Written with contribution from Sheriff David Clarke
There is a very twisted kind of racism that takes place among bleeding-heart policy makers on the left.
While they openly profess to be unyieldingly dedicated to so-called “social justice,” their approach to pursuing said aim always seems to accompany policies that inhibit justice and victimize the very communities they claim to want to protect.
Justice, as her personified statues always depict, is blind. This means that it applies to every single group equally, and to deprive one group of justice for the sake of appearing to provide it to another group is like a morally bankrupt game of whack-a-mole.
Of course, when this is applied to the criminal justice system and law enforcement, this translates directly to the further deprivation of justice in communities most sorely in need of protection from the criminals that social justice warriors seem almost singularly interested in protecting.
The city of Minneapolis, ground zero for the George Floyd protests and subsequent summer of rioting and violence that overtook many of the nation’s major cities, is a perfect example.
“The world witnessed in the streets of Minneapolis this spring and summer the feature presentation after many increasingly violent coming attractions, created, produced, and distributed by a one-party, radical left government,” writes Jenna Stocker of The Federalist.
“If you want to know what the real-time self-destruction of a city looks like, Minneapolis offers the perfect model. This is no Detroit-esque collapse prompted by the degeneration of an industry-dependent metropolis (although failed liberal urban policies were also involved). This is the willful push down the path of ruin of a city burgeoning with opportunity and rife with promises of the American Dream. It is suicide,” she charges.
She details that the “dystopian” turn the city has taken comes as police and mental health resources decline and small businesses suffer the effects of continued lockdowns.
While large companies based in Minneapolis like Target, General Mills, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bank have the resources to survive, small mom and pop shops sadly do not. Small businesses I’ll remind you are the backbone of the American economy as they employ nearly 70% of all workers.
However, the issues plaguing the north side of the city and areas around Chicago Avenue and Lake Street has less to do with the pandemic and more to do with the left-wing city council’s war on police and “the radical belief of constantly burning and building into the unattainable utopia they so hubristically believe they can create,” Stocker notes.
This summer was not the inception of such ideas, however. In 2015, protests erupted after Jamar Clark was killed by police organized by a group linked to Angela Davis and the Black Lives Matter organization which ultimately resulted in the resignation of MPD Chief Janeé Harteau at the request of Democrat Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges in 2017.
City officials and activist groups alike, singularly focused on perceived systemic racism, moved right on to advocating for police to be defunded in 2020 having apparently learned nothing in the past five years.
“As the leadership vacuum in the city erased fortitude in the name of justice, violent rioters, looters, and opportunists sought their fortunes amid the helpless businesses in their paths,” Stocker explains. “Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sacrificed the Police Third Precinct building, let the roving mob reduce the city to a smoldering pile of ashes, then engaged the equally inept governor in a game of finger-pointing to evade his responsibility to a community suffering from shell-shock.”
Things have not improved. And they won’t with these failed urban policies.
In the 90’s, the city was nicknamed “Murderapolis” thanks to a massive crime spike; now that things are starting to look just as grim, however, the Minneapolis City Council appears only interested in employing the exact opposite of the policies that helped in decades path—increasing the number and presence of law enforcement.
They’re trying to decrease police personnel as homicides, violent crime, property crime, robberies, and theft have all substantially increased.
Final national murder update of 2020:
Murder up 36.7% in 57 agencies with data through at least September (though most have data through November). Murder up in 51 of 57, 37 of 58 agencies reporting murder up more than 30%.
Spreadsheet here: https://t.co/vEhKHuFNrY pic.twitter.com/5HgVmwGmDS
— Jeff Asher (@Crimealytics) December 29, 2020
The City Council and Fray now being sued by eight residents who claim that the city charter requirement to staff approximately 743 police officers has been violated.
Stocker notes that, since May, roughly 150 out of about 800 MPD police officers have either quit, retired, or taken disability and personal leaves.
The personnel shortage has gotten so bad that Police Chief Medaria Arrdondo requested officers from other jurisdictions be hired. In response, “He met skepticism and a severe budget shortfall that ironically has resulted in the City of Minneapolis paying officers to retire.”
It doesn’t help matters much that the council has proposed to cut $8 million from the police budget for 2021 as part of the inappropriately named “Safety for All” budget plan.
“The mayor had proposed 888 officers, a number already reduced by the city’s budget woes, but the city only funded an average of 770 officers for 2021. For a city in crisis, this makes as much sense as trying to put out a fire with a can of gasoline. The only thing this plan will extinguish is any hope for the people left suffering daily violence in their neighborhoods,” Stocker explains.
“A city reeling from a summer of chaos and violence and serving as a laboratory for radical, power-mongering autocrats is a case study in how a city commits suicide. Just don’t phone the police. There might not be anyone to answer the call,” she concludes.
Who was it that said, life is hard, but it harder if you’re stupid.
That would apply here.
"*" indicates required fields
