How Geography Dictates Police 'Services' ~ #protect&serve?

As with most cities, there tend to be 'good' areas, and 'bad' areas. 'This' area is fine, but go up a few blocks and you'll most likely run into trouble. It's not so much of a distaste for certain areas, it's based upon facts which are based upon prior experiences and crime stats. If you live where I live, you would most likely agree with these following statements...

Edina: known as the 'cake eaters'. Low crime and lots of rich people with their noses in the air.

Orono: affluent, lake-living people. Low crime and lots of rich people with their noses in the air, albeit less than Edina. (My bias might be showing here ;))

Plymouth: middle to upper class, working/family people. Low crime, not so snobby.

Farmington: middle class for the most part. Low crime, rural and humble.

Now these are all generalities, I don't like painting with a broad brush, so don't take it that way. But I think most people would tend to agree with these statements.

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Now...if you have lived in MN for your whole life, you'll probably remember when we were dubbed "Murder-apolis", when our state had the highest murder rate in the country. Even more than Chicago or NY.

Minneapolis: I will be even more specific because this is what I see...
North Minneapolis, I would argue, is considered the most dangerous and crime ridden of all the areas of Mpls. High crime and low incomes, for the most part. There has been a recent trend of "Make North Great Again", but we are a far cry away from making that a reality.

So where am I going with this? Well, with my most recent job, I have been traveling through the heart of North Minneapolis almost daily, from my home to work and back again. There is a specific stretch of roadway where it seems to me that the law is nothing more than a recommendation. Forget everything you learned in drivers ed, those rules do not apply here. Think Mad Max, without everyone trying to kill you, even though some people might give you a look where you think they might want to.

Stop lights are nothing more than electronic posts, displaying colors that mean nothing. Stop signs are more of a suggestion. Cross walks are anywhere a person decides to cross the street. People literally walk across the road, in front of moving traffic, and expect the cars to stop for them. So far I haven't seen someone take a person head on, instead I hear the squealing of slamming brakes and rubber on cement. You'd think this stretch of roadway was hit with an EMP blast, because blinkers don't seem to be operable in 99% of the vehicles driving. At night time, a good portion of cars don't even have their headlights on.

I pass a few police cruisers every day on this stretch of road, but rarely do I ever see anyone pulled over for any type of traffic infraction. If I had the right of force that police have, I could literally just sit on the corner all day and write a thousand tickets for so many different infractions. Many of which I listed above.

Coming from one of those cities I mentioned above, Orono, it intrigues me to see how police interact and engage with the cities they patrol. When I was 16 and driving around my hometown, there were the usual spots police would hide and try and catch speeders. They would inconspicuously follow us high schooler's around and wait for us to break a law, whether speeding, rolling a stop sign, or not having our seat belts buckled. Me and few buddies got pulled over in a cul-de-sac one night. We were just sitting there talking about what to do for the night, as most bored high school kids do. The police in my area had nothing better to do than harass and ticket kids for essentially being kids.

Compared to Orono, N Mpls would be the complete opposite. I passed a cop doing 50 in a 30 just yesterday (going with the flow of traffic) and he just kept on driving...better things to do obviously. In Orono, the cop would have wipped a shitty, call for 8 back up squads, and pull me out at gunpoint. It dawns on me now that us high school kids weren't the only bored ones looking for something to do.

It kinda hit me while driving to work how the police behave regarding the 'law' depending on where it is they are patrolling. Driving infractions are clearly on the lowest rung of N Mpls cops priorities..and I don't blame them, they have more, real crimes to be worrying about. Ones where victims actually exist. That's not to say they have a quick response time to people in actual need, I can attest, but you catch my drift.

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So this post isn't so much about the fact that this stretch of roadway is analogous to anarchy (in a sense). Rather it shows that, police in other less crime ridden areas have nothing better to do, and are mostly revenue generators for the state who serve no purpose other than to rob their fellow neighbors. All while not making the community any safer.

So fellow Minnesotans, agree or disagree? And to others who aren't local, have you noticed a similar scenario where you live? Let me know your thoughts, thanks for reading.