Minneapolis, Minnesota – Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey argued last week that schools must remain open in order to combat surging violent crime and increased carjacking incidents often carried out by juvenile offenders.
At a press conference at City Hall, Frey pushed back against school closures seen in other major cities, including Chicago, as COVID-19 cases rose after winter break.
“We’ve gotta keep the schools open. This is very clear to me,” Frey said. “Yes, we need to make sure we’re abiding by the necessary safety precautions. Yes, we need to make sure anyone from parents to teachers to students are protected in full from the dangers associated with a global pandemic, and we need to make sure the students are in the schools and that they’re able to learn.”
“When we don’t have that, boredom sets in. And boredom is no excuse for carjacking,” the mayor added. “But it’s on all of us to make sure that these recreational, educational activities continue.”
Fox News reports that his remarks on school closures come at a time when schools in major U.S. cities across the country are battling a surge in cases of COVID-19 following winter break ushered in by the highly contagious omicron variant.
“There’s 100 different causal factors associated with the increase in crime that we’ve seen over the last year and a half,” Frey said. “It’s the fact we’ve had distanced learning and recreational activities have been slim to at times none. We need to make sure that these recreational activities, these opportunities for kids to safely play and have something to do, are dramatically increased and that they come back.”
Minneapolis, like other U.S. cities, has also seen surging violent crime since the death of George Floyd waved in widespread demonstrations in the name of racial justice. Voters in November rejected a ballot measure to replace the police department with a public safety agency, but recruitment is still lacking.
Frey also addressed the overwhelming attrition seen at the Minneapolis Police Department down hundreds of officers since riots swept the city. He appealed to community members to “be the change” by applying to vacant officer positions to address the city’s “grave problem” of violent crime.
