Archive for the ‘City Council’ Category

In a 10-5 vote, the Minneapolis Charter Commission voted down the Minneapolis City Council’s proposed amendment to the Minneapolis Charter. The Charter acts as the City’s constitution. This is a major setback to the Far-Left DFL activists on the Minneapolis City Council.

Charter Commissioner Andrew Kozak is quoted as saying “We have an obligation to make sure that what is going on the ballot gives the voters an informed choice, that they can make a decision in a thoughtful way.” TRANSLATION: Don’t send us a half-baked idea, then expect us to iron out the details on something this important.

The City Council’s ‘plan’ wasn’t put together with any thoughtfulness. It was a reaction to a horrific incident that wasn’t thought through. The Commission took its responsibilities seriously. The City Council didn’t take their responsibilities seriously. If they’re going to transform the Minneapolis Police Department, it’s the Council’s responsibility to put together a detailed plan filled with specific goals and timetables.

Sophia Benrud, an organizer with the Black Visions Collective, issued this statement:

People in Minneapolis have been in the streets for months demanding change, only to hear from the Charter Commission that there haven’t been enough studies and consultants. When white supremacy is the law of the land, it is a luxury to say we need ‘more time’ before we can make change. Every single voter should have had the chance to vote on this amendment in 2020.

That’s sour grapes and unworthy of further comment. This tells the story:

As part of a last-ditch effort to send the proposal over the hurdle, a group of City Council members sent the commissioners a letter Wednesday assuring them that they “expect the transformed system to include law enforcement as part of a multifaceted approach to public safety.”

“The Minneapolis City Council is not asking you to put police abolition on the ballot, nor does the amendment propose this,” they wrote. “We are asking you to let Minneapolis vote on a new framework for public safety that aligns with the State of Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety.”

In impassioned public hearings and a deluge of written comments in recent weeks, some urged the charter commissioners to wield their powers of review to prevent what they believe is a dangerously vague proposal from heading to voters.

Lisa Bender chimed in with this:

“We’ve had an unprecedented outpouring of demand for change, demand for justice, unprecedented involvement from folks who are getting engaged in city government for the first time and I don’t want people to feel too discouraged. I’m disappointed and I share the disappointment that I’m sure people are feeling, but we have more ways to move forward as we continue to build this work.”

Jeremiah Ellison added this:

We’re going to keep pursuing that transformative change. I think that at some point, changing the charter is going to have to be a part of that.

The need for change is indisputable. Dismantling the MPD isn’t the right change. Professionalizing the MPD is required, though. That won’t happen without additional support from the Council and additional training. The MPD has had a reputation for not being a professional police force for years. What’s required isn’t a charter change. What’s required is a commitment change from the politicians.

Newt Gingrich’s op-ed on Minneapolis Democrats surrendering their city to criminals had so much damning information on Democrats that I decided to write this Part II post. Let’s dig into what’s left of Mr. Newt’s op-ed.

The hypocrisy of the Democrats is made clear when you learn that Minneapolis taxpayers pay for private protection for three of their city council members. As a citizen of Minneapolis, you are told to surrender before being hurt by criminals. As part of the political aristocracy, you get taxpayer-funded private security, so you don’t have to worry. A nice benefit if you can get it.

The surrender-to-the-criminals approach is having a terrible effect on both the quality of life and the economy in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis Downtown Council has already warned the city government that efforts to defund the police are driving businesses away from Minneapolis. According to the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, the Downtown Council cautioned that “27 downtown companies are either considering or are actively seeking space in the suburbs to leave downtown.” Other businesses looking to move have “crossed Minneapolis off [their] search list,” the foundation reported.

What’s apparent is that the activists on the Minneapolis City Council think that they can paper over their foolish decisions. That apparently works when campaigning but it’s equally apparent that it doesn’t work with serious-minded businesses. The activists on the City Council don’t suffer repercussions for their decisions. Businesses that make bad decisions might lose their life savings at age 40-50. That’s a life-changer for most people.

In Seattle, where the local politicians surrendered more than a dozen city blocks to vandals and violent protestors, Police Chief Carmen Best, who is African American, had hundreds demonstrators outside her house. As The Washington Times reported, roughly 200 protestors drove to and crowded Best’s neighborhood (although she was not home). Some of Best’s neighbors had to block the streets with their own vehicles to keep the demonstrators from trespassing and damaging property.

One resident told a local Fox affiliate, “It was not peaceful… They were here to intimidate. Scare people. Scare children. There were children out there and they were asking them what schools they went to. They were yelling the most horrible things you’ve ever heard in your entire life.”

