The Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper reported in a February 12, 2020, article that the city’s crime rate had spiked 70 percent in 2019. The reporters used official Police Department data to support their findings.
Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said at a public hearing, “As we start into 2020, we’re still seeing issues involving gun violence.” This was stated amid calls for more police staffing to meet the increase in calls to police and to address citizen complaints about slow response times.
The Tribune reporter’s analysis of five years’ worth of crime data showed that most neighborhoods in Minneapolis “have gotten more dangerous.”
Pam McCrea, the Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association chairwoman, cited homelessness, substance abuse, and mental health issues as causes for the increase in crime. She said many of the crimes could be prevented “with common sense.” She mentioned a recent survey of downtown residents that indicated “a large majority say they feel safe in their neighborhoods.”
The Neighborhood Association maintains figures that showed a population increase of 56 percent since 2006, with an additional 205,000 people coming into downtown Minneapolis daily for work or business.
CBS News ranked Minneapolis the 19th most dangerous city in the U.S., right behind Chicago. In 2017, the city had four times more rapes and robberies than the national average. And that doesn’t even count the murders.
George Floyd died in the Powderhorn neighborhood of Minneapolis. It has a combined crime rate that is 18 percent higher than the rest of the city. In addition, its crime rate is 756 percent higher than the state’s overall crime rate.
As far back as 2014, the same reporter for the Star Tribune newspaper, Libor Jany, detailed a 19 percent jump in the violent crime rate in the Powderhorn community from the previous year. Minneapolis Police Spokesman John Elder said back then, “Every week we reassess where our criminal hot zones are and we continue to increase patrols and adjust shifts to combat these crimes.”
Obviously the problems in Minneapolis neighborhoods are not new. The issues between the police and the community are long-standing. And the violent crime rate has been steadily increasing.
Did the police know about Floyd’s violent criminal past? I don’t know. George Floyd spent five years in a Texas prison for armed robbery. But the police surely knew the neighborhood’s crime rate was 18 percent higher than the rest of the city.
George moved from Houston to Minneapolis to start over. Then he lost his job as a bouncer at a restaurant when the Minnesota governor issued the COVID-19 stay-at-home order, according to The Guardian. A lot of people in Minneapolis lost their jobs.
Minneapolis was a powder keg waiting to explode, and George Floyd was the fuse.
Floyd’s death at the hands (or knee) of a police officer is egregious. It is every police department’s worst nightmare and every citizen’s greatest fear. But the violence that followed had little to do with Mr. Floyd’s tragic death. Even George’s brother begged for the violence to stop because he knew his older brother would not want it. But to no avail.
More than a week after George’s death, the indiscriminate rioting, looting, fires, beatings, and violence show no signs of letting up. If this was meant to avenge his death, what message does it send? Or maybe that isn’t what this is really all about.
So who are these criminals and vile opportunists really hurting? Only themselves and the destroyed businesses and ruined neighborhoods they will leave behind when they all go home.
Think of all the black-owned businesses that are gone. Think about all the minority-held jobs that have been lost. Think of all the innocent people who were beaten or killed.
If the Minneapolis crime rate went up 70 percent before George Floyd’s death, imagine what it is now!
Image from: metro.co.uk
The Neighborhood Association maintains figures that showed a population increase of 56 percent since 2006,
And what percent of that 56% is Muslim refugees and/or Somali immigrants? And what percentage of the 70% increase in crime was committed by these people? And what percentage of the crime committed in the Powderhorn district is committed by these people and what percentage of the entire crime rate is committed by these people and the rest of the minority community? I’ll bet those answers will be quite telling.
Wait and see what the crime rate spikes to once the Liberal Supremacists get done castrating the MPD. They have announced there will be an investigation of MPD for civil rights violations going back 10 YEARS! You can bet any cop with any complaint will be put under a microscope for this witch hunt. They are sending a message that a certain segment is free to do what they please and there will be no consequences.
The statistics alone are staggering.
A crime rate of 50 per 1000 residents. Wow. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 20.
The violent crime rate of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in Minneapolis is one in 123.
In Minneapolis, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 24, which is a rate of 41 per one thousand population.
In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in Minneapolis is one in 191.
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/mn/minneapolis/crime
@islemetsgiantscelts,
If the problems were solved then they would be out of business.
Vote CPUSA:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/28/poverty-racism-gary-indiana-factory-jobs
Your article is all about the loss of factory jobs. What can CPUSA do about that, eliminate the bourgeois. The article speaks of heavy industry type jobs as automobile manufacturing. There’s all kinds of manufacturing that requires a workforce. Maybe autos are diminished but others Can take their place. One local business has expanded greatly from a small building on the corner to a huge complex that does do manufacturing. It has worldwide distribution and hasn’t been in business all that long. You might have heard of it, Garmin. The reason it thrives is because of policies that encourage business, not drive them away. It is why This county has grown so exponentially just during the time I’ve been here. The main road just down the street had fields after fields before it reached the outskirts of town. Now, large housing complexes and shopping centers have filled all those fields. Why is it This county is expanding while across the state line their city isn’t. I’ll give one example why. That city put in a 4 mile streetcar downtown at 25 Million / mile. This is what the leaders spend their time developing, not a plan for developing Their ECONOMY.