Jim Ramstad: “Minnesota nice'' took a hard hit last week. Within a few blocks of downtown Minneapolis, the body of a 77- year-old…”

“Minnesota nice'' took a hard hit last week. Within a few blocks of downtown Minneapolis, the body of a 77- year-old woman was found wrapped in plastic, stuffed in a cardboard box in a bedroom closet of her own apartment. Why was ``Miss Annie,'' as her friends and the small children she befriended in the neighborhood called her, so cavalierly and heartlessly murdered and her body left to rot? Apparently, she had become a mere inconvenience to the drug users and dealers who had literally commandeered her apartment. And as I found out from nearby residents, such hostage takeovers are not uncommon in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis. During a tour last week at the invitation of frustrated victims of the crime and drug epidemic in this area of our community, neighborhood residents told me of their constant fears living in crack-infested areas where drug dealers and violence dominate their daily lives. Boarded up, abandoned buildings; drug dealers and crack houses on every block; and gang members and prostitutes readily adapting to the environment. As the exodus of community stakeholders, landlords, small business people and law-abiding residents continues, prospects for a better future dwindle. Madam Speaker, do not tell the residents of the Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis that crime statistics are down. They are literally trapped in the vicious cycle of crime and drugs that has gripped America for too long.…”