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Saturday, January 13, 2007
Summary Of The Vacant Building Crisis
I reprinted this here from the comment section
Let the outpouring of hate flow...it goes both ways you know and the landlords in St. Paul have plenty of it. For years they have been made the scapegoat for everything from A to Z by gutless politicians who refuse to stand up to the real problem.
3:57 wants us to go to the top where it all started. Lets do that. Prior to Mayor Kelly taking office the city of St. Paul had a reasonably well run rental housing market. Was it perfect? Hell no! There were some problems, and there were some problem owners, but not anywhere near the numbers the city would have you believe. The managers of code enforcement at this time knew how to handle the situation and they were doing so. Then comes the new administration with their Nazi like tactics and what seemed like a grudge against everyone they could get their hands on. What used to be a workable situation with results turned into no cooperation what so ever, and an attitude that wanted to be a bully rather than cooperate with anyone. This was rampant everywhere within every city agency, not just with landlords. The newspapers even wrote about it. The landlords saw such a hostile environment to do business in, they realized they would not survive and started selling off their properties fearing that they would be the next victim of a code enforcement department that routinely lied about repairs that did not need to be made in order to get the house condemned so they use the condemnation as a springboard to a vacant building status where they then illegally demand that owners bring their properties up to the modern day building code just like a new house that was built yesterday. Rather than make the landlords bring the house into compliance with the city's chapter 34 minimum standards regarding such properties, they chose the most expensive route to deliberately raise the owners costs and thus rid the neighborhood of the poor people who were not liked by the neighbors because of the problem behavior. An average code compliance of this type usually costs around $50,000.00, which I hope all of you home owners who think the city's plan was such a good idea are able to afford to do, because you will be next after they have set "precedent" with what they are doing now. It was during the Kelly administration that real estate really started heating up, and then came the infomercials and the "too good to be true" mortgages. Most of the veteran landlords who had a lot of equity in their properties and the option to lower rents or whatever they had to do in response to the market started selling their properties as fast as they could to avoid being the next victim of the city. Some were not so lucky. They were forced into bankruptcy, lost their life savings, lost their livelihoods, lost retirements, college funds for their kids, and some even lost the home they lived in and their marriages due to the city's dirty deeds. These were the professionals that 3:15 talks about. They knew how to run the business and how to make a good and lasting repair at a cost effective price. Most of the new buyers for these properties fell into 2 categories. One was a buyer with no experience in rental housing at all. They didn't know the business and they didn't know how to repair anything, and most have a full time job so property investment and management are mostly a weekend (if that) affair for them. They have to hire it all done and most of them are getting taken advantage of by the contractors and handymen looking for a quick buck. The 2nd group are the scammers and equity busters that buy the property for grossly inflated prices, take $50,000.00 to $60,000.00 cash home with them the day of the closing and never even go back to get the rents from the tenants that are living there. Not a bad living if you can figure out how to do this 15 or 20 times a year! Most of these homes that this group of buyers purchased are vacant and boarded up today. They are the homes that the poor people used to live in that are no longer available to them. The ones walking away from their homes are the new buyers who purchased these properties at top dollar and now cannot take care of them either because of higher repair costs, over regulation or the lack of renters. A lot of the renters got sucked into the scam also, because they found out they could buy a home and have lower payments with one of these tricky mortgages than the payment for renting a home. A lot of the ones who couldn't get a mortgage just left town for someplace where they could find housing. This crowd that 3:15 talks about that has all the hate and wants to see all these vacant buildings torn down may get their wish and then the city can usher in the "brownfield of Detroit" as another one of their accomplishments. Granted some of the vacant homes in the city were home owners, and many of them were previous renters, but the city's own report to the city council says that most of these vacant and empty homes are rental properties. While the easy mortgages may have been a factor, it was an out of control code enforcement department that started the ball rolling in the mass sell off of all these rental properties. As for the outpouring of hate for the absentee landlords that 3:15 talks about, I have a message for you: it is your peoples hate and attitude for someone else that started the ball rolling. All you people with all your hatred got exactly what you have wanted for years....these rental homes are empty now , the tenants are gone, now you can live in peace and choke on your hatred for something you don't even understand. Get used to it, you haven't seen nothing yet, wait until next year at this time. Those vacant homes you have been so desirous of will be multiplying in numbers.
11:40 PM
Let the outpouring of hate flow...it goes both ways you know and the landlords in St. Paul have plenty of it. For years they have been made the scapegoat for everything from A to Z by gutless politicians who refuse to stand up to the real problem.