Seattle used to have the nickname of the Emerald City. It was a truly beautiful city. Now it’s fast becoming a dump. They’re cutting the SPD budget by 50% next year. Businesses aren’t sticking around thanks to the rising crime rate and rising minimum wage to $15.00 per hour to serve a cup of Starbucks to junkies.

Minneapolis belongs in the Democrats’ Hall of Shame. Jacob Frey didn’t protect his city. The Minneapolis City Council isn’t interested in protecting their people but is interested in doing unthinkable damage to the city. The Council spoke of re-imagining law enforcement. That was code for gutting law enforcement. These Democrats are a disgrace. Somewhere, Hubert Humphrey is rolling over in his grave.

Friday night on Almanac’s Roundtable, one of the subjects discussed by DFL spinmeister Abu Amara and GOP political strategist Gregg Peppin was the subject of police reform. That was a topic because Gov. Walz signed into law a police reform bill. As usual, Amara got this wrong. Amara said that Democrats insist that the bill signed this week “was just a first step in really transforming policing and I suspect, as we go into 2021 legislative session, this will continue to be a top issue.” That’s spoken like a true urbanite.

Peppin got things right in saying “in the backdrop of this agreement, Eric, is what you’re seeing in Minneapolis and what’s really turning out to be an extreme measure by the Minneapolis City Council from Minneapolis politicians, they’re moving forward. They want to defund, they want to defang the police and I’m hearing from people in suburban communities that are saying ‘enough. Enough is enough. We’re not going to go to downtown Minneapolis. We’re not going to send our children to the U of M this semester.’ There’s real concern about that.”

Let’s be clear about this as a political issue. While it’s a big deal in Minneapolis, it isn’t as big an issue in the suburbs or in rural Minnesota because this is mostly a Minneapolis problem. Here in St. Cloud, people wanted to see something done because of the George Floyd thing. Now that the signing ceremony is behind us, most people will be fine with that. In St. Cloud, we haven’t had the problems that Minneapolis has had.

Things are reaching crisis stage in Minneapolis, though:

An email that was obtained by The New York Times said that the department would not “be going back to business as usual.” Commander Scott Gerlicher, head of the Special Operations and Intelligence Division, wrote in the email to supervisors this month that, “Due to significant staffing losses of late,” the department was “looking at all options” for responding to calls, including shift, schedule and organizational changes. He also included in the email that they were “looking for reasonable and safe alternatives to police services in some areas.”

TRANSLATION: People are leaving so fast that we can’t replace them. That isn’t all, though:

“Cops have not been to the work level of before, but it’s not a slowdown,” said Walker. “They’re just not being as proactive because they know they’re not supported in case something bad happens.”

Tensions between the city and its Police Department come as crime is on the rise, according to the Boston website. There have been 16 homicides since June 1, more than twice as many as during the same period last year. Violent crime is up by 20% compared with the same stretch a year ago.

Things are getting worse in Minneapolis because the police know that Mayor Frey and the City Council are looking for opportunities to criticize the police. Why stick your neck out when the powers-that-be want to put it in a guillotine?

This election isn’t like most elections in that it’s a binary choice. This isn’t about whose policies are better. This election isn’t a question about who’s more competent. The cards have been put on the table. A player has gone all-in. Joe Biden thinks that the MSM will cover for him if he says he’ll redirect money away from police instead of saying he’ll defund the police. He’s probably right. Unfortunately for him, the people living in fear of the rioters won’t give him a pass.

They’ve seen he’s feeble. Democrats have essentially admitted that they can’t afford to let him do a hard-hitting interview with a hard-hitting journalist with integrity. Biden would be a puddle within 10 minutes if questioned by journalists like Bret Baier or Harris Faulkner.

This election is simply about which candidate is serious about protecting Americans and which candidate is a wimpy, do-nothing Democrat. Democrats have shown that they aren’t serious about protecting their citizens. This election on down-ticket races is simple, too. Senate Democrats don’t care about their constituents. They’ve voted against even starting debate on Sen. Tim Scott’s JUSTICE Act. After that vote failed, all hell broke loose in NYC, Portland and Seattle.

Monday marked the 53rd straight day of rioting in Portland. Still, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler insists that the riots are President Trump’s fault. His explanation is rooted in the thought that the violence was subsiding after 30-something days. Perhaps they were just running out of targets left to attack?

