One of the boys pointed a gun at Mr. Erickson’s chest, demanding his car keys.

Flustered, Mr. Erickson handed over a set, but it turned out to be house keys. The teenagers got frustrated and ran off, then stole a different car down the street.

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Mr. Erickson said later that he would not cooperate with prosecutors in a case against the boys. After the altercation, he realized that if there was anything he wanted, it was to offer them help. But he still felt it had been right to call the authorities because there was a gun involved.

Two days after an initial conversation, his position had evolved. “Been thinking more about it,” he wrote in a text message. “I regret calling the police. It was my instinct but I wish it hadn’t been. I put those boys in danger of death by calling the cops.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/us/minneapolis-george-floyd-police.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40487364)

"Here, take my whole house!"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40487437)

Being robbed at gunpoint and not calling the police is "privilege"? WTF kind of cartoon world is this.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40487480)

Ultimately, a white police officer arrived at the scene. The officer checked the situation out briefly and then returned to his squad car.

“It didn’t resolve in a way that I had hoped,” Mr. Menkevich said. “All they did was offer to bring him back to the hospital. He refused, so they kicked him out on a rainy night.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40487547)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40487685)

Liz

Raleigh4h ago

Times Pick

Someone holds you up with a gun, and you don't call the police? What if they go on to murder someone in a holdup? Allowing your community to harbor violent criminals affects everyone, including people of color who are more likely to be victims of crime.

8 Replies523 RecommendShareFlag

Martin commented 3 hours ago

M

Martin

Minneapolis3h ago

Times Pick

This is insanity. Drugs, guns, a tent city. Completely intolerable. The increase in crime in Powderhorn will not stay there. It will metastasize throughout Minneapolis. The city doesn’t only belong to Powderhorn residents. Their behavior jeopardizes all citizens. All are now at massively greater risk of life threatening injury than ever before. The number of shootings is skyrocketing and we have had more shootings over the past few months than in the last year or more. Police reform is absolutely necessary, but so is a rational ability to calculate risk.

14 Replies450 RecommendShareFlag

Mor commented 3 hours ago

Mor

Mor

California3h ago

This seems to me a perfect example of ideological blindness trumping common sense and instinct of self-preservation. If a teenager pointed a gun at me, I would call the police and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law. If drug dealers camped in the public space, I would call the police and insist on them being evicted. If there were criminals in my vicinity, I’d call the police regardless of the culprits’ skin color. Law enforcement is necessary for civilized living. The people profiled in this article are deluding themselves if they think that inviting rapists, pedophiles, junkies and gang members into your neighborhood will miraculously transform them into law-abiding citizens. Maybe after a couple of kids are assaulted in the park, their parents wake up and stop this madness.

6 Replies422 RecommendShareFlag

Max Farthington commented 4 hours ago

M

Max Farthington

DC4h ago

Times Pick

If someone is using a gun in a crime, by not helping stop them, you are putting other potential victims at risk of death. You are prioritizing the health of the perpetrators over that of their potential victims. You can make that choice, but understand what you are doing. The police may be imperfect, but what are the other options in that case? Maybe some should be developed, but right now, what are they?

5 Replies382 RecommendShareFlag

Springday commented 4 hours ago

S

Springday

North East4h ago

There are 12 million arrests each year in this country.

I don't think that Mr. Erickson has to assume that calling the police would result in the death of the two teenagers.

On the other hand, letting two teenagers run around pointing guns at people *does* have a pretty high likelihood that someone will eventually get killed by that gun or because of that gun.

Reply290 RecommendShareFlag

Jim cibulka commented 4 hours ago

Jim cibulka

Jim cibulka

Webster Groves4h ago

I spoke with a social worker about these issues and she said there is no way they would go into situations like these without an armed officer along. So to reimagine the police, either social workers go out on calls or all police are trained like social workers.

While a large percentage of police calls really need the services of a social worker, we cannot be naive about the perilous conditions that police must work in sometimes.

Reply268 RecommendShareFlag

Garth commented 4 hours ago

G

Garth

NYC4h ago

This article could truly be confused with a parody. The condescending attitude of the residents makes then seem even more elitist. By proudly expressing guilt over calling police they dehumanize the folks in tents. It's like they don't consider them as humans but instead as unfortunates who only deserve pity. Essentially allowing crime to go on without any reprocussions will destroy the neighborhood and it's home values/tax base but now all these foolish people are in a game of chicken with each other on who will call the cops first. Seems surreal to see such over the top behavior by alleged adults.

1 Reply262 RecommendShareFlag

MK commented 4 hours ago

M

MK

New York, New York4h ago

Guilt-ridden white progressivism is a political dead end, and it's destroying the left. Any ideology that makes people feel bad about calling the police after somebody points a gun at them will always be toxic to the vast majority of people who don't want to live as martyrs.

