Black people are victims of an enormous amount of violence. None of those things can take place without the complicity of the people who run the schools and the city. ~Toni Morrison

by Donald W.R. Allen,II – Editor in Chief/IBNN NEWS and USA Radical Black

"The Godmother knows best." (click on the screen to watch the video)

Minneapolis, MN. (IBNN NEWS/August 9, 2010)…Today, KSTP channel 5 Eyewitness News released the story, “Why Mpls. City Council President Objects to CeaseFire.”

In the story, Minneapolis City Council President Barb Johnson says, “Doing underground work without the police is veering into dangerous territory. If the city is awarded the grant, CeaseFire would control how the money is spent. Part of that money also comes from a private foundation. Johnson says that’s troubling because the city would lose some control over the program, which she says duplicates work already being done by police.”

IBNN NEWS has looked at the various CeaseFire models.

The CeaseFire model in Chicago DOES NOT WORK! With over 200 homicides in Chicago in 2010 – what’s the point or rushing to a murder scene when they’ll be 40 more over the weekend? CeaseFire is nothing more than glorified paper-pushers that think violence is a health issue or virus.

They (CeaseFire-Chicago) do homicides and funerals like Minneapolis MAD DADS and Shiloh International Ministries, who have wasted tremendous amounts of Minneapolis tax payer dollars, well – getting paid.

The CeaseFire model in Baltimore involves the police department 100% bypassing the local poverty-pimps and clergy who have already received dollars to address the issue of crime and violence with no measurable results.

The reason why we can’t get anything done in Minneapolis: R.T. Rybak and his public policy folks are too busy trying to “set the stage for Black leadership in Minneapolis” while casting those aside who don’t agree with the bogus solutions Mayor R.T. Rybaks brings to the table.

I was at the CeaseFire presentation. They presented a bar graph with the reasons why crime and violence rates can rise. The largest and longest bar and the reason why crime rate sore is that there is no jobs. Until Rybak and his “step and fetch-its” figure out that the youth in Minneapolis 16-25 need gainful employment opportunities that can’t be developed within a non-profit agency, crime, violence and homicides will continue to rise.

If Mayor Rybak would quit kissing the back sides of failed agencies like the Peace Foundation (they can’t find PEACE in a BEATLES song), and gets Councilman Samuels to keep quiet and work with people who understand business and get away from the sinking realm of the non-profit agencies, we might have a chance to nip this homicide rate in the bud.

I agree with council president and Minneapolis “Godmother” Barb Johnson, this is just another waste of time, money and just another R.T. administration circus sideshow.