Note on comments for June 13th post

my brother and sister-in-law don't make me sick. their way of thinking about politics, and especially about obama, does. i thought i should point out the difference since people will be seeing this blog probably.


o and
My first official article to be published for the Southwest Journal was published on the internet today. It's a web update only, so it won't be published in the paper, but hey man. It's on the web! Google me, and that comes up. That's cool.

http://swjournal.com/index.php?currentIssue=7699&publication=southwest&action=searchArchive&searchString=Adam+Epperson&searchPubs=southwest&dateFrom=2008-06-16&dateTo=&order=date&numResults=10&nextPage=nextPage&pageNum=2&page=152&story=11728&fromArchives=fromArchives&archivePage=131

Bryn Mawr hit by crime wave
UPDATED June 11, 2008, 4:50pm

By Adam Epperson

What Minneapolis police have called a “sporadic crime spree,” which involved a group of teenagers, occurred Sunday afternoon in and around the Bryn Mawr neighborhood.

Minneapolis police said the teens committed several burglaries and robberies. There was also an attempted car-jacking, as well as a bike being stolen.

“What happened was, there were a group of juveniles who did indeed commit a couple burglaries and a couple robberies in the area,” said Tim Hammett, crime prevention specialist for the Minneapolis Police Department.

At least for now, the suspects are no longer on the loose.

“There was a vigorous police response once reports started coming in to 911, and officers were able to identify most of the kids believed to be involved, and one juvenile was arrested.”

Because the suspects involved are juveniles, police cannot release their information, nor could we print it.

In an e-mail to the residents of Bryn Mawr, Hammett said the suspects were caught “within an hour and a half of the first incident.”

“This points to the continuing need for sound and effective crime prevention strategies,” said Hammett. “We are all much better off when we prevent crime from happening in the first place, rather than reacting to it after the fact.”

In the e-mail, Hammett suggested similar events to Sunday’s would not be eliminated.

Hammett suggested the way to better prevent crime would be in forming neighborhood groups, such as active block clubs, or practicing security and making it a habit both in the home and business area and he also suggested residents learn basic personal safety knowledge.

“At this time the county attorney declined to press charges,” said Sgt. Mark Fauer of the Minneapolis Police Juvenile Unit.

Police said no one was hurt in Sunday’s events, and the houses the teenagers broke into were unoccupied at the time.

Hammett said the investigation is still ongoing, making him unable to talk about details of the events.



What sucks is that this is the closest I've come to a hard news story since I've been writing for the papers (as of July 22)