We need a re-separation of the personal and the political. Crime is a social problem driven largely by inequality, but if someone points a gun at me I'm the victim and I'm entitled to call the police. Homelessness requires a government affordable housing policy and we need to stop the war in drugs and invest in rehab. This doesn't mean that individuals should be ok with homeless drug addicts living in tents in the park across the street, which is objectively dangerous. Systemic racism is a centuries old problem that requires systemic solutions, but this doesn't mean individual white people should tolerate abuse by individual black people.

Finally, this idea that every interaction with the police poses an immediate risk to the life of black people is sort of ridiculous. About 250 black people are killed by the police every year, and a large number of these involve altercations or shoot-outs with the police. This out of all interactions black people have with the police in a year, potentially in the millions. So pretending like the police are a bigger immediate danger to black lives than actual armed criminals out robbing people as described in the article is ridiculous,

2 Replies240 RecommendShareFlag

Andy commented 4 hours ago

Andy

Andy

Yarmouth ME4h ago

Maybe the article doesn’t do them justice, but I’m struck by how the residents seem to deny agency to those they claim to be helping, almost like nature enthusiasts living amongst wild animals. A woman feels guilty for making her community more livable. A man is ashamed for wanting to call the police after he is the victim of an attempted carjacking with a deadly weapon. Would they be so forgiving of a white investment banker or a suburban college student who broke the law in their park? This whole story puts “the tragedy of low expectations” into very sharp relief.

2 Replies225 RecommendShareFlag

Peter commented 4 hours ago

P

Peter

Australia4h ago

This is a mass psychosis event. If you are in two minds about calling the cops on someone who has intentionally threatened your life, you have lost all perspective. Issues like poverty do have systemic causes. But violent crime is an individual choice. Nobody gets to make excuses when they pull a gun on someone to commit armed robbery. No matter what their race.

2 Replies201 RecommendShareFlag

Mick F commented 4 hours ago

M

Mick F

Truth or Consequences, NM4h ago

Who are these people? Have they been sheltered they cannot model what life is like living in diverse communities?

You have an obligation, not only to yourself but to your fellow citizens in your community, to call the police on criminals. Refusing to do so makes you a bad person and someone who actively makes your community worse. Can you not realize that leaving criminals alone only creates more crime victims?

1 Reply189 RecommendShareFlag

JB commented 4 hours ago

J

JB

Los Angeles, CA4h ago

I can't believe what I'm reading in some of these articles. The constant reference in this article to two armed robbers as "boys" and the danger posed to them by police seems to be from an alternate reality. What if they go on to rob someone else and hurt them? Is that okay because it wasn't the police causing the violence? How did we get to this point, where we are painting armed robbers as the innocent victims, and the mere specter of police presence as the ultimate evil. The pendulum is swinging back much too far this time. I fear for a society where people who have a gun pointed at them by criminals only think about how much they hate the police. Reform is necessary, but cowardice and insanity are not.

8 Replies189 RecommendShareFlag

Brian commented 4 hours ago

B

Brian

Bay Area4h ago

I am stunned by reading this. The desire to bend over backwards to prove your not racist has gone to preposterous levels. Calling the police because you were held at gunpoint is not racist. Moreover, those offenders went on to rob another person. If that person had been killed, how culpable is the first person who didn’t do anything?

2 Replies185 RecommendShareFlag

Harold Warner commented 4 hours ago

H

Harold Warner

Central PA4h ago

Wow, this article and this neighborhood is just bonkers. I am pretty far left of center and have run into plenty of cops who are jerks, but I wouldn't think twice about calling the police on two boys that pointed a gun at me, even if I knew that doing so would put them in danger. They are the ones putting themselves in danger, not me, not the police.

This is a wonderful moment where a lot of people right of center are willing to suspend incredibly biased and racists beliefs and support anti-discriminatory change, but they aren't going to support criminals over cops. When you overplay your hand so much, you make it a lot easier for people on the fence to feel comfortable not changing at all by finding easy justification to cling to.

Reply169 RecommendShareFlag

Middleman MD commented 4 hours ago

M

Middleman MD

New York, NY4h ago

Police are often sent along on emergency calls because EMTs and firefighters want them there for their own protection. Along similar lines, social workers lives would be endangered if they were expected, without help of the police, to engage with some of the people that too many readers here seem to expect they will be able to persuade to live a more upright lifestyle.

The sad reality is that people are sometimes violent, and even under circumstances when social services workers are extraordinarily altruistic, those they are trying to help may not be willing to engage, and may react violently. Indeed, violence is a feature of working on inpatient psychiatric units, where assaults on employees remain a stubborn problem.