3:57 wants us to go to the top where it all started. Lets do that. Prior to Mayor Kelly taking office the city of St. Paul had a reasonably well run rental housing market. Was it perfect? Hell no! There were some problems, and there were some problem owners, but not anywhere near the numbers the city would have you believe. The managers of code enforcement at this time knew how to handle the situation and they were doing so. Then comes the new administration with their Nazi like tactics and what seemed like a grudge against everyone they could get their hands on. What used to be a workable situation with results turned into no cooperation what so ever, and an attitude that wanted to be a bully rather than cooperate with anyone. This was rampant everywhere within every city agency, not just with landlords. The newspapers even wrote about it. The landlords saw such a hostile environment to do business in, they realized they would not survive and started selling off their properties fearing that they would be the next victim of a code enforcement department that routinely lied about repairs that did not need to be made in order to get the house condemned so they use the condemnation as a springboard to a vacant building status where they then illegally demand that owners bring their properties up to the modern day building code just like a new house that was built yesterday. Rather than make the landlords bring the house into compliance with the city's chapter 34 minimum standards regarding such properties, they chose the most expensive route to deliberately raise the owners costs and thus rid the neighborhood of the poor people who were not liked by the neighbors because of the problem behavior. An average code compliance of this type usually costs around $50,000.00, which I hope all of you home owners who think the city's plan was such a good idea are able to afford to do, because you will be next after they have set "precedent" with what they are doing now. It was during the Kelly administration that real estate really started heating up, and then came the infomercials and the "too good to be true" mortgages. Most of the veteran landlords who had a lot of equity in their properties and the option to lower rents or whatever they had to do in response to the market started selling their properties as fast as they could to avoid being the next victim of the city. Some were not so lucky. They were forced into bankruptcy, lost their life savings, lost their livelihoods, lost retirements, college funds for their kids, and some even lost the home they lived in and their marriages due to the city's dirty deeds. These were the professionals that 3:15 talks about. They knew how to run the business and how to make a good and lasting repair at a cost effective price. Most of the new buyers for these properties fell into 2 categories. One was a buyer with no experience in rental housing at all. They didn't know the business and they didn't know how to repair anything, and most have a full time job so property investment and management are mostly a weekend (if that) affair for them. They have to hire it all done and most of them are getting taken advantage of by the contractors and handymen looking for a quick buck. The 2nd group are the scammers and equity busters that buy the property for grossly inflated prices, take $50,000.00 to $60,000.00 cash home with them the day of the closing and never even go back to get the rents from the tenants that are living there. Not a bad living if you can figure out how to do this 15 or 20 times a year! Most of these homes that this group of buyers purchased are vacant and boarded up today. They are the homes that the poor people used to live in that are no longer available to them. The ones walking away from their homes are the new buyers who purchased these properties at top dollar and now cannot take care of them either because of higher repair costs, over regulation or the lack of renters. A lot of the renters got sucked into the scam also, because they found out they could buy a home and have lower payments with one of these tricky mortgages than the payment for renting a home. A lot of the ones who couldn't get a mortgage just left town for someplace where they could find housing. This crowd that 3:15 talks about that has all the hate and wants to see all these vacant buildings torn down may get their wish and then the city can usher in the "brownfield of Detroit" as another one of their accomplishments. Granted some of the vacant homes in the city were home owners, and many of them were previous renters, but the city's own report to the city council says that most of these vacant and empty homes are rental properties. While the easy mortgages may have been a factor, it was an out of control code enforcement department that started the ball rolling in the mass sell off of all these rental properties. As for the outpouring of hate for the absentee landlords that 3:15 talks about, I have a message for you: it is your peoples hate and attitude for someone else that started the ball rolling. All you people with all your hatred got exactly what you have wanted for years....these rental homes are empty now , the tenants are gone, now you can live in peace and choke on your hatred for something you don't even understand. Get used to it, you haven't seen nothing yet, wait until next year at this time. Those vacant homes you have been so desirous of will be multiplying in numbers.
11:40 PM
Friday, January 12, 2007
Keep Your Porch light On
Please click onto the title of this post for an interesting story concerning the Payne Raper.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
How I Lost my Home
How I lost my home: 3 stories
Think it can't happen to you? Consider these tales from real people who faced serious problems -- job loss, illness, divorce -- that turned their lives upside down.
By Christopher Solomon
MSN Money: Facing foreclosure? 9 options
The foreclosure capital of the U.S.
When mortgage firms don't play fair
Everybody knows about the American dream of home ownership, but what about the flip side: the nightmare of losing your home?
It's not something that happens only to someone else. Toss into an average life some devastating medical bills, a sudden job loss, an overambitious home purchase or rising interest rates, and pretty soon a house that took years of toil to purchase is auctioned away in seconds.
Please click onto the title of the post for the rest of the story.
Think it can't happen to you? Consider these tales from real people who faced serious problems -- job loss, illness, divorce -- that turned their lives upside down.
By Christopher Solomon
MSN Money: Facing foreclosure? 9 options
The foreclosure capital of the U.S.
When mortgage firms don't play fair
Everybody knows about the American dream of home ownership, but what about the flip side: the nightmare of losing your home?
It's not something that happens only to someone else. Toss into an average life some devastating medical bills, a sudden job loss, an overambitious home purchase or rising interest rates, and pretty soon a house that took years of toil to purchase is auctioned away in seconds.
Please click onto the title of the post for the rest of the story.
Alice Krengel SAGA Continues!
For those of you new to this story- Alice is an alcoholic and a near senior woman that owned a home in West Saint Paul. Alice had a number of drunk and disorderly guest that would come to her home and cause disturbances that got the attention of the neighbors. The City got feed up with the police calls and put Alice out of her home.
Folks you ever wish you had a magic wand and you could just wave it and you could make anyone you choose life better!I wish I had that wand. I'd wave my wand over Alice, and she would have her home back. She wouldn't be an alcoholic. I wish I had the answers for Alice and everyone trying to deal with this dilima.It is sad.
There is alternatives!There is no reason Alice could not stay in her home with assisted living.
It is cruel and unusual punishment to deprive someone of their home. Kick them to the curb because they don't measure up to a community standard. Alices problem didn't go away. nor did her friends that would come over and be rowdy and disorderly at her home. These people are being drunk and disorderly in someone else's neighborhood. That's all we do in City's across America now. The new practice is to chase social ills from place to place and and never actually address the problems.
Please click onto the title of this post for information Sharon requested me to post on Alice's behalf. Alice you have friends in Sharon and all of us we are praying for you!
Folks you ever wish you had a magic wand and you could just wave it and you could make anyone you choose life better!I wish I had that wand. I'd wave my wand over Alice, and she would have her home back. She wouldn't be an alcoholic. I wish I had the answers for Alice and everyone trying to deal with this dilima.It is sad.
There is alternatives!There is no reason Alice could not stay in her home with assisted living.
It is cruel and unusual punishment to deprive someone of their home. Kick them to the curb because they don't measure up to a community standard. Alices problem didn't go away. nor did her friends that would come over and be rowdy and disorderly at her home. These people are being drunk and disorderly in someone else's neighborhood. That's all we do in City's across America now. The new practice is to chase social ills from place to place and and never actually address the problems.
Please click onto the title of this post for information Sharon requested me to post on Alice's behalf. Alice you have friends in Sharon and all of us we are praying for you!
Dr. Jack Shepard for 4th. Congressional District
This story is printed in the comment section due to it's length. You can also click onto the title of this post for more on Dr. Jack Shepard.
I said the black community was lacking good leadership and here is a choice to begin to remedy some of this problem.
I said the black community was lacking good leadership and here is a choice to begin to remedy some of this problem.
One Down, 6 to GO
Please click onto the title of this post for a story on Jay Benanav decision not to run for City Council in 07.
