of them have returned to MN after the riots, then after the trial. I'd wager not many. They are so intent on their racialist narrative that they cant be bothered to report about the lives of non affluent black folks that have to live with the aftermath in the twin cities.

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Why they want to minimize the murder rate? The skyrocketing crime puts the lie to their ideology to be a lie, does it not? Bad people riot, evil people murder. Correcting injustice empowers good people, but that's not what we're seeing.

I hope EMB and her husband take their child and flee the city. I remember visiting NYC in '97 and a young male hipster was already idealizing the old "gritty" (murderous) New York City! One would be a fool to wait for these guys to "wake up": what's hell to you, is attractive to them.

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Thank you for your reporting on this topic. Homicide has such far reaching impacts. It undermines stability in the communities being impacted by it. How can this not be important?

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What's this? A journalist? Who knew they still existed? Thanks!

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The Cook Kid Brooklyn "journos" will never do anything like this because it would mean their worldview might be .... wrong. And they're never wrong. That twitter link to the guy with too much soy in the diet was indicative of someone who is in a safe area, not worried about much in terms of safety, and comfortable with the warm feelings of bonhomie that rise up tweeting about how he, The Secret King of Park Slope, is helping BIPOC.

It's how a site like heyjackass dot com can be out there, and is flatly ignored by any Corporate Cathedral press outlet. It has all the info on the daily Chicago shootings you could want. But it doesn't fit any cool kid narrative.

Keep doing your thing Tracey.

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The "MSM" flow of information is generally one way. Has it occurred to anyone that the vast majority of shootings / murders do not involve police? They show up afterwards to cordon off the carnage and talk to witnesses. Ask any of the people in those communities whether they want more or less patrol cars. Where is the examination of this vile reality in major US cities? It destroys urban communities, families, innocent (and not so innocent) lives.

By all means, find the POs that can't handle the work and restructure how the work gets done. But less man/woman power will not solve the problem.

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