I went to a community meeting yesterday and got to hear the crime update from the Inspector Michael Martin who is the commander of the fourth precinct where I live. He comes to the Hawthorne Huddle every month and updates the community on the safety and crimes in the area, allowing himself to be accountable for what is and isn’t happening. Yesterday, he shared a interesting bit of news.

Currently in 2008, North Minneapolis has the lowest Crime Rate in Minneapolis (According to Part 1 crime stats, which are all the serious and likely to be reported crimes). It is 2+ months into the year, and it is cold outside, but those are the same factors for the rest of the city as well, downtown, south, East Bank, etc.

What’s unfortunate, is that you won’t find a newspaper story anywhere about this encouraging bit of information. Why not? Your guess is as good as mine. According to the media, North Minneapolis isn’t a real place with real people living there, it’s an archetype for an adventurous place where danger lurks around every corner. Reality shows are big on TV, so are action films and murder mysteries, so the newspapers and local news stations compete by creating North Minneapolis into their own reality adventure. Don’t look at the news and tell me you know anything about North Minneapolis.