While homicide is declining nationwide, it is up sharply in Minneapolis–and the city is seared. There have been 87 murders in “the City of Lakes” so far this year, a 74 percent increase since last November. The main reason, according to police, is an influx of young black men from places like Chicago and Detroit, where crack cocaine and drug-related violence are well established. The city may be attracting more criminals, cops say, because crack prices are high and its gang structure isn’t strong enough to keep them out. Locals sell a T shirt that says, MURDERAPOLIS– CITY OF WAKES. Lt. Mark Ellenberg, head of homicide, says, “We’re struggling to keep up.”
The homicide numbers are driving Minneapolis to take steps that wouldn’t have been thinkable a few years ago. Sayles Belton, a former parole officer, pushed through a “zero tolerance” program in which neighborhoods with high rates of gunfire or drug trafficking are singled out for intensive policing. “We’re going to stop people for minor traffic violations, and we’re going to cheek them for illegal guns,” she vows. Police detained 87 people in a recent sweep; 85 were newcomers. The gangsters “are trying to make Minneapolis conform to their image of what the black community is like [elsewhere],” one black resident says. “And it isn’t helping them–or us.”
