How Are Things in Minneapolis?

Wherefore Minneapolis. Just in case you were wondering how the new police reform movement is doing in Minneapolis, Heather Mac Donald has the story. (via Maggie's Farm.) Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal she offers the facts and figures about how life has been in the city where George Floyd was murdered.

First, the facts, please:

Minneapolis homicides between Jan. 1 and last week were up 108% compared with the same period in 2020; shootings were up 153%, and carjackings 222%. The crime increase began after Floyd’s death and has never let up. Nor has the assault on law enforcement that began with the arson destruction of the Third Precinct building on May 28, 2020. Officers are routinely punched, kicked and hit with projectiles. There was a near-riot in downtown Minneapolis in the early hours of May 22 following a shootout among club patrons. Two people were killed in that shootout and eight wounded. Responding officers called for backup across the Twin Cities at what the department called an “exceptionally chaotic scene.” The previous weekend, officers were maced, and pelted with rocks and debris while trying to disperse disorderly crowds.

The war against the police is ongoing and destructive-- not just for the police, but for the minority community:

Nineteen children in Minneapolis have been shot this year, an increase of 171% over the same period in 2020. Their relatives wonder where the protesters are. “Why ain’t nobody mad about a 10-year-old, my grandson, fighting for his life?” asked Sharrie Jennings, Ladavionne’s grandmother, at a May 17 mayoral event. “Because a cop didn’t shoot him, is that why?” Ms. Jennings warned of “a deadly summer” for kids if the mayor and police chief don’t “step up.” Later that day, Aniya Allen, 6, was caught in a shootout between rival gangs while in her mother’s car. Aniya died on May 19.

Calls for defunding the police have been heard across the country. In some cases, like New York City, local governments have cut police budgets. And, of course, more and more police officers are simply resigning, or retiring. Attrition is fulfilling the BLM dream:

Attrition is accomplishing the same goal as defunding. At least 200 officers have resigned or gone on leave since May 2020, leaving the Minneapolis Police Department understaffed by nearly a third. Officers’ “morale and mission” were destroyed by the failure to defend the Third Precinct and to prevent the torching and looting of businesses during the May 2020 riots, newly retired lieutenant Kim Voss wrote in a February 2021 op-ed.

Minneapolis is not alone in suffering this madness:

As lawless as Minneapolis has become, it is hardly atypical. Drive-by shootings and homicides jumped nationwide during and after the Floyd riots. Homicides rose 50% in Chicago in 2020, 46% in New York City, and 38% in Los Angeles. The U.S. saw the largest annual percentage increase in homicides in recorded history in 2020. That increase has continued in 2021. The number of shooting victims in Chicago was up 43% in the first three months of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020. Through May 16, the number of shooting victims in New York City is up 78.6% over a year ago. In the Bronx, the number is up 165.7%.

Among the aggravating factors, no one, not the nation, not local community leaders, not political figures, have denounced the crime wave. Why, it was only a couple of days ago that the Biden administration offered its view of the crime wave. Press secretary Jen Psaki blamed it on guns. People are innocent. Guns are guilty. The guiltiest would be the NRA. Exonerating criminals, excusing crime is a formula for producing more crime. As it happens, members of minority groups are disproportionately the victims of these crimes.

The media and Democratic politicians attribute the crime increase to the pandemic and attendant shutdowns. But the violence surge of 2020 began only after the George Floyd riots, more than two months after Covid-19 devastated the economy. No industrialized country saw anything comparable; crime dropped in the U.K. and Canada, where lockdowns were more severe than in the U.S.

Our new Attorney General, one Merrick Garland is on the case. He is not going to investigate the groups fomenting violence. He is going to investigate the Minneapolis Police department. Aren’t you happy that he is not sitting on the Supreme Court.

There is little evidence that the Minneapolis Police Department systemically violates blacks’ civil rights, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has opened a civil-rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department anyway. If history is any guide, the resulting consent decree will cause crime to increase in the city as officers back off further from proactive policing.

Throw some gasoline on the fire and try to use the crime wave as a political weapon against white privilege, white supremacists and especially Republicans.

As long as the police are demonized and scapegoated, law-abiding residents of high-crime neighborhoods will continue to live in fear and wonder why no one protests when their loved ones are murdered by gangs with guns.