MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Police Department was once the social experiment in defunding and abolishing law enforcement. After a year of chaos and an election cycle where those advocating for the dismantling of the police department were placed in the unemployment line, that failed social experiment has now ended.
According to the Star Tribune, the police department will receive millions more in funding under a new budget. That is a stark contrast to a vote taken to the people just a few months ago to literally replace the department.
Mayor Jacob Frey and the City Council agreed to a $191 million for the Police Department (MPD), which restores it to the level before George Floyd was killed in 2020.
Some City Council members did complain about Frey’s police spending but after the calamity of the last election, they did little about it.
As crime surged and the “defund police” message became political suicide, Minneapolis politicians just like others across the country are walking back police funding cuts and their defunding propaganda.
The question that remains is will any of it matter?
Will refunding the police be a magic pill that will enable law enforcement to take the streets back from the thugs and anarchists that have ravaged America over the better part of two years?
In a sane society, we believe it would but America is long past sanity.
Cops have had enough and if record retirements and resignations didn’t tell you what they think, the next few years will.
Refunding will not be enough unless those same cowards, hiding behind their political pulpits, don’t stand side by side with law enforcement and not only defend the profession but apologize for what they played a prominent role in doing….the largest crime spike in 30 years.
Politician and apology don’t go well together so it will not happen and because of that, very little will change in many cities.
Regardless of the budget or the pay raises or the proverbial signing bonuses, cops will avoid police work because they know exactly what could happen to them.
This doesn’t have to be.
Once politicians put their mouth where their money has now gone, cops will return to actual police work.
Until then, don’t look for anything to change because we won’t be fooled again.