Rape Statistics
Rapers all over town folks. Only on the East Side we have a choking raper. Please click onto the title of this post for the Cities rape statistics.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
PAYNE RAPER Police Strategy A Threat to Public Safety
Hi All,
TOM WALSH of the Saint Paul PD is pretty much saying what I have claimed. Tom was on ch. 9 News. Tom claims it is less important to catch this criminal and more important to stop him.
All this exposure is designed to do exactly what I said it was for, stop him in Saint Paul. Run him underground to hide and ATTACK someplace else, maybe KILLING someone next time. Maybe a child next time huh? This pervert took PLEASURE with one little girl he may want another one. Probably still fantizing about his catch and the emotions are welling inside until he can no longer contain himself. He will go stalking again!COUNT on it people! And all our police dept. is hoping is they chased him away! SICK!
YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN TOM WALSH FOLKS, HE SWOLLOW THAT STATEMENT. Tom swallowed and grimaced! REAL POLICE WORK GUYS, YOU ALL SHOULD BE PROUD. Doesn't the Saint Paul PD have an under cover with any guts!Or maybe you just don't have one with any skill!
CITIZENS OF SAINT PAUL, WE NEED A CRIME STRATEGY THAT ISN'T DESIGNED TO SHRUG POLICING RESPONSIBILITIES!
TOM WALSH of the Saint Paul PD is pretty much saying what I have claimed. Tom was on ch. 9 News. Tom claims it is less important to catch this criminal and more important to stop him.
All this exposure is designed to do exactly what I said it was for, stop him in Saint Paul. Run him underground to hide and ATTACK someplace else, maybe KILLING someone next time. Maybe a child next time huh? This pervert took PLEASURE with one little girl he may want another one. Probably still fantizing about his catch and the emotions are welling inside until he can no longer contain himself. He will go stalking again!COUNT on it people! And all our police dept. is hoping is they chased him away! SICK!
YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN TOM WALSH FOLKS, HE SWOLLOW THAT STATEMENT. Tom swallowed and grimaced! REAL POLICE WORK GUYS, YOU ALL SHOULD BE PROUD. Doesn't the Saint Paul PD have an under cover with any guts!Or maybe you just don't have one with any skill!
CITIZENS OF SAINT PAUL, WE NEED A CRIME STRATEGY THAT ISN'T DESIGNED TO SHRUG POLICING RESPONSIBILITIES!
TREASURE HUNT
Please click onto the title of this post for a declaration from Joe Soucheray concerning the hunt for the Winter Carnival Medallion.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Living Wage Ordinance
Please click onto the title of this post for a link to the City's Living Wage Ordinance.
Schmidt Brewery Purchase
Please click onto the title of this post for a story on the sale of the Schmidt Brewery. One of our favorite Counciman is named in the article. :-)
Monday, January 08, 2007
Jesse Ventura For President Petition
Hi All,
The organizers of the "Jesse Ventura for President Petition" have asked me to post this.You can click onto the title of this post for a link to the Petition.
Some of you know how I feel about this. Bill Dahn is a friend of mine, but in keeping with the tradition we are establishing for our Town Hall Meeting I have to fulfill this request and post the information. We have to be inclusive of all people. And I know some of you are Jesse fans.. So I,we, respect all opinions here. Thanks...
*The 2008 presidential election will offer the same old empty promises and betrayals, unless.....
There are some Republicans and Democrats that are starting to announce their intentions to run for President in 2008. The playing field for the upcoming highest office in the land once again is looking bleak and disheartening from what the 2 different faces of the same party are putting forth. Is there a better choice? A hope for a better future? A hope to maintain (and restore) Freedom and Liberty?
The Libertarians, Greens, Independents, Reforms, and all other minor parties will more than likely follow history and do what they have done several times over in the past, and that is to remain minor. Each getting 1% or less on average, and by and large just being dismissed by the main stream media and voters. What alternatives are there for those of us that want to preserve and restore Freedom and Liberty? Those of us that feel government is too big and intrusive. Those of us that want REAL change in America. Is there an alternative?
I think if we all join together behind someone who is by and large aligned with the ideals of Freedom and Liberty, rather than each support our own minor candidate that has little or no chance of making an impact; and instead we all push and work together, we can make a far bigger splash. However it MUST be someone with immediate name recognition on a national level. Someone without ties to special interests. Someone who has held office(s) with success.
I think the best person with the name recognition and ability to actually win, who will get press coverage and be included in the debates, and most importantly represent the "freedom lovers" among us is.... Jesse Ventura.
Jesse is known as a socially libertarian, fiscally conservative politician. What could he do for America and Americans as President? President Ventura would potentially:
* End the income tax in favor of a sales tax.
* End pork-barrel spending; return surplus to the people.
* Return any budget surpluses to the taxpayers automatically.
* Respect diversity, both cultural and lifestyle.
* Opposes “Three Strikes”; leave discretion to judges.
* End the war on drugs since it has failed; look for other solutions.
* Fund schools at state level instead of via property taxes.
* Overcome dependency on foreign oil.
* Increase voluntary partnerships to reduce greenhouse gases economically.
* Open up, simplify, & demystify government.
* Help promote that government service should be temporary; not a career.
* Promote individual responsibility for unhealthy lifestyle choices.
* View social programs as a safety net, not a hammock.
Jesse has not announced an intention to run for office as of yet. He has not officially said no either. There is a petition drive at www.voters4ventura.com to show support for Jesse running for office. Is he perfect? No. Nobody is. There are those of you who will read this that will have an issue with Jesse for something he did, or did not do. The old saying that you can't please 100% of the people 100% of the time is so very true. He speaks his mind and steps on toes sometimes. Exactly the opposite of most politicians who tip toe around and spin things to try and appeal to as many people as possibly, but usually are spewing words with no intention of even trying to follow through. Politicians who forget their constituents when they get caught up in the grease that is lubricating the "wheels of government". Jesse tells it like it is and how he sees it. Isn't that refreshing.