Reply140 RecommendShareFlag

Alan White commented 4 hours ago

A

Alan White

Toronto4h ago

Times Pick

A nice article that illustrates the difficulties that the US will face as it tries to change society. It is not enough to defund police. Society has to put in place mechanisms (other than prison) to deal with the poor, the homeless, and the mentally ill.

These will be substantial changes that make many people uncomfortable or unhappy. The changes will be costly probably requiring higher taxes. It will interesting to see if the US can do this. The alternative is for the better off to retreat to gated communities and let the rest of the nation fail.

6 Replies135 RecommendShareFlag

Chris commented 4 hours ago

C

Chris

New York4h ago

I grew up in Minneapolis and recall it fondly.

These people have lost their minds.

There will be many “Mr. Ericksons” who will be promptly shot in the future, and it is difficult for me to have a great deal of sympathy when their neighborhood becomes unlivable. So be it.

Reply118 RecommendShareFlag

Blockparty2020 commented 3 hours ago

B

Blockparty2020

Minneapolis3h ago

As a Powderhorn resident and someone who considers himself a liberal, I am floored by neighbor's naivety. In less than a week our park has gone from having having occasional and mild nuisances to becoming a full on WET shantytown. This has been propped up by well intentioned volunteers, who provide, food, laundry, cigs, and substance to prevent withdrawal. Drug dealers circle the park like lions on prey, and prostitution is rampant. There is a power vacuum because of low confidence in the police and now it feels like anything goes. It is a public health hazard.

Reply118 RecommendShareFlag

Mikelphd commented 5 hours ago

M

Mikelphd

Berkeley5h ago

This is a compelling article and effort by the neighborhood. It seems to me the problem is the absence of professional resources other than the police to facilitate need assessment, problem solving and conflict resolution.

2 Replies114 RecommendShareFlag

John R commented 4 hours ago

J

John R

Los Angeles4h ago

Extraordinary naïveté. This sort of thing has been attempted again and again by utopians the world over. In the end the darker side of human nature prevails; if the State does not exercise its responsibility to use force, even violence, to protect citizens and enforce the law, that power just devolves to the next most powerful group which is typically a criminal gang.

Reply113 RecommendShareFlag

M commented 4 hours ago

M

M

NY4h ago

Shocking result. Who could have possibly predicted this.

How about instead of swinging to wildly extremes like “abolish police” or “I just won’t call police” we make sensible choices that move us forward but are flexible? How about “reform police” or “I won’t call the police unless I HAVE to” instead? I don’t understand why we need to be so extreme and imprecise in our responses to complex problems, but I hope that for our sake we learn to be more thoughtful in our analyses.

1 Reply112 RecommendShareFlag

Diva commented 3 hours ago

D

Diva

NYC3h ago

This is a prime example of woke white people missing the point, to the detriment of their own well-being and possibly their lives. While it's great that they want to see a change in law enforcement and not perpetuate the injustice served against black and brown people, crime is crime and there must be consequences for it.

Are people angry at police for the injustices and violence dsiporportionately used against people of color? Sure. Should the budgets, union contracts, traniing practices all be reexamined and perhaps adjusted? You bet! But everyone wants to live in a safe and clean neighborhood and the truth is that we need a form of law enforcement to help with that. Calling the police does not directly equal being racist, or wanting injustice or violence to be perpetrated against people of color! It just means that you want these two black boys who held you up with a gun to face the consequences of their actions -- juvenile detention sounds appropriate here -- justly and proportionately to their white counterparts!

I'm African American and I would not hesitate to call the police in this situation. Would I want and hope that they act humanely and appropriately? Absolutely. But I certainly wouldn't allow a misguided sense of wokeness to jeopardize my home and safety!

1 Reply108 RecommendShareFlag

benningtonmpls commented 3 hours ago

B

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40487700)

rofl. Reminds me of the thread about The Buckwild Nigger species native to the savannas of Atlanta.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40489709)

...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40487562)

reptiles explain

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40488250)

"If only I could have allowed them to fuck my ass, maybe they would have gotten the help I need."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40488240)

being a hypocrite is understandable, but these guys are delusional / brainwashed

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40488361)

the guy was threatened with a gun to his chest and still won't cooperate with the police, so he had skin in the game

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40488554)

Does this guy look that cucked to you? https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/06/24/us/24UNREST-POWDERHORN-erickson/24UNREST-POWDERHORN-erickson-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale&width=600

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40488978)

you can psychoanalyze them, and disenfranchise them out of necessity, but you can't reason with them.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40489501)

i took a quick long copypasta of the readers picks above in the thread and it's apples and oranges different.

twitter is INFINITELY more deranged.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4569137&forum_id=2,#40490617)