In October 2020, a group of concerned residents sued the City of Minneapolis. Their gripe? They actively defunded the police department and that caused the number of officers to fall below that required by the city charter. Oh, and an exponential rise in crime.
The City tried to get the case tossed but was rebuked, and the suit was allowed to proceed. Twenty months later, the Minnesota State Supreme Court has arrived at a ruling. The City has an obligation to fulfill the obligation in the charter or demonstrate why it can’t.
Fox 9 News reports that the state’s highest court sided with eight Minneapolis residents who sued the mayor and council members for dumping police officers well below the rate at which the city charter promised. The citizens argued that there are only 621 officers on duty after the 2020 defunding blitz and riots following the death of George Floyd.
If you’re wondering whether that mattered, it did, and not just because of the riots the progressive mayor and council supported along with BLM and Antifa.
‘REALLY OUT OF CONTROL’: Violent crimes have surged in Minneapolis and St. Paul, with a combined record 135 homicides last year. https://t.co/blGKj63LKp pic.twitter.com/A4erDnPzYM
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 17, 2022
Minneapolis can’t hold a candle to Chicago or Baltimore. However, a record number of homicides is still a record, and it all follows from a deliberate effort to encourage criminal activity and kneecap the only means the City has to address it. You can’t respond to calls for any crime if you are constantly understaffed. And those asked to take on the extra work will burn out quickly and maybe even become the next national news sensation.
That’s why a lof cops walked. Retired or just quit. It happened in Democrat-run cities all across the looted land. Democrats decided to stand with BLM, not the police who worked for them. Leaving that job would have been easy, and I’m surprised more of them didn’t do just that.
The case is in the hands of a county judge who will be responsible for following up on the City and its obligation. The charter requires them to hire and retain “0.0017 sworn police officers per Minneapolis resident.” The City has only had 621 and, by law, must have at least 731.
Fox News reports that 300 officers left or were defunded out of their jobs when the Mayor and Council rushed to appease Black Lives Matter back in 2020. And while a few councilors admitted the error of their ways not long after the original vote to defund, I have to wonder how the City will respond or if they can even hire the number of officers required by law.
No one wants to work for activists in government, just waiting for someone with whom they can make an example. It’s not an environment conducive to exemplary work. But whose fault is that? The people of Minneapolis? They voted for these idiots and have been elevating their ideological brethren for decades.
And while these 18 citizens succeeded in getting the state’s highest court to tell the mayor to follow the law, that’s not typically anything Democrats care much about unless it works as political leverage to their benefit. This does not.
I’m sure they’ll go through the motions, but the decision allows them to explain why they have been unable to hire more officers. At no point will that include their commitment to hanging them out to dry for another round of virtue-signaling and maybe even some national media attention, unlike this decision which won’t be getting the same coverage George Floyd’s overdose-suicide garnered.
Is that a good enough reason why they can’t fulfill the requirement in the city charter? And if so, then why not just change the charter? It’s not as if Democrats care about crime. If they did, they’d allow citizens to defend themselves instead of reducing everyone to a victim in a city that can’t hire enough police officers but can expect to add plenty of criminals given those circumstances.
HT | PJ Media
