As you may know, the city of Sioux Falls is not big on transparency. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about planning, city employees, elections or the police department, this city and administration can’t wrap transparent government around their heads even if they tried.
Recently two men were shot in our city and the SFPD has yet to give us a motive. There has been a lot of speculation but more then likely both shootings were related to drugs. BUT THAT IS JUST A RUMOR. There have been NO arrests and NO motive given to the public.
I have friends that live very close to both neighborhoods and they are nervous that someone may be randomly killing people after failed robbery attempts.
So why doesn’t the SFPD just tell us?
I think it stems from a deeper affliction in our city as a whole. Those in charge have a deep hatred towards common sense, transparent government and it has an effect on our society as a whole. It also is no coincidence that closed government institutions are usually ran by a majority of authoritarian conservatives. There is only 2 democrats that serve on the Sioux Falls city council and only one of them is active in the party (I’m not even sure the other one is still a member of the party).
I wish I could snap my fingers and make this administration and city council more transparent over night, but I believe there is little hope for the ones currently serving. We need to elect open government advocates that believe in real non-partisan city government. I don’t care what party they belong.
I will be blunt, I don’t give a rat’s ass about business and development deals that may fall thru or get interrupted because you tell us the truth about why someone was shot, we live in this community together, and the citizens matter, start telling us what is going on so we can help solve these crimes.
*I wanted to give an update to my post about the armed guards at the Levitt church service. I recently attended a Saturday night concert at 8th and RR. There was about 500 people in attendance. I saw about 3 private security officers walking around at the event and NONE of them were carrying a gun.
jesus loves guns.
Wouldn’t the bullets tell us whether they are from the same gun? How long does such an analysis take? Or, at least in the short run, couldn’t they tell us whether they were the same type of bullets for the same or similar guns?
One of the first things law enforcement often say in situations like this is that the public should not be concerned and it’s not random. They haven’t said that yet, have they? AND, is that because it’s not random in terms of the perpetuator (similar gun), but is in terms of the prospective victim or victims?
Their silence is telling. Do we have a serial killer/robber on our hands? If so, 26th Street looks like the main artery between the two killings.
( and Woodstock adds: “Oh, everyone just needs to take a chill pill and watch the Mayor’s most recent FB Live again”… “And with his daughter and her joke book”…. )
In the military you call a gun your weapon. Otherwise, you do laps with it over your head reciting ‘This is my weapon, this is my gun. This is for fighting, this is for fun’. You grabbed your crotch when you said FUN.
It isn’t conservatives you clown! How about the dementia dude in the Whitehouse mumbling crap, saying “they” won’t let him take questions, then shuffling back behind the curtain. We need Trump back, talk about transparency! He couldn’t keep his mouth shut….but then the left uses it against him. That’s why you see all these politicians not talking to the press or having debates….you can rig an election right from the comfort of your basement!
Has it occurred to you that maybe they don’t know the motives yet? Do you think the shooters left a Hallmark card with the motive clearly spelled out?
“Say ‘?’, just saying anything isn’t transparency” ….. “Where I come from, it’s called lying”…..
“…. you can rig an election right from the comfort of your basement!”…
Wait a minute, are you talking about Trump’s fear, expressed in a debate with Hillary, where he talked about the 400 lb. guy laying in his bed, wearing only underwear, and typing away on his laptop? Personally, I prefer the Hugo Chavez theory. That’s some good stuff. The good stuff always comes out of Central and South America.
As far as no motive or Hallmark Card, that’s all the more telling. No motive should scare us. No card might speak to illiteracy. There’s nothing worse than an illiterate serial killer. Even BTK and the Zodiac killer left messages. AND, don’t forget, every sixth card is free at Lewis.
The SFPD doesn’t have to give us an absolute motive, but if they could at least tell us what they think it may be it would calm people down in the neighborhood.
This town does not have any leadership. Through the eyes of the Dutch Mafia, all is good if you don’t mention any problems. The DM only celebrate the children because we are letting them see how to get through an issue talking only of the good stuff at the funeral.
The owner of Dutch Mafia, llc is a loser in the leadership race. He seems to know how to win elections and do under the table deals but does not know how to lead a town through a quagmire called everyday life.
Who in the hell do the Dutch Mafia think they are anyhow? Just because they can make some good paint, they think they can white wash everything.
* admitting when your wrong is mature and I applaud you for that.
You and others will need to get used to big city crime investigations. There is a lot of segmented clues in both of these shootings and more public talk will make piecing them together very difficult. Watch more “The First 48” to see how murder investigations with no witnesses play out.
I was told “The drug trade is getting extremely competitive with so many new groups of young men entering our city and the border being so porous”.
Keeping the public in the dark never leads to a good outcome especially when investigating violent crimes. With the amount of shootings recently a good leader (the Mayor) would hold a presser with the Chief of Police and the Sheriff and answer questions from the press. Heck, the last loser even had a presser to talk about homeless people drinking hand sanitizer!
You do bring up something I have suggested recently. The city needs to do a national search for a REAL drug and homicide detective who has experience in solving these kinds of crimes.