Whether you like him or not, I think you have to admit Jesse is the best hope all of us "Freedom Lovers" have at seeing someone with a similar viewpoint as our own, as President. A far better chance than anything the Republicans or Democrats will offer; as they are both for bigger government, more spending, more invasion of privacy and more waste. And the minor third party candidates will once again go nowhere and do nothing and will be ignored by the mainstream media. And should we fail to come together and back someone with national name recognition, who holds similar at least 75% of our beliefs; once again, we will be left gnashing our teeth in angst for 4 years with the Dempublican / Republicrat office holder who will continue turning the USA into the USSA. And by 2012, it might be too late to undo the damage of National ID's, Patriot Acts, data mining and surveillance, warranties spying, surrendering of Habeas Corpus, more bloated government programs and "protections", and who knows what else...
If you want to see someone who will stand up for Freedom and Liberty and the everyday American in the 2008 election, I urge you to go sign the petition at www.voters4ventura.com so we can hopefully get Jesse to bite the bullet and run for Freedom and Liberty, and for you and me.
The organizers of the "Jesse Ventura for President Petition" have asked me to post this.You can click onto the title of this post for a link to the Petition.
Some of you know how I feel about this. Bill Dahn is a friend of mine, but in keeping with the tradition we are establishing for our Town Hall Meeting I have to fulfill this request and post the information. We have to be inclusive of all people. And I know some of you are Jesse fans.. So I,we, respect all opinions here. Thanks...
*The 2008 presidential election will offer the same old empty promises and betrayals, unless.....
There are some Republicans and Democrats that are starting to announce their intentions to run for President in 2008. The playing field for the upcoming highest office in the land once again is looking bleak and disheartening from what the 2 different faces of the same party are putting forth. Is there a better choice? A hope for a better future? A hope to maintain (and restore) Freedom and Liberty?
The Libertarians, Greens, Independents, Reforms, and all other minor parties will more than likely follow history and do what they have done several times over in the past, and that is to remain minor. Each getting 1% or less on average, and by and large just being dismissed by the main stream media and voters. What alternatives are there for those of us that want to preserve and restore Freedom and Liberty? Those of us that feel government is too big and intrusive. Those of us that want REAL change in America. Is there an alternative?
I think if we all join together behind someone who is by and large aligned with the ideals of Freedom and Liberty, rather than each support our own minor candidate that has little or no chance of making an impact; and instead we all push and work together, we can make a far bigger splash. However it MUST be someone with immediate name recognition on a national level. Someone without ties to special interests. Someone who has held office(s) with success.
I think the best person with the name recognition and ability to actually win, who will get press coverage and be included in the debates, and most importantly represent the "freedom lovers" among us is.... Jesse Ventura.
Jesse is known as a socially libertarian, fiscally conservative politician. What could he do for America and Americans as President? President Ventura would potentially:
* End the income tax in favor of a sales tax.
* End pork-barrel spending; return surplus to the people.
* Return any budget surpluses to the taxpayers automatically.
* Respect diversity, both cultural and lifestyle.
* Opposes “Three Strikes”; leave discretion to judges.
* End the war on drugs since it has failed; look for other solutions.
* Fund schools at state level instead of via property taxes.
* Overcome dependency on foreign oil.
* Increase voluntary partnerships to reduce greenhouse gases economically.
* Open up, simplify, & demystify government.
* Help promote that government service should be temporary; not a career.
* Promote individual responsibility for unhealthy lifestyle choices.
* View social programs as a safety net, not a hammock.
Jesse has not announced an intention to run for office as of yet. He has not officially said no either. There is a petition drive at www.voters4ventura.com to show support for Jesse running for office. Is he perfect? No. Nobody is. There are those of you who will read this that will have an issue with Jesse for something he did, or did not do. The old saying that you can't please 100% of the people 100% of the time is so very true. He speaks his mind and steps on toes sometimes. Exactly the opposite of most politicians who tip toe around and spin things to try and appeal to as many people as possibly, but usually are spewing words with no intention of even trying to follow through. Politicians who forget their constituents when they get caught up in the grease that is lubricating the "wheels of government". Jesse tells it like it is and how he sees it. Isn't that refreshing.
Whether you like him or not, I think you have to admit Jesse is the best hope all of us "Freedom Lovers" have at seeing someone with a similar viewpoint as our own, as President. A far better chance than anything the Republicans or Democrats will offer; as they are both for bigger government, more spending, more invasion of privacy and more waste. And the minor third party candidates will once again go nowhere and do nothing and will be ignored by the mainstream media. And should we fail to come together and back someone with national name recognition, who holds similar at least 75% of our beliefs; once again, we will be left gnashing our teeth in angst for 4 years with the Dempublican / Republicrat office holder who will continue turning the USA into the USSA. And by 2012, it might be too late to undo the damage of National ID's, Patriot Acts, data mining and surveillance, warranties spying, surrendering of Habeas Corpus, more bloated government programs and "protections", and who knows what else...
If you want to see someone who will stand up for Freedom and Liberty and the everyday American in the 2008 election, I urge you to go sign the petition at www.voters4ventura.com so we can hopefully get Jesse to bite the bullet and run for Freedom and Liberty, and for you and me.
I FOUND THE POLICE FOLKS
A regular member sent me this news tip- thank you, you have done a service to your City.
Please click onto the title of this post and you will know where they are at too!
Please click onto the title of this post and you will know where they are at too!
Another Preditory Attack On A Child This Time
MEDIA ADVISORY
Saint Paul Police Department
367 Grove Street
Saint Paul, MN 55101
John M.Harrington
CHIEF OF POLICE
January 8, 2007
Assault On East Side
At about 7:10 this morning a thirteen year old Saint Paul girl was grabbed and assaulted near Payne and Hyacinth on the East Side. It is not certain, at this time, what the motive for the assault was. The young woman was transported to Children’s Hospital.
The suspect in this case is described as a black male,18 to 20 years old 5’8’ to 5’10’ tall with a slim build. He was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.
There are some similarities between this incident and a case that occurred on January 1st near Payne and Lawson and Police are asking for the public’s help to identify this suspect. Police are still canvassing the area but students who may have been on their way to school may have seen this person in the area of Payne and Hyacinth and not be available to speak to officers until later in the day.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Saint Paul Police Department’s Family and Sexual Violence Unit at 651-266-5685
Saint Paul Police Department - Committed to Excellence, Ethics, Empathy & Education
Saint Paul Police Department
367 Grove Street
Saint Paul, MN 55101
John M.Harrington
CHIEF OF POLICE
January 8, 2007
Assault On East Side
At about 7:10 this morning a thirteen year old Saint Paul girl was grabbed and assaulted near Payne and Hyacinth on the East Side. It is not certain, at this time, what the motive for the assault was. The young woman was transported to Children’s Hospital.