When Bill de Blasio and the NYC City Council cut $1,000,000,000 from the NYPD budget, Black Lives Matter said that wasn’t good enough. Originally, BLM said that they’d stop protesting in front of City Hall if that $1,000,000,000 was made. Nobody with a functioning brain (Joe Biden and de Blasio aren’t included) thought that BLM would keep their promise. Here’s why Biden isn’t included:

Democrats think that individual security isn’t a priority. They’ve fought for Black Lives Matter. They haven’t been visionaries, though. If they legitimately cared about African-Americans, they would’ve started an organization called All Black Lives Matter in honor of Secoriea Turner and Horace Lorenzo Anderson, Jr. Those children were killed without hurting anyone. Their deaths were senseless.

Elected Democrats and Democrats in the media reported the story, then moved onto the next story. These Democrats invested more emotion into raising taxes than they invested in the death of these African-American children. That’s the portrait of heartlessness.

In Minneapolis, the City Council voted to dismantle the police without talking to the people who’d suffer the most. The charter amendment appears to already be in trouble because “the most vulnerable communities” in Minneapolis “are very, very divided.”

Byron York’s article highlights Biden’s flip-flopping:

Just as he did with Barkan, Biden suggested he agreed with the liberal move to defund the police and then quickly moved on to a set of generic points. The next day, June 10, Biden published an op-ed in USA Today. “While I do not believe federal dollars should go to police departments violating people’s rights or turning to violence as the first resort, I do not support defunding police,” he wrote.

With President Trump, we know what he stands for. He’s stood for criminal justice reform and police reform. He’s stood for sentencing reform and for community policing. Most importantly, he’s consistently stood with the police.

You can’t say that about Biden. On his best days, Biden might not know what he’s thinking.

This post, along with tweets from President Trump’s campaign, are highlighting Minneapolis for all the wrong reasons. Frankly, I don’t care if crime keeps skyrocketing out of control in Minneapolis. They elected a mayor and a city council of idiot activists. It isn’t surprising that things are spiraling hopelessly out-of-control.

This isn’t just predictable. It was predicted. Before the previous mayoral election, Minneapolis mayoral candidate Ray Dehn called for officers to be disarmed. Dehn didn’t win but while he was running, he said “We must divest resources, disarm officers, and dismantle the inherent violence of our criminal justice system.”

What’s heartbreaking is the testimony given by Officer Rich Walker to the Minnesota State Senate. Here’s one clip of Officer Walker’s testimony:

Minneapolis Officer Rich Walker describes the havoc Democrats’ insane push to defund the police is having on police officers:

“Our morale has never been lower … The hatred for [us] has never been more evident. Right now, it’s Minneapolis. But it’s spreading.” pic.twitter.com/IGrSf1nDjk

— Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) July 17, 2020

Here’s more of Officer Walker’s heartbreaking testimony:

Minneapolis police officer:

“Crime is rampant in Minneapolis right now. It is lawlessness…the criminals are emboldened to do whatever they want to do. Open air drug sales, gun violence, robberies, assaults—it’s almost every 20 minutes.”

Joe Biden won’t condemn this madness! pic.twitter.com/i1Uuym8HCL

— Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) July 17, 2020

Powderhorn Park used to feature a neighborhood setting where families could hang out. Now it features open air drug sales, rampant prostitution, gun violence and sexual assaults. That’s just in one park.

That’s just part of what’s heartbreaking. Another part of what’s heartbreaking is that DFL politicians, from US senators Klobuchar and Smith, to DFL congresscritters like Omar, Phillips and Craig, to state legislators to Minneapolis City Council members to Minneapolis Park Board members, haven’t listened to the people. They’ve listened to the special interests exclusively. They’ve mistaken nonprofits and activists for citizens.

People attending the hearing said that Officer Walker’s testimony was “powerful.” I don’t doubt that. I just wish it didn’t fall on deaf ears in Minneapolis.

The proposed Minneapolis city Charter amendment appears to be in trouble. Commissioner Andrea Rubenstein had lots of questions for Minneapolis City Council members “Jeremiah Ellison, Alondra Cano, Steve Fletcher, Cam Gordon and Council President Lisa Bender.” Commissioner Rubenstein “noted that they have heard the ‘pain and grief’ that exists in the community.” She essentially accused the 5 City Council members of rushing the process without thinking things through.

That isn’t difficult to imagine. From the start, these activist Democrats have essentially said what they wanted as a final outcome should be for the Minneapolis Police Department, aka MPD, without saying what they wanted to replace it with. Most of the fear that Commissioner Rubenstein talked about comes from the neighborhoods’ worries:

She added later in the meeting that she was particularly concerned about the most vulnerable communities in Minneapolis. “They are very, very divided. I fear that if they remain divided, this amendment as it’s structured now may fail. And we want a change in the culture, and the way we do things in this city, as much as you do, but we want to make sure we’re doing what’s right.”

