KSTP-5 reports,
The city of Edina is using a three-phased approach after recent disturbances and group gatherings at city parks.
KSTP reports on the three phases:
The first step is enforcement, with more cameras and increased officer presence during peak evening hours.
So you, the good burghers of Edina, will be surveilled, ever more closely, while the “disturbances” (whatever those are) continue unabated.
The second step is engagement by working with young people to build relationships and create programs to keep them busy.
The third step is policy, as the city considers changes to park ordinances to help manage large gatherings.
More regulation. More bureaucracy. As for those disturbances, KSTP mentions,
A shots-fired call brought a major police response to Yancey Park a few weeks ago, though no one was injured.
As is typical, we get the “what,” the “when,” and the “where,” but rarely the “who” or the “why.”
Edina’s three-phased plan recalls the famous South Park (1998) tv meme,
In the episode “Gnomes,” the gnomes, using PowerPoint, explain to the boys their useless plan to turn a profit. The episode is a farcical recall of an old Elmer Fudd cartoon (1956) in which elves explain to a hapless shoemaker how modern capitalism works. Elmer Fudd, in turn, was parodying a classic German fairly tale, “The Elves and the Shoemaker,” (Brothers Grimm, 1812).
In art, we move from the classic, to the sophisticated parody, to the low-brow farce. Each is entertaining on its own terms, but something gets lost with each iteration of abstraction.
So it goes with public safety. At one time, we knew how to maintain a low-crime, high-trust society. But those lessons were forgotten, or discarded, and now we lurch from tragedy to farce.