The suspect in this case is described as a black male,18 to 20 years old 5’8’ to 5’10’ tall with a slim build. He was wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans.
There are some similarities between this incident and a case that occurred on January 1st near Payne and Lawson and Police are asking for the public’s help to identify this suspect. Police are still canvassing the area but students who may have been on their way to school may have seen this person in the area of Payne and Hyacinth and not be available to speak to officers until later in the day.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call the Saint Paul Police Department’s Family and Sexual Violence Unit at 651-266-5685
Saint Paul Police Department - Committed to Excellence, Ethics, Empathy & Education
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Supreme Court To Rule On Whistle Blowing
Please click onto the topic of this post for a story that concerns us people who challenge the misbehavior of authority.
*Hi All, I try not to post more than 2 post a day so other topics don't get buried so fast. Sorry, I don't know what happened today..I think this is the 4th post. However,this post is important information.
*Hi All, I try not to post more than 2 post a day so other topics don't get buried so fast. Sorry, I don't know what happened today..I think this is the 4th post. However,this post is important information.
Terrorist Attacks On Schools
Hi All, this is a really long post but if you have the time please read it.. This isn't good!.
Part 1 of a 3-part PoliceOne.com series
By Chuck Remsberg
Senior PoliceOne Contributor
Sponsored by Blauer
Probably the last place you want to think of terrorists striking is your kids’ school. But according to two trainers at an anti-terrorism conference on the East Coast, preparations for attacks on American schools that will bring rivers of blood and staggering body counts are well underway in Islamic terrorist camps.
• The intended attackers have bluntly warned us they’re going to do it.
• They’re already begun testing school-related targets here.
• They’ve given us a catastrophic model to train against, which we’ve largely ignored and they’ve learned more deadly tactics from.
“We don’t know for sure what they will do. But by definition, a successful attack is one we are not ready for,” declared one of the instructors, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. Our schools fit that description to a “T”—as in Terrorism and Threat.
Grossman, the popular law enforcement motivational speaker, and Todd Rassa, a trainer with the SigArms Academy and an advisory board member for The Police Marksman magazine, shared a full day’s agenda on the danger to U.S. schools at a recent three-day conference on terrorist issues, sponsored by the International Assn. of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors (IALEFI) in Atlantic City.
They reminded the audience that patrol officers, including perhaps some with their own children involved, will inevitably be the first responders when terrorists hit. And they documented chilling descriptions of the life-or-death challenges that likely will be faced.
In Part 1 of this two-part report on highlights of their presentations we focus on what’s known about the threat to our schools to date, why terrorists have selected them as targets, and what tactics you’re likely to be up against in responding to a sudden strike.
In Parts 2 and 3, we’ll explore Grossman’s and Rassa’s recommendations for practical measures you and your agency can take now to get ready, including some defensive actions that don’t require any budget allocations.
Why schools?
Two reasons:
1. Our values. “The most sacred thing to us is our children, our babies,” Rassa said. Killing hundreds of them at a time would significantly “boost Islamic morale and lower that of the enemy” (us). In Grossman’s words, terrorists see this effort as “an attempt to defile our nation” by leaving it “stunned to its soul.”
2. Our lack of preparation. Police agencies “aren’t used to this,” Rassa said. “We deal with acts of a criminal nature. This is an act of war,” but because of our laws “we can’t depend on the military to help us,” at least at the outset.
Indeed, Grossman claimed, “the U.S. in the one nation in the world where the military is not the first line of defense against domestic terrorist attacks. By law, you the police officer are our Delta Force. It is your job to go in, while in most other nations cops will wait for the military to come save their kids.”
School personnel, Rassa said, “are not even close” to being either mentally or physically prepared. “Most don’t even have response plans for handling a single active shooter. Their world is taught to nurture and care for people. They don’t want to deal with this.”
The American public, “sticking their heads in the sand, can’t be mentally prepared,” he said. “They’re going to freak when it happens,” their stubborn denial making the crisis “all the more shocking.”
Noting that “sheep have two speeds: ‘grazing’ and ‘stampede,’” Grossman predicted that “not a parent in the nation will send their kids to school the next day”—perhaps for many days—after a large-scale terrorist massacre. If day-care centers—“also on the terrorists’ list”—are hit as well, “parents will drop out of the work force” en masse to protect their children and “our economy will be devastated.”
How we know they’re coming.
Al-Qaeda has publicly asserted the “right” to kill 2,000,000 American children, Rassa explained, and has warned that “operations are in stages of preparation” now. He played vivid videotapes confiscated in Afghanistan, showing al-Qaeda terrorists practicing the takeover of a school. The trainees issue commands in English, rehearse separating youngsters into manageable groups and meeting any resistance with violence. Some “hostages” are taken to the rooftop, dangled over the edge, then “shot.”
“Any place that has given [Islamic terrorists] trouble, they’ve come after the kids,” Grossman said. Muslim religious literature, according to Rassa, states clearly that the killing of children not only is “permitted” in Islam but is “approved” by Mohammed, so long as the perpetrators “are striving for the general good” as interpreted by that religion.
He cited instances in Indonesia where girls on their way to school have been beheaded and in other countries where children have been shot, mutilated, raped or burned alive.
In this country this year [’06], Rassa said, there have been several school bus-related incidents involving Middle Eastern males that raise suspicion of terrorist activity. These include the surprise boarding of a school bus in Florida by two men in trench coats, who may have been on a canvassing mission, and the attempt in New York State by an Arab male to obtain a job as a school bus driver using fraudulent Social Security documents. The latter gave an address in Detroit, home to a large colony of fundamentalist Muslims.
Rassa claimed that floor plans for half a dozen schools in Virginia, Texas and New Jersey have been recovered from terrorist hands in Iraq.
The terrorists’ tactical model.
A “dress rehearsal for what terrorists plan to do to us” has already taken place, Rassa and Grossman agreed. That was the brutal takedown in 2004 of a school that served children from 6 to 17 years old in Beslan, Russia.