These Democrat activist councilmembers are polemicists more than they’re interested in serious governance. It’s obvious that they didn’t think this through because they would’ve noticed that eliminating the MPD was stupidity on steroids. These activist Democrats didn’t notice that their proposal didn’t protect their fellow Minneapolis citizens.

Protecting the people is the first affirmative responsibility of any government. Councilmembers Cano, Ellison, Fletcher and Gordon, Council President Bender and Mayor Frey failed Minneapolis residents in that respect. This video is especially damning:

It says “The proposal, which comes following widespread criticism of law enforcement over the killing of George Floyd, would replace the police department with a new ‘Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention’ that has yet to be fully defined.” That’s spin on steroids. I’m betting that this bunch hasn’t even gotten past what to call the new department. I’m confident that they haven’t figured out what’s going to go in it. That isn’t how Bender, Cano, Ellison, Fletcher and Gordon think.

Spin vs. reality

Opponents, including Mayor Jacob Frey, have blasted the proposal, saying they feel it is too vague for voters to make an informed decision. Council members, during Wednesday’s meeting, said that was intentional, because they wanted to gather more input from the public and wanted to make it easier for future generations of leaders to make changes to public safety.

That’s 100% spin from the Council. First, it’s apparent that they reached their verdict before they conducted the investigation. What happens if the public opposes the Council’s plan? Would the Council admit that they’d made a mistake? Next, this is spin because they aren’t thinking about the future. From what I’ve seen, next month is the future to this bunch.

The Charter Commission could, if it wanted, choose to take up to 150 days to review the council members’ proposal, overshooting an Aug. 21 deadline for adding items to the November ballot. At the end of the review process, City Council members are not required to comply with the commissioners’ recommendations.

That would deal a death blow to the Council’s amendment petition. Finally, there’s this:

Some Charter Commission members pushed back on that notion Wednesday night, asking why they hadn’t already dropped the police force to its minimum levels or why they hadn’t already further boosted additional funding for violence prevention efforts. The Minneapolis Police Department had 892 sworn officers as of June 1, while the charter requires closer to 730, based on the latest census data.

The City Council doesn’t want to cut police forces if it can help it. They want the political cover of a vote.

Last week, Joe Biden insisted that “the moment has come for our nation to deal with systemic racism.” How does Biden know that there’s systemic racism across the nation? Coming from a guy who’s spent the last 40+ years of his life inside the Washington, DC echochamber, I’ll question how much he knows about what happens outside the DC echochamber. Remember that Biden’s alleged specialty is foreign policy.

I say alleged because former Defense Secretary Robert Gates once said “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Remember that the last time Biden got involved with major domestic policy was with the 1994 Crime Bill. That’s the bill that started mass incarceration of minorities. That’s the bill that President Trump started fixing with the First Step Act.

There is racism in this nation. There always will be because we’re a nation of sinners. There’s racism in every nation on earth because all nations are nations of sinners. South Africa’s population was majority black. There was a white minority government. That’s the definition of systemic racism. There’s nothing like that in the United States. There never will be.

The system that’s repeatedly let minorities down is unified Democrat governance in major US cities. Nancy Pelosi’s father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., was once Baltimore’s mayor. While mayor, D’Alesandro “spoke at the dedication of a monument to honor Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson.” That isn’t proof that Pelosi or her father were racists but it says that Democrats lecturing Republicans about racism better prepare for some stiff pushback.

Racism isn’t systemic as much as it’s individual. Each person individually is responsible for dealing with the issue. Saying that it’s systemic let’s the individual off the hook and invites government intervention, too.

When Democrats voted against opening debate on Sen. Tim Scott’s JUSTICE Act, they sent the message that they aren’t interested in fixing the problem. In each of the cities that had major race riots after the murder of George Floyd, Democrats could’ve fixed the problem before the murder. That’s because each of those cities have been run by Democrat mayors for decades. Most of those states have had Democrat governors for years and years.

Since they’re the ones in-charge, Democrats should’ve fixed the problems. Instead, they played politics with the issue. Since real police reform comes only at the local level, these Democrat mayors and Democrat governors should’ve fixed their problems long ago. The thing that’s important to notice is that Democrats don’t fix things. Democrats let things fester, then use them as campaign issues. Doing what’s right the first time isn’t part of the Democrats’ thinking.

