Deter assaults with personal bodycams

It’s well documented that cameras deter many forms of criminal behavior. One logical response to the recent surge in carjacking and personal assaults across the metropolitan area is for a publicity campaign by state and local law enforcement agencies to issue small, body/button cameras to the public at a reduced price. Seems like a public subsidy well worth the price. And for those not willing or able to pay the purchase price, safety agencies can promote and distribute fake, look-alike cameras to give more peace of mind to folks and keep potential crooks wondering.

Last I checked such cameras ranged in price from $50-$100. Cheap deterrent for a worried and increasingly fearful public. And maybe a good use of a little of that state surplus money.

Mark Schreiber, St. Paul

One president at a time

I believe that there should be some way in order for the minority party to get something to the floor to be voted on by the House of Representatives or the Senate. Case in point would be President Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court and Sen. Mitch McConnell, then majority leader, would not even have a hearing, much less a vote, and now Speaker Mike Johnson won’t allow aid for Ukraine and Israel that has passed the Senate to even be debated or allowed a vote. I believe he has taken orders from an outside source.

No one person should have the power to block any proposed legislation just because they have the position of speaker or majority leader. I can fully understand why the speaker would want to hold up a vote for something that their party has proposed until they have the necessary vote secured, but for the speaker or the majority leader to be influenced by someone who is only running for office and doesn’t even have their party’s nomination yet just seems not right.

In this United States of America we only have one president at a time, and Joe Biden is that president now.

Tom Kapsner, White Bear Lake

‘Freemobiles’

I’m old enough to remember when people used to pay to ride the bus. Those were the days, my friend. … I was riding a Route #18 bus while I typed this. A man got on the bus, told the driver flippantly, “It’s cold out, I don’t feel like walking today,” and walked to his seat. Metro Transit should tell it like it is and call its buses “freemobiles.” Welcome to Socialist Minnesota.

Ann Redding, Minneapolis

Excessive bail shall not be required

While I join ACLU-MN Paul Sullivan in welcoming justice-system-impacted Americans to the voting register, our U.S. Constitution already regulates “wealth-based bail.”

The Eighth Amendment begins: “Excessive bail shall not be required”.

That’s pretty clear; ACLU-MN and Pioneer Press editors should know this.

The real issue is government officials in all three branches choosing to ignore the plain text of our Bill of Rights, and nobody seems to care enough to report on it.

Karl Olson, St. Louis Park

The will, not the bill

Democrats have a brilliant but dishonest strategy to change the narrative on the border crisis.

They blame Donald Trump for not completing the border wall when they did everything they could to stop it when Trump was president, and they completely stopped it on Joe Biden’s first day in office.

Biden immediately reversed a dozen Trump policies that were reducing illegal immigration, and now he claims that he needs the border bill to use similar policies. Biden does not need the “bill” to secure the border, he needs the “will” to secure the border, which he has not had for three years. Will the bill change his will?

Now Biden blames Republicans for the border crisis because they do not support a bill that is weak and ineffective. I hope that voters can remember the truth about the border and see through the deception.

Dennis A. Helander, White Bear Lake

Inconsistency and embryos

With the ruling by Alabama’s Supreme Court that an embryo should be considered the same as a child, the Republican Party is  struggling to come up a with a new position on embryos.

I found it interesting that major Republicans are now stating that how embryos are used for in-vitro fertilization should only be a decision between the patient and her doctor.

I don’t quite understand how that the Republican Party thinks an embryo that is inside a woman’s body is the job of a state to control but the same embryo outside the woman’s body is her decision and her doctors’.

Gregg Mensing, Roseville

Free to go?

At a recent sporting event, while listening to our national anthem, I was drawn particularly to the words “land of the free, and home of the brave.” Oh how some of our elected and appointed left-leaning officials have tarnished Francis Scott Key’s words to the point where they sound more like the land of … you are free to go and we will not defend our brave.

These, sworn to uphold the laws of our state and nation, officials have disgraced the brave souls who put their lives on the line daily to protect the very freedom they enjoy, a disgrace brought on by an agenda to protect the feelings of the offender and dampen the efforts of the defender.

To these officials, it is time to set aside emotions and abide by the laws you are sworn to protect.

Mark Kirchner, St. Paul

Where are the men, then?

Regarding the article “Cease-fire resolution…” (Feb. 27)  “…where seven self-professed progressive women were elected to the most diverse City Council in St. Paul history last November.”

I am old enough to remember the controversy over gender equality. If this is diverse, where are the three men? Or is the City Council now 14 members and the others weren’t pertinent to the story?

Art Thell, West St. Paul

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