In Minnesota, it seems that the “defund and defame” police movement has finally hit a crescendo. There isn’t another state that has gone after law enforcement in an aggressive manner like Minnesota. Their outrageous state issued “use of force” policy that gutted sound United States Supreme Court case law caused adjoining states to stop helping small Minnesota communities on their border for fear of prosecution. Multiple communities have had entire police agencies quit and Minneapolis is on the verge of literal collapse as hundreds of officers have left and many more are in the process of doing so.
The decline in public safety has been noticed by just about everyone in the state but the very ones that are responsible…the politicians and their media allies.
UNTIL NOW…
After politicians passed a law that prohibits school resource officers from actually being police officers within the schools, ten law enforcement agencies pulled their school resource officers from the local schools.
The new law was approved as part of a sweeping education bill in May and places law enforcement in a situation, that if they act, even to stop violence, they could be prosecuted for a crime. Admittedly, the law is vague but it is designed that way to give the ultimate power and control over to those that want cops in jail for simply doing their job.
Parents are especially concerned as they should be.
As they say in Virginia…Don’t piss off Momma Bear.
Crimes do occur in schools and some of that is violence. The idea that a school with hundreds if not thousands of kids would have to wait for responding officers rather than rely on those present should frighten anyone that cares about children and safety.
The Star Tribune Editorial Board even got involved, saying that “State officials should work energetically with law enforcement and school districts to develop some kind of clarification or assurance long before the Legislature reconvenes in January.”
Not to worry.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison wrote that the new law does not bar officers from “reasonable” uses of force and Governor Tim Walz said that he will work with school leaders and law enforcement agencies “to ensure they have the guidance and resources they need to do their jobs effectively.”
Ellison or Walz should never be trusted by law enforcement and any clarification that doesn’t strip the law from the books should be rejected by law enforcement and the communities they serve.
The citizens in Minnesota need to wake up and hopefully the latest stunt by politicians will do just that. The state is being destroyed by political “reforms” and the only remedy is complete reversal.
Until then, any police leader that cares about their personnel will not place them in an environment that is impossible and for the moment, that is Minnesota schools.