That leads me to an old cliché about Democrats. It goes something like this: Democrats will always do the right thing — when it’s the only option left. I’d argue that this is only true part of the time. This is the Democrats’ solution to white privilege and systemic racism:

There’s a good chance that this will replace the current Minneapolis Police Department, aka MPD, when the DFL City Council dismantles the MPD. According to the article, “If anyone is put in physical danger, they instead vowed to seek help from the American Indian Movement, which was founded in Minneapolis in 1968 to address systemic issues of poverty and police brutality against Native Americans and has been policing their own communities for years.”

Earlier in the article, readers find out that “traffic has reportedly increased in the neighborhood around Powderhorn Park, as drug dealers seek to meet their clientele displaced during the civil unrest, rioting and looting following Floyd’s death at the end of May. At least one person overdosed inside the park and was brought out by an ambulance. Prostitution has also been reported in the area.” Then there’s this:

A progressive Minneapolis neighborhood that pledged not to call the police in the wake of the death of George Floyd is now dealing with a 300-strong homeless encampment in a local park, according to reports.

Thank God that this neighborhood checked their white privilege instead of calling 9-1-1. I’m betting that’s making life easier for the drug dealers. That’s probably high on this neighborhood’s priority list. This is what it’s come to:

According to this segment on KARE11 News, the community organizers demand the city present a plan to help with the homeless problem. The neighborhood invited them into the park. The neighborhood’s invitation makes it the neighborhood’s problem. Frankly, I’d tell them to take a hike.

This is what happens when pacifists and appeasers run a city:

Residents in the neighborhood historically known for its far-left politics and activism intervened last week when park police gave campers 72 hours to dismantle their tents and leave. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has since passed a resolution not to evict people from any city park and has called for increased funding for longer-term housing for campers, according to the Star Tribune.

“We are not going to kick the can down the road, push people out of public spaces when they have nowhere else to go,” Park Board President Jono Cowgill told the Tribune. “This is not a sustainable, dignified solution for folks who are experiencing homelessness right now, and the state needs to step up.“

The state better not step up with funding. Minneapolis created this crisis with its irresponsible policy-making. That’s their problem. It’s one thing to say that the entire state should pay to fix MNLARS. That program serves the entire state. It’s another thing when Minneapolis makes a stupid mistake that affects only them.

Minneapolis created the problem by inviting these vagrants into this park. Then they said that they wouldn’t protect their citizens because they were checking their white privilege at the edge of the park. That’s their right. It’s their city. If they want state money to pay for this problem, then rural taxpayers should get a say in setting Minneapolis’s policies. If Minneapolis Democrats want the money, just not the lecture, that’s fine. They just shouldn’t get the money in that scenario.

PS- Good luck to the Minneapolis DFL. If they’re relying on AIM to protect them, they’d better buy lots of guns.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott has lived with racism all his life. Since entering Congress, he’s worked on race-related issues. He was the chief author of the Opportunity Zones section of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. He’s worked hand-in-hand with HUD Secretary Carson to bring economic opportunities to minority neighborhoods. Frankly, he’s got more credibility on race-related issues than any politician, including President Obama.

Democrats are losing credibility on race-related issues because they’re constantly thinking of how this or that event can be converted into a political advantage. That isn’t how normal people think. They just think about doing the right thing, then making it happen. Yesterday, Democrats ripped the mask off. They exposed themselves as interested in race-related issues only in the context of winning control of the Senate majority.

Yesterday, Senate Democrats exposed themselves of putting a higher priority on partisanship than on doing the right thing when they voted to not even start debate on Tim Scott’s JUSTICE Act. Democrats voted to not start debate on the bill. Democrats voted to not let the amendment process start. Minnesota senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith are constantly touting their bipartisan record. They voted against starting debate. Think about that.

Democrat senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, who theoretically represent Minnesota, the state where George Floyd was allegedly murdered, voted against the JUSTICE Act, aka police reform. Minneapolis is the city where Floyd lost his life. Their city council wants to “dismantle” the Minneapolis Police Department, aka the MPD.

This pair should be leading the fight for the JUSTICE Act. Instead, these Democrats voted against it. That isn’t a sign of bipartisanship. That’s proof of bad faith negotiating. If I lived in Minneapolis, especially in one of those minority neighborhoods that were looted, then destroyed, I’d take it out on the politicians that didn’t protect me.

This is typical Democrat thinking:

This is typical GOP get-positive-things-done thinking:

That’s quite a contrast. Republicans want to fix existing problems. Democrats want to stoke racial fears ahead of their next campaign. It isn’t that Democrats want to fix things. That isn’t part of the Democrats’ recent history. Democrats used to be dealmakers back before they lost their minds. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Bill Clinton were dealmakers. By