Introduction

Welcome to "the Regular Guy's" Guide™ to the Metro Gang Strike Force Scandal.  

I would have called it the Dummy's Guide — there's lots of dummies involved — but that's kind of a trademark thingy.

Most of the facts in here come from public documents.  

You'll also note some commentary in this style.  That's just opinion, and contains speculations, inferences, implications, imprecations, and may or may not contain any actual facts.  You pays your money, and you takes your chances.

Alas, just as there is no royal road to geometry, there is no way to understand the scandal without reading.  Think of this help system as a reader's companion to the basic documentation.

The three key public documents are:

The Nobles Report — written under the supervision of James Nobles, the Minnesota legislative auditor, this lays out the findings of the auditor's office.  It is must-reading to understand the MGSF scandal.

Short version of Nobles Report:  Holy fucking shit! These guys with badges and guns were running wild for friggin' years. They snatched anything they could get their hands on, and the command and supervisor structure was playing Sergeant Schultz — "I see nozzink'" — at best, and no, it wasn't "at best." For years.

The Luger/Egelhof Report —  commissioned by DPS Commissioner Michael Campion to recommend policies to implement the findings of the Nobles report and do a limited investigation of "the conduct giving rise to the auditor's findings," this lays out Luger's and Egelhof's own findings and recommendations. It should be remembered that their investigation was limited by their own sense of what was appropriate, and lack of subpeona, warrant application, and arrest powers, as well as an absence of adequate staff or time to follow all leads. The Report also contains their Preliminary Report.

Short version of preliminary report: Don't do anything yet. There is no pony at the bottom of this pail.

The MGSF 2008 Report  — written by Lieutenant Jim Heimerl of the Minneapolis Police department, this report was published by the Minnesota Legislature on their website.  While several police unions filed a lawsuit in May claiming that the publication of the names of the MGSF cops is unlawful, there is no record we can find of them attempting to sue Heimerl, the author, or the Minnesota legislature, which published the MGSF report that contains all of the names of the officers of the MGSF as of, apparently, early December 2008. That's Heimerl, in happier days.

Lotsa luck in trying to get the lege to take it down, metrogangsters.

Short version of MGSF Report:  the MGSF was great at rousting, but Barney Fife was better at building cases, and your typical big city high school janitor can sweep more drugs out of a bathroom than these guys totalled on the street.

The "Personal Closing Statement" by Heimerl contains what is probably the most revealing clue in all of the basic documentation as  to how and why the MGSF went so very wrong.  More about that in this section.

This document was written by Joel Rosenberg, and is copyright © 2009 by Ellegon, Inc. All rights reserved.  This document may be freely copied and shared for personal use, as long as this notice is preserved and any additions or deletions are noted as products of the adder or deleter. Web space and bandwidth is provided by twincitiescarry.com, a division of Ellegon, Inc.