The following is mostly a summary of an article in The Washington Post (WaPo). It is truly ironic since WaPo appeared to fully back defunding the police in Minneapolis.
Who Couldn’t Have Predicted This
“Day and night the bullets zip through this predominantly Black neighborhood, hitting cars and homes and people. The scores of victims have included a 7-year-old boy, wounded in a drive-by shooting, a woman who took a bullet that came through her living room wall while she was watching television with her family, and a 17-year-old girl shot in the head and killed,” The Washington Post reports.
They call it “Murderapolis” again as violence spikes. Imagine living like this and doing so unnecessarily. The terrible liberal/leftist policies are responsible for much of this.
There are fewer police officers, and they can no longer respond to some 911 calls.
-
The Importance of Prayer: How a Christian Gold Company Stands Out by Defending Americans’ Retirement
Minneapolis is grappling with unprecedented violence. Droves of officers are leaving the Minneapolis Police Department. They have warned they might not be able to respond to emergencies at all.
Homicides in Minneapolis are up 50 percent, with nearly 75 people killed across the city this year. More than 500 people have been shot, the highest number in more than a decade, and twice as many as 2019. And there have been more than 4,600 violent crimes — including hundreds of carjackings and robberies — a five-year high.
Most of the violence has happened since Floyd’s death on Memorial Day. Some of this anger might be tied to the lockdowns.
Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said more than 100 officers had left the force — more than double the number in a typical year.
If Minneapolis drops below 500 officers on the street, they can’t answer emergency calls.
The Police Department He didn’t Want to Have
Mayor Jacob Frey had started to develop “contingency plans” that would include “triaging calls” for help, something he said he believes will erode public trust further.
“It’s creating a police department that I did not want to have, and that’s one-dimensional,” Police Chief Arradondo said. “Our core focus is patrols and investigations.”
On Friday, the city council voted to allocate nearly $500,000 for the police department to temporarily hire officers from neighboring law enforcement agencies to help patrol city streets from Nov. 15 until the end of the year.
“Our city is bleeding,” the chief told members of the council on Tuesday. “At this moment, I’m trying to do all I can to stop that bleeding.”
But the plan to hire temporary officers does not address the department’s uncertain future, with even more officers considering departing.
Destroying Officers
One officer said he is in the process of leaving the force after he suffered physical injuries, including cuts and burns, during the days of unrest after Floyd’s death. While inside the city’s 3rd Precinct building as it was overtaken by protesters and subsequently burned, he recorded video messages to his wife and children because he thought he might not make it out alive.
“After that, I wasn’t me anymore,” said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. He said he had nightmares, couldn’t sleep and had panic attacks.
Low morale is rampant, and the exodus could extend to hundreds of more officers by summer. Perhaps it will affect as many as a third of the department’s positions.
“You have a lot of officers come in and say, ‘Why am I doing this?’ They sit there with their spouses and say, ‘Is this worth it?’ ”
The absence of officers on the streets has been noticeable, especially in South Minneapolis near where Floyd was killed. Dozens of Minneapolis residents spoke before the city council last month. Many complained of trauma from the constant gunfire and violence and robberies.
Emboldening Criminals
“Since the unjustified and unfortunate death of George Floyd, the city council has engaged in rhetoric that has emboldened criminals, the proof of which is in the unprecedented spike in crime,” said George Saad of southwest Minneapolis, describing himself as an immigrant and a “child of war.” He came to the city because of its rich diversity. But now Saad says he feels terrorized in his own community, afraid to walk down the street.
“You guys have had years to address any culture problems within the Minneapolis Police Department,” he said. “You have failed to do so. Instead, you embark on a campaign against your own police department, fighting and demonizing an entire internal city organization instead of making it better.”
The Sociology Experiment Gone Awry
Like many during the hearing, Forbes questioned the lack of police officers on the street and blamed the city council for pursuing what she described as a “sociology experiment that obviously doesn’t work.” She and others called for a surge of law enforcement into the city.
But it’s not clear that the city can do that. They face an economic fallout from the coronavirus.
Mayor Frey recently unveiled a budget proposal that includes a $179 million budget for police, a nearly $14 million cut from the department’s approved 2020 budget. But Frey has asked the city council to fund three new cadet classes in 2021 — about 104 officers — including one to replace a 2020 class scheduled for this fall that was canceled.
Yet because of the city’s police training policies, members of those cadet classes would not become full-time officers for more than a year if approved by the city council.
Lt. Bob Kroll, head of the city’s police union, said officers face a new level of danger and “intense scrutiny” since Floyd’s death, something that is driving potential recruits away from the profession. Kroll did not respond to requests from The Post for comment.
Arradondo has taken to comparing what is happening now to “the Murderapolis years” in the 1990s as he agonizes over the city’s homicide rate.
“We’re at a critical juncture right now,” the police chief recently told one neighborhood group. “I will move heaven and earth to make sure all of our communities are safe, but I’m going to need resources for that.”
These Are the People Running the City
The debate around the plan showed just how divided the council is over the role of police in addressing the surge in murders and violent crime Minneapolis is experiencing now. It was unlike any city council meeting I’ve seen before. pic.twitter.com/GslIQaZKLC
— Mark Vancleave 🎥+📰=🎉 (@MDVancleave) November 12, 2020
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter