Less than a year ago, the Minneapolis City Council wanted to disband the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). But now they have released $6.4 million dollars to recruit and hire additional police officers. While this may sounds like satire, it’s actually a lesson about crime and policing—a lesson the Minneapolis City Council has chosen to learn the hard way about what happens when you attempt to “de-fund” law and order.
With staffing allotted at 817 police officers, MPD has just 638 officers available to work, according to the Daily News. Making matters worse, 155 officers are on some form of extended leave while others have resigned or taken early retirement. However, some remain completely unfazed about how the lack of available officers directly relates to a lack of public safety. In fact, some seem to be altogether ignorant of the correlation.
Still, some remain too ignorant to care
Meanwhile, efforts continue to rip apart there agency with a political committee called Yes 4 Minneapolis is set to begin the collection of petition signatures to ask voters this November whether to replace the department with a new entity that would take a “comprehensive public health approach to safety.” A coalition of well-known progressive groups, such as Reclaim the Block and TakeAction Minnesota, are part of the effort according to the Star Tribune.
MINNEAPOLIS LT. BOB KROLL RETIRES AND DESERVES OUR GRATITUDE
We have chronicled the ills that plague Minneapolis and most start at the top, with Mayor Frey and the leadership of his administration. Without taking ownership of the policy and training decisions that served as the backdrop of the George Floyd incident and making it about bad cops and racism, they got what they asked for: anger, resentment and a community that appears set to eliminate actual law enforcement in exchange for whatever “reimagining” they believe will work.
While we feel for the hard working citizens in Minneapolis and the officers that are sworn to protect them, it’s time for them to leave. Yes, the sign that city politics have failed and obviously reversed course is a sign: an exit sign.
There are few other ways to rationalize it. The city is about to spend $6.4 million dollars in an effort to salvage whatever is left of protecting a city that is now seeing violence and response times higher than ever before. Of course, once you let crime and criminal behavior go unchecked, without consistent law enforcement efforts, throwing money at the problem is just like throwing money away.
Good luck recruiting cops in Minneapolis…
If anyone dreams about becoming a Minneapolis police officer, they probably won’t pass the required mental health evaluations because they’re certainly out of their minds if they think starting a career as a police officer Minneapolis is a smart move.
Idealistically, we can only suggest that potential recruits should refrain and not deny the politicians and the protesters of anything they demanded. They wanted to defund the police—so let them have their way. Of course, as any rational person knows, defunding police departments leads to increasing crime. Granted, nobody is going to want to live in Minneapolis the way things are going, that is with quality of life going downhill, and violent crime going up and up.
Leave the failing cities to those who failed the city…
Our advice to the good people of Minneapolis is to leave.
Yes, leave the city to those who ruined it with absurd political policies.
Leave it to the “activists” who demanded all the “defunding” in the first place.
Leave it to Mayor Frey and his pandering politics to pick up the rubble.
And don’t forget to demand accountability from Mayor Frey and the Minneapolis City Council on your way out…
