The most recent Minneapolis City Council meeting should become the anthem for liberal cause and effect. In June the Council bowed to Black Lives Matter and Antifa activists to pledge to defund the police and replace them with some undefined social workers called “violence interrupters.” Since then, Minneapolis Police Department crime data indicates that more people have been killed in the city in the first nine months of 2020 than in all of last year; arson has increased 55%; and all violent crimes, property crimes and theft have increased significantly. Now the very same Council members grilled the police chief, asking “Where are the police?”
As it turns out, over 100 officers—double the usual number—have left the police department, according to police chief Medaria Arradondo. In addition, City Council members were whining that officers were not arresting perpetrators of the crime. NPR reported that Council President Lisa Bender, who was among those leading the call to defund the department, suggested that officers were being defiant. She said that her constituents say officers on the street have admitted that they’re purposely not arresting people who are committing crimes. Council members complained that crime had increased in wards which are usually safe and that their constituents are feeling “terrorized.”
NPR reports that the increased crime statistics, however, has not deterred Council member Phillipe Cunningham of the 4th Ward from getting rid of the police department. Cunningham supports the creation of a new community safety agency to replace the police department. He told the Council that it’s particularly important now to start instituting public health-based approaches to violence prevention. He said, “If we have these systems in place we are getting ahead of the violence. That’s why I have advocated so strongly for the violence interrupters, because if they are interrupting the violence before the guns are being fired, then the MPD doesn’t have to respond to that violence.” The council earlier took more than $1 million from the police budget to hire “violence interrupters” to address potentially violent confrontations.
This entire City Council meeting episode exposes the absolute lunacy of the liberal mindset. The Council unanimously caved to the very people who were committing violence and voted to defund the police. Then they diverted a million dollars from the police budget to fund social workers to interrupt violence. In the meantime, police are quitting the department at twice the normal rate and violent crime skyrocketed. The leftist response: “Where are the police?” They are essentially accusing the police of what they, themselves, did. No clue, or no recognition of responsibility. And these type of people are in charge of most every major city. Proverbs 18:2 says, “A fool has no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.” And if you follow him down the road, you will end up in the ditch asking “where’s the road?”
