Written with contribution from Sheriff David Clarke
“Defund the police” is going exactly as you’d expect in Minneapolis, this summer’s ground zero for the anti-police Black Lives Matter riots that would go on to ravage many major American cities through the remainder of this year.
A group called the Minneapolis 8 is suing the city for failing to provide sufficient protection against gun violence which is victimizing residents.
“This is big, this is big,” says Cathy Spann, one of the group, according to CBS Minnesota.
She and her fellow residents of the Jordan neighborhood of the city were pleased to hear that a judge had moved their case forward.
“The judge says no dismissal, I need more information, more discovery from the city of Minneapolis,” she said.
While the Minneapolis city charter calls for at least 743 officers to be available to work on city streets, the city, which famously voted to “reimagine the police” earlier this year, has not specified exactly how many officers there are.
“Residents homes are being shot up, cars are being shot up. Innocent children, 2 years old, 11 year old [were] shot, we have had carjackings,” Spann explained.
She appeared to affirm that police reform was a lofty goal, but that as that was being addressed, residents still deserved to be safe in their own community.
“We are asking for transformation of the police department, the culture of the police department. But right now, today, with communities such as Jordan that are under siege with gun violence, what we are asking is that we need public safety while transformation is occurring,” Spann said.
“And it is not just Jordan. It is the northside of Minneapolis. It is the south side of Minneapolis. It is the downtown businesses,” she also said. ”Come on, this city is bleeding.”
CBS Minneapolis notes that “More than 500 people have been shot city wide this year, many in the Jordan neighborhood. The Minneapolis 8 blame the uptick in violence on a lack of police protection.”
In a response to the lawsuit, the city responded in a statement defending their fulfillment of the City Charter.
“This recent decision only means that the judge ruled that the plaintiffs have standing to file this lawsuit. We will continue to defend the City on this matter, and we’re confident the City will be found to have met the City Charter’s police funding requirements,” the statement said. Blah, blah, blah.
The city and Minneapolis 8 are now required to submit a discovery plan to the court, at which point an evidentiary hearing will be scheduled early next year.
Residents have more options than just lawsuits to challenge reckless city leaders who fail to keep communities safe with residents’ own tax dollars.
Every member of the “imaginative” City Council was voted in by residents.
Sidenote: This is a city that is represented in Congress by the notorious progressive firebrand Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), whose only endearing qualities are her intersectional brownie points as a black, female, Muslim Somalian immigrant, features which work nicely to camouflage the wide array of corruption allegations that have been made against her.
Outraged Minneapolis residents ought to band together and vote in leaders who value their lives and their safety. It is the first priority of all local government to secure the personal safety of its citizens.
Otherwise, maybe they can see if Black Lives Matter has anyone available to patrol the streets in lieu of the police they so emphatically want to defund.
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