urbanMSP

This should go in stress relief, but it's better here.

Mike Freeman refuses to charge #thugmotorist who attempted to murder a protester at Minnehaha/Lake.

Disgusting.

Another ...

http://www.startribune.com/local/291529131.html
"Authorities have released a sketch of a man suspected of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman along Interstate Hwy. 35 south of Duluth late at night last week after the victim stopped to help him with what she thought was a disabled pickup truck."

So a rapist fakes a breakdown in hopes a woman stops (even though it would be far more likely to be a 50 yr. old man stopping to help) assaults her and drives away. Shortly thereafter she has set up a go fund me acct for herself, and the police have taken HER car and phone as part of the investigation. Hmmm.... If I was a betting man, I'd bet we see a follow up story in the near future.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 57611.html

What the fuck? "The county attorney’s office statement noted that Rice “possibly hit a demonstrator” but could not be prosecuted under the statute it considered, which addresses drivers’ actions after being involved in a crash." In other words, "We tried defining it as a crime other than what it was, so clearly he didn't do anything wrong." Is the county attorney's office staffed entirely with disbarred drunks, or are they really that incompetent/lazy/anti-ped?

So I get that he clearly did something wrong and I would like him to be charged with some kind of crime, but if the legal code is such that nothing he did is a crime, isn't that the real problem? Getting mad at the county attorney because the legislature hasn't made this a crime doesn't seem like a good use of ire.

Unless there is an existing law on the books that was broken, but I haven't seen anything that digs too deeply on the legal issue.

As someone without any sort of law education, I would think that anything from reckless driving to criminal vehicular injury would apply. Criminal Vehicular Operation seems like it offers several levels of severity which could apply.

EDIT: Also, I love the "possibly" hit a demonstrator bit.

It seems like the county was looking into whether or not this qualified as a felony. Based on the laws (and presumably, evidence) they had, they figured they couldn't get a conviction. There's still the chance for a misdemeanor come out of the city attorney's office, which seems much more likely to bring a guilty verdict.

Parking Lot Crime: 92-year-old man goes wild and crashes into a dozen cars. Cops respond "El oh el, old man be old man". Not even a citation. Some cars were occupied with other persons.

http://www.startribune.com/local/292220871.html

I just had my mind blown. I shared a link to an article published by Salon on Facebook. http://www.salon.com/2015/02/22/why_hit ... socialflow

My bother's best friend is a man who is a currently university instructor in Mexico, they met while going to school at the U of M years ago. Our families became very close. Him and I are connected on Facebook, as you do. He replied to my post, and because I posted it as a public post a couple others that he's friends with on Facebook also chimed in.

They all said that the pedestrian laws in Mexico favor the pedestrian to such an extreme you could call them the polar opposite of the U.S. laws. That is, even if a pedestrian jumps out into traffic, and is drunk, the driver will go to jail unless they can pay for amazing legal counsel who might help them pay for the burial costs of the drunk pedestrian and pay the family a large sum. Otherwise, jail jail jail. An anecdote was described that if a bus hit a ped, the bus will be mobbed by a crowd, pounding and pelting it. That feels like a huge cultural difference too, a bus runs over a pedestrian in the US and we may be saddened there wouldn't be the sort of mob outrage.

Comparisons with Europe are made all the time, I think Mexico is a far more interesting comparison because it is right next to us and we have tremendous population crossings between us.

Do any of those of you who seem to have access to amazing sets of data have access to Mexican data on pedestrian/car injuries and deaths?

A car drove into the front of the Green Mill at Grand Ave and Hamline in St. Paul last night: http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_ ... -struck-by

Edit: It's actually the former Twisted Fork / future Colossal Cafe facing Grand that the car crashed into -- Green Mill is around the corner facing Hamline.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 25131.html
Driver who rolled into Minneapolis protest is charged with 3 traffic offenses

Not sure this is the right place for this, but a nice strib article which re-hashes a recent citylab story about how our love of cars was invented and how jaywalking became a "crime".

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/tr ... 23041.html

Car chase, crash, drugs and stolen items strewn everywhere.

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/298560421.html

Huh, they didn't take mass transit for their crime spree. So confused...

5-year-old boy killed by a hit-and-run driver in sleepy St. Joe:
http://www.startribune.com/local/299647811.html

I know that corner well. It's shameful they don't have sidewalks in much of that town.

^wow! Thsts scary! Ive been followed by a road rager before, but luckily I noticed him behind me, called my dad to warn him, and drove to my dad's house instead of mine. Guess who was waiting for him with a baseball bat when I got there? Yeah, he drove away, after yelling some stuff...

Someone must have been driving drunk this weekend:

Getting caught with double the limit DUI now coming with steeper penalties.

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-st ... 307269911/