There's a new sheriff in town; he's 8 and ticked

Article by: MARY LYNN SMITH , Star Tribune
Updated: July 7, 2010 - 6:29 AM

It might have been the loss of his folks' electronics gear. Or the loss of his wallet stuffed with quarters. But Logan Fisher has had enough.

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Logan Fisher wasn’t about to take the filching of his wallet without comment. He addressed the Brooklyn Park City Council on Tuesday with some ideas on fighting crime.

Photo: Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune

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Gosh darn it!

Eight-year-old Logan Fisher was mad as heck when strangers broke the front door of his Brooklyn Park home and stole thousands of dollars worth of electronics, not to mention invading his bedroom where they swiped his wallet filled with quarters.

"My mom told me I had to use my anger in a positive way," Logan said.

So with the confidence of a masterful politician, the soon-to-be fourth-grader stepped onto a stool and up to the microphone during Tuesday's City Council meeting. In a speech he wrote out in pencil, then had his mom type, he told officials a thing or two about making his city safer.

"One idea I had was for the police to drive the SWAT vehicle around the city, put some fear in these criminals so they pack up and move somewhere else," he told the mayor and City Council members. Maybe the city needs a few more police officers, he added.

The criminals are "stalkers and cowards, walking and driving our streets waiting to strike," he wrote. "We have to watch out for each other."

And city officials have to get tough on crime. "If we can have zero tolerance in our elementary schools, then we should be able to go back to the '3 strikes and you're out of Brooklyn Park' rule. Let's do it," he told the council. "Please come up with more and better ways to enforce the laws so Brooklyn Park is a safer place to live."

"We need to get mean and we need to mean it. Thank you for listening," he said.

Logan has no shortage of ideas but said after the meeting that he had to come to the council because "I figured I couldn't start a whole program by myself.''

Deputy Police Chief Craig Enevoldsen couldn't agree more with Logan on some points: Neighbors watching out for neighbors and police patrols are good ideas.

But patrolling city streets with an armored SWAT vehicle? Well, not so practical.

Although not all his ideas would be adopted, Logan said he already was feeling better about stepping up to speak out. "Our city is a great city," he said. "It's just certain people who make it bad."

Overall crime in Brooklyn Park is down about 1 percent from last year, Enevoldsen said. But burglaries are up 13 percent over last year, he said.

The reason for the bump in burglaries "probably has to do with bleak economic times and even bleaker economic forecasts," Envoldsen said. "People are doing more desperate things."

And for the victims, home invasions become very emotional experiences, Enevoldsen said.

"It's not so much about losing property ... it's people being in your house looking through [your] stuff, taking [your] stuff. It's very personal."

To Logan's mom, Kelly Fisher, her home doesn't feel like home just yet. There's too much missing, she said.

The criminals struck the Fisher home, which sits on the corner of busy street, on a Monday afternoon last month. The wooden front door, locked with a deadbolt, was kicked in. "How brazen of them," Kelly Fisher said.

These criminals took more than possessions, she said in a written statement that her husband read to the City Council. "They take our dignity, our pride, our children's innocence and sense of safety, our piece of mind.''

That's what Logan wants back most of all. "I don't want to be scared to come home to my house every day."

Mary Lynn Smith • 612-673-4788

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