COMMENTARY | NORTH MINNEAPOLIS -- Welcome to the carnival of destruction. Come one, come all, come revel at Mother Nature's ability to bring the most feared area of Minneapolis to it knees, begging for forgiveness.
Last night, Mother Nature sent the struggling people of North Minneapolis a curve ball in our already tough lives. A tornado touched down "over north," as we affectionately call our neighborhood, and rain is in the forecast to further worsen things. Most of us in North Minneapolis are having a hard enough time struggling with neighborhood drug dealers, burglars and murderers roaming free. Now we must contend with the area becoming a media circus, the storm chasers coming to exploit us, and the gawkers who come to see us in our misery.
North Minneapolis is know as the crime center of Minneapolis. People typically avoid this area, and most are afraid to even drive through. The media rarely pay any attention to this neighborhood and our struggle against, murder, drugs and robbery. Someone is murdered in North Minneapolis nearly every week and only about half of those cases are ever solved. You would never know that judging from the local news coverage of these murders.
Now that a tornado has ripped the lives of our neighborhood apart we can't keep the media out. The news channels can't wait to let all the good suburbanites know how this tornado could have happen to them. People only seem to care when they can feel the fear themselves. When its us killing each other and overdosing on drugs, that's not their problem, that couldn't happen to them. But a tornado in North Minneapolis -- that's real; it could happen anywhere.
Coupled with the media, we have storm chasers coming to exploit our misery from this tornado. Theses pieces of human scum have come to make sure our local carpenters, roofers, and contractors don't get all the insurance jobs. Our neighborhood is filled with capable construction workers but the home owners are struggling and will give the work to whatever slick talking storm chaser offers them the most cash back on their insurance job from the Minneapolis tornado. Storm chasers are taking jobs that belong to our community and distributing them out to people that need them a lot less.
Even with all the people coming to North Minneapolis to exploit us, I think there is one group that bothers me even more, the gawkers. Most of theses people wouldn't dare step foot, or even drive through North Minneapolis. But after a tornado, they can't help to come stare with shock and amazement at the unfortunate souls living in North Minneapolis. Cars are lined up for blocks just to take a peek at us or snap a photo. These people have come to entertain themselves with our struggles, not to stay and help relive us of it. Let me save you some time, here is some pictures of tornado damage from my block in North Minneapolis, feel free to stay off of it, now that you have seen it.