Some 100 terrorists were involved, nearly half of whom were discreetly embedded in the large crowd of parents, staff and kids who showed up for the first day of school; the rest arrived for the surprise attack in SUVs, troop carriers and big sedans. Across a three-day siege, 700 people were wounded and 338 killed, including 172 youngsters.
If a similar assault were launched against a school in your jurisdiction, how would you and your agency respond? Consider this modest sampling of challenges that were deliberately planned or arose from the ensuing chaos at Beslan, as outlined by Rassa:
• The school was chosen because it was one of the taller buildings in the area and had a very complicated floor plan, making a rapid and effective counter-assault by responders extremely difficult. Offender weaponry included AK-47s, sniper rifles, RPGs and explosives, with everything the terrorists needed carried in on their backs. RPGs were fired at a responding military helicopter and at troops.
• More than 1,000 men, women and children, including babies, were penned in an unventilated gym and a cafeteria. As the days passed without food or water and inside temperatures rose to 115 degrees, survivors were eating flowers they’d brought for teachers and fighting for urine to drink out of their shoes in desperation. Women and some children were repeatedly and continuously raped.
• Adult males and larger male students were used as “forced labor” to help fortify the building, then shot to death. Bodies were thrown out of an upper-story window, down onto a courtyard. Attempts at negotiation by responders were used by the terrorists strictly as an opportunity to buy time to solidify their fortifications.
• Surviving hostages were surrounded by armed guards standing on deadman switches, wired to explosives. All entrances to the building as well as stairwells and some interior doorways were booby-trapped. Youngsters were forced to sit on window sills to serve as shields for snipers. “Black widows” (potential suicide bombers) were rigged so their bomb belts could be detonated by remote control when leaders considered the timing was right. The terrorists stayed cranked up on some type of amphetamine to keep awake.
• Armed, outraged parents and other civilians, some of them drunk, showed up and started “rolling gunfights” outside in a futile effort to defeat the takeover. The crowd identified one embedded terrorist and “literally ripped him apart.” The media was everywhere, unrestrained. So many people were milling around that responders often could not establish a clear field of fire.
• When troops finally stormed the school in a counter-assault on the third day, “pure pandemonium” reigned. Soldiers and the kids they were trying to rescue were gunned down mercilessly. Explosions touched off inside started multiple fires.
• Responders who made it inside had to jump over trip wires as they “ran” up stairs under fire from above. By then terrorists were holding hostages in virtually every room. Rescue teams were subjected to continual ambushes. Gunfights occurred predominately within a 6-ft. range, with some responders having to fight for their lives in places so cramped they couldn’t get off their hands and knees.
• Some children successfully rescued from the building were so crazed by thirst that they ran to an outdoor spigot and were killed by a grenade as they filled their hands with water.
• Terrorists who escaped during the melee ran to homes of embedded sympathizers who hid them successfully and were not immediately suspected because they were considered “non-strangers” in the community. Some townspeople who volunteered to help as stretcher bearers for the injured were, in fact, embedded terrorists.
• During the siege “at least four people or agencies claimed to be in charge. Actually, no one was in charge and no one wanted to be.”
“Osama bin Laden has promised that what has happened in Russia will happen to us many times over,” Grossman warned. “And Osama tries very hard never to lie to us.”
[For more details on this siege, Grossman recommends the book, Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America’s Schools , by John Giduck.]
What’s likely here.
Probably not so many terrorists involved at a single location. Moving that big a contingent into place would likely attract too much attention and thwart the attack. Grossman describes a more likely possibility, in his opinion:
Terrorist cells of four operatives each will strike simultaneously at four different schools. They’ll probably pick middle schools with no police officers on site, where the girls are “old enough to rape” but students are not big enough to fight back effectively.
The targets will probably be in states “with no concealed-carry laws and no hunting culture” and in communities where “police do not have rifles.” Rural areas may be favored, where 30 minutes or more could be required for responders to arrive in force.
The attackers will “mow down every kid and teacher they see” as they move in to seize the school. They’ll plant bombs throughout the buildings, and “rape, murder and throw out bodies like they did in Russia.” Emergency vehicles responding and children fleeing will be blown up by car bombs in the parking lot.
In all, 100 to 300 children could be slaughtered in a first strike.
Terrorists capable of this are already embedded in communities “all over America,” Grossman and Rassa agreed. More will probably gain entry surreptitiously from Mexico, making southern California potentially a prime target.
No time for despair.
Part 1 of a 3-part PoliceOne.com series
By Chuck Remsberg
Senior PoliceOne Contributor
Sponsored by Blauer
Probably the last place you want to think of terrorists striking is your kids’ school. But according to two trainers at an anti-terrorism conference on the East Coast, preparations for attacks on American schools that will bring rivers of blood and staggering body counts are well underway in Islamic terrorist camps.
• The intended attackers have bluntly warned us they’re going to do it.
• They’re already begun testing school-related targets here.
• They’ve given us a catastrophic model to train against, which we’ve largely ignored and they’ve learned more deadly tactics from.
“We don’t know for sure what they will do. But by definition, a successful attack is one we are not ready for,” declared one of the instructors, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. Our schools fit that description to a “T”—as in Terrorism and Threat.
Grossman, the popular law enforcement motivational speaker, and Todd Rassa, a trainer with the SigArms Academy and an advisory board member for The Police Marksman magazine, shared a full day’s agenda on the danger to U.S. schools at a recent three-day conference on terrorist issues, sponsored by the International Assn. of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors (IALEFI) in Atlantic City.
They reminded the audience that patrol officers, including perhaps some with their own children involved, will inevitably be the first responders when terrorists hit. And they documented chilling descriptions of the life-or-death challenges that likely will be faced.
In Part 1 of this two-part report on highlights of their presentations we focus on what’s known about the threat to our schools to date, why terrorists have selected them as targets, and what tactics you’re likely to be up against in responding to a sudden strike.
In Parts 2 and 3, we’ll explore Grossman’s and Rassa’s recommendations for practical measures you and your agency can take now to get ready, including some defensive actions that don’t require any budget allocations.
Why schools?
