George Floyd died almost six months ago in Minneapolis, MN. The city council voted to dismantle the police department, social justice warriors demanded reforms, and rioters destroyed property across the city.
Not much has changed in six months.
The police department still exists, but the city council slashed its budget by $14 million.
Without the resources and the lack of respect, police officers have left Minneapolis in droves. The force had 888 members. More than a hundred officers have left since May:
Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said earlier this month that more than a hundred officers have departed the 888-member force — more than twice the average attrition rate.Some have opted for early retirement, while others have lodged disability claims, citing PTSD triggered by the riots and continuing fallout over Floyd’s death under the knee of an officer. Cops leaving the department have expressed concerns about the safety of themselves and their families.Faced with a diminished force, Arradondo has had to scrap several initiatives and divisions.”Everyone is stretched a little more than thin — community outreach and other specialty programs have had to go,” one officer said. “And we can’t do the investigations we used to.”Lt. Bob Kroll, who heads the city’s police union, has said officers must endure a new tier of danger and “intense scrutiny” since Floyd’s death, making recruitment difficult.
So the city council cut the police budget by $14 million, but just “approved spending about $500,000 to hire officers from neighboring law enforcement agencies through the end of the year.”
Are you shocked? I’m not shocked. I bet the officers from neighboring agencies will say tell Minneapolis no thank you.
Who would have thunk that slashing police resources and demonizing police officers would lead them to leave the force and others think twice about joining the department?!
Minneapolis faces slow response times “and violent crimes, including shootings, carjackings, and robberies, have spiked.” Minneapolis sounds like Chicago:
According to police data, more than 500 people have been shot in Minneapolis this year – twice as many as 2019, while murders are up more than 50%.So far this year, there have been nearly 5,000 violent crimes, the most in the past five years, the records show.In September, observers watched in horror as six people viciously beat a man while allegedly trying to steal his cellphone outside a Target store.Late last month, a 9-year-old boy was shot outside his St. Cloud apartment complex. Last week, a woman was pistol-whipped during a home invasion in the south part of the city.In August, eight residents from north Minneapolis filed a class-action lawsuit against the city, claiming that the dwindling number of officers was a violation of the city charter.
Has the violence stopped the social justice warriors? Of course not! They still want to go on with emotions and feels. They see this as an opportunity “to bring about real change.”
These “grassroots groups” have taken to the streets to patrol “with compassion and care in mind.”
Members of one group, The Powderhorn Safety Collective, envision “a new form of community response that calls upon the resources of the neighborhood rather than the police.””We are neighbors providing support to the community with compassion and care in mind,” the group says in its mission statement. “As a collective, we commit to the practices of nonviolence and de-escalation with the end goal of strengthening the social fabric of the neighborhood.”
The people causing crime and mayhem do need compassion and understanding, but they need to face consequences for their actions. Those who are in the way of the criminals deserve justice. This isn’t hard.
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