Two reasons:
1. Our values. “The most sacred thing to us is our children, our babies,” Rassa said. Killing hundreds of them at a time would significantly “boost Islamic morale and lower that of the enemy” (us). In Grossman’s words, terrorists see this effort as “an attempt to defile our nation” by leaving it “stunned to its soul.”
2. Our lack of preparation. Police agencies “aren’t used to this,” Rassa said. “We deal with acts of a criminal nature. This is an act of war,” but because of our laws “we can’t depend on the military to help us,” at least at the outset.
Indeed, Grossman claimed, “the U.S. in the one nation in the world where the military is not the first line of defense against domestic terrorist attacks. By law, you the police officer are our Delta Force. It is your job to go in, while in most other nations cops will wait for the military to come save their kids.”
School personnel, Rassa said, “are not even close” to being either mentally or physically prepared. “Most don’t even have response plans for handling a single active shooter. Their world is taught to nurture and care for people. They don’t want to deal with this.”
The American public, “sticking their heads in the sand, can’t be mentally prepared,” he said. “They’re going to freak when it happens,” their stubborn denial making the crisis “all the more shocking.”
Noting that “sheep have two speeds: ‘grazing’ and ‘stampede,’” Grossman predicted that “not a parent in the nation will send their kids to school the next day”—perhaps for many days—after a large-scale terrorist massacre. If day-care centers—“also on the terrorists’ list”—are hit as well, “parents will drop out of the work force” en masse to protect their children and “our economy will be devastated.”
How we know they’re coming.
Al-Qaeda has publicly asserted the “right” to kill 2,000,000 American children, Rassa explained, and has warned that “operations are in stages of preparation” now. He played vivid videotapes confiscated in Afghanistan, showing al-Qaeda terrorists practicing the takeover of a school. The trainees issue commands in English, rehearse separating youngsters into manageable groups and meeting any resistance with violence. Some “hostages” are taken to the rooftop, dangled over the edge, then “shot.”
“Any place that has given [Islamic terrorists] trouble, they’ve come after the kids,” Grossman said. Muslim religious literature, according to Rassa, states clearly that the killing of children not only is “permitted” in Islam but is “approved” by Mohammed, so long as the perpetrators “are striving for the general good” as interpreted by that religion.
He cited instances in Indonesia where girls on their way to school have been beheaded and in other countries where children have been shot, mutilated, raped or burned alive.
In this country this year [’06], Rassa said, there have been several school bus-related incidents involving Middle Eastern males that raise suspicion of terrorist activity. These include the surprise boarding of a school bus in Florida by two men in trench coats, who may have been on a canvassing mission, and the attempt in New York State by an Arab male to obtain a job as a school bus driver using fraudulent Social Security documents. The latter gave an address in Detroit, home to a large colony of fundamentalist Muslims.
Rassa claimed that floor plans for half a dozen schools in Virginia, Texas and New Jersey have been recovered from terrorist hands in Iraq.
The terrorists’ tactical model.
A “dress rehearsal for what terrorists plan to do to us” has already taken place, Rassa and Grossman agreed. That was the brutal takedown in 2004 of a school that served children from 6 to 17 years old in Beslan, Russia.
Some 100 terrorists were involved, nearly half of whom were discreetly embedded in the large crowd of parents, staff and kids who showed up for the first day of school; the rest arrived for the surprise attack in SUVs, troop carriers and big sedans. Across a three-day siege, 700 people were wounded and 338 killed, including 172 youngsters.
If a similar assault were launched against a school in your jurisdiction, how would you and your agency respond? Consider this modest sampling of challenges that were deliberately planned or arose from the ensuing chaos at Beslan, as outlined by Rassa:
• The school was chosen because it was one of the taller buildings in the area and had a very complicated floor plan, making a rapid and effective counter-assault by responders extremely difficult. Offender weaponry included AK-47s, sniper rifles, RPGs and explosives, with everything the terrorists needed carried in on their backs. RPGs were fired at a responding military helicopter and at troops.
• More than 1,000 men, women and children, including babies, were penned in an unventilated gym and a cafeteria. As the days passed without food or water and inside temperatures rose to 115 degrees, survivors were eating flowers they’d brought for teachers and fighting for urine to drink out of their shoes in desperation. Women and some children were repeatedly and continuously raped.
• Adult males and larger male students were used as “forced labor” to help fortify the building, then shot to death. Bodies were thrown out of an upper-story window, down onto a courtyard. Attempts at negotiation by responders were used by the terrorists strictly as an opportunity to buy time to solidify their fortifications.
• Surviving hostages were surrounded by armed guards standing on deadman switches, wired to explosives. All entrances to the building as well as stairwells and some interior doorways were booby-trapped. Youngsters were forced to sit on window sills to serve as shields for snipers. “Black widows” (potential suicide bombers) were rigged so their bomb belts could be detonated by remote control when leaders considered the timing was right. The terrorists stayed cranked up on some type of amphetamine to keep awake.
• Armed, outraged parents and other civilians, some of them drunk, showed up and started “rolling gunfights” outside in a futile effort to defeat the takeover. The crowd identified one embedded terrorist and “literally ripped him apart.” The media was everywhere, unrestrained. So many people were milling around that responders often could not establish a clear field of fire.
• When troops finally stormed the school in a counter-assault on the third day, “pure pandemonium” reigned. Soldiers and the kids they were trying to rescue were gunned down mercilessly. Explosions touched off inside started multiple fires.
• Responders who made it inside had to jump over trip wires as they “ran” up stairs under fire from above. By then terrorists were holding hostages in virtually every room. Rescue teams were subjected to continual ambushes. Gunfights occurred predominately within a 6-ft. range, with some responders having to fight for their lives in places so cramped they couldn’t get off their hands and knees.
• Some children successfully rescued from the building were so crazed by thirst that they ran to an outdoor spigot and were killed by a grenade as they filled their hands with water.
• Terrorists who escaped during the melee ran to homes of embedded sympathizers who hid them successfully and were not immediately suspected because they were considered “non-strangers” in the community. Some townspeople who volunteered to help as stretcher bearers for the injured were, in fact, embedded terrorists.
• During the siege “at least four people or agencies claimed to be in charge. Actually, no one was in charge and no one wanted to be.”
“Osama bin Laden has promised that what has happened in Russia will happen to us many times over,” Grossman warned. “And Osama tries very hard never to lie to us.”
[For more details on this siege, Grossman recommends the book, Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America’s Schools , by John Giduck.]
What’s likely here.
Probably not so many terrorists involved at a single location. Moving that big a contingent into place would likely attract too much attention and thwart the attack. Grossman describes a more likely possibility, in his opinion:
Terrorist cells of four operatives each will strike simultaneously at four different schools. They’ll probably pick middle schools with no police officers on site, where the girls are “old enough to rape” but students are not big enough to fight back effectively.
The targets will probably be in states “with no concealed-carry laws and no hunting culture” and in communities where “police do not have rifles.” Rural areas may be favored, where 30 minutes or more could be required for responders to arrive in force.
The attackers will “mow down every kid and teacher they see” as they move in to seize the school. They’ll plant bombs throughout the buildings, and “rape, murder and throw out bodies like they did in Russia.” Emergency vehicles responding and children fleeing will be blown up by car bombs in the parking lot.
In all, 100 to 300 children could be slaughtered in a first strike.
Terrorists capable of this are already embedded in communities “all over America,” Grossman and Rassa agreed. More will probably gain entry surreptitiously from Mexico, making southern California potentially a prime target.
No time for despair.
Mendota Lakota Souix Indians
Bill Dahn
www.billdahn.com
Ojb-Sious.#408B19111
Of The Native American People
We The Mendota Lakota Souix tribe Indians
We are the same Lakota Indians in Mendota, Minnesota that the
Federal Government through Colonel Snelling, received land for
their fort from the Native people of Medota.
The Mendota Tribe of Lakota Souix.
This Fort, was named after Colonel Josiah Snelling.
MNHS.ORG | Historic Fort Snelling
The people of Mendota were promised payment for the land.
Just like all U.S. Government, they lied, cheated and stole
what ever they wanted.
The payment never was granted, I as a descendent of Sioux from Mendota --- NOW I ask, Why We Are Not A Recognized Tribe ?
Why the promise of payment was broken, and why we are NOT
Recognized as a people.
I as a Freedom Fighter " Whistle Blower " Bill Dahn, who ran for the
Minnesota's Governor's race in 1998 to EX-Pose the Bad
Government Agency's.
From that time on, I found more Government Conspiracy then
ever thought possible.
I am a protected class, Disabled Native American that has Rights.
NO, I do not have any rights.
I am not "Hmong", "Mexican", "Jew", or any one of the influx of
people that are coming to America "aka" The U. S. A. !
People coming to America are getting Homes, Grant Money,
Most Anything They Need " Free " ????
Our own American People, that was born here receive nothing.
I am speaking of all that was the people, that's been here in the Good Old
U. S. A. of all colors of people.
"America" Dose not even take good care of they elders, who
paved the way for the U. S. to grow to what it is today.
Is there a payoff some where under the table, that we don't know
about ?
I will be in pursuit of the crime of "Fraud", against my people in
Mendota, Minnesota.
THINK ABOUT "IT" !
Enough IS Enough !
The Dahn Of A New Era
/s/ Bill Dahn
www.billdahn.com
651-453-1992
PO Box 7417
St. Paul, MN. 55107
Bill4Dahn@aol.com
eagledahn1@aol.com
VOTE "Bill Dahn
St.Paul City Council
42USC Fair Housing
Bill Dahn, Political Races
Bill Dahn, Homestead Rip Off 1
Bill Dahn, 9/11 - Memorial for Bill Dahn's loss His Home
Ojb-Sious.#408B19111
ECF:#P1291866
2nd City of Saint Paul RICO Lawsuit - Watchdog News
CND: Chemical Sensitivities
www.billdahn.com
Ojb-Sious.#408B19111
Of The Native American People
We The Mendota Lakota Souix tribe Indians
We are the same Lakota Indians in Mendota, Minnesota that the
Federal Government through Colonel Snelling, received land for
their fort from the Native people of Medota.
The Mendota Tribe of Lakota Souix.
This Fort, was named after Colonel Josiah Snelling.
MNHS.ORG | Historic Fort Snelling
The people of Mendota were promised payment for the land.
Just like all U.S. Government, they lied, cheated and stole
what ever they wanted.
The payment never was granted, I as a descendent of Sioux from Mendota --- NOW I ask, Why We Are Not A Recognized Tribe ?
Why the promise of payment was broken, and why we are NOT
Recognized as a people.
I as a Freedom Fighter " Whistle Blower " Bill Dahn, who ran for the
Minnesota's Governor's race in 1998 to EX-Pose the Bad
Government Agency's.
From that time on, I found more Government Conspiracy then
ever thought possible.
I am a protected class, Disabled Native American that has Rights.
NO, I do not have any rights.
I am not "Hmong", "Mexican", "Jew", or any one of the influx of
people that are coming to America "aka" The U. S. A. !
People coming to America are getting Homes, Grant Money,
Most Anything They Need " Free " ????
Our own American People, that was born here receive nothing.
I am speaking of all that was the people, that's been here in the Good Old
U. S. A. of all colors of people.
"America" Dose not even take good care of they elders, who
paved the way for the U. S. to grow to what it is today.
Is there a payoff some where under the table, that we don't know
about ?
I will be in pursuit of the crime of "Fraud", against my people in
Mendota, Minnesota.
THINK ABOUT "IT" !
Enough IS Enough !
The Dahn Of A New Era
/s/ Bill Dahn
www.billdahn.com
651-453-1992
PO Box 7417
St. Paul, MN. 55107
Bill4Dahn@aol.com
eagledahn1@aol.com
VOTE "Bill Dahn
St.Paul City Council
42USC Fair Housing
Bill Dahn, Political Races
Bill Dahn, Homestead Rip Off 1
Bill Dahn, 9/11 - Memorial for Bill Dahn's loss His Home
Ojb-Sious.#408B19111
ECF:#P1291866
2nd City of Saint Paul RICO Lawsuit - Watchdog News
CND: Chemical Sensitivities
Two Border Guards Going to Prison For Doing Job.
Hi All,
Please click onto the title of this post for a really disturbing story about security on our borders.
Please click onto the title of this post for a really disturbing story about security on our borders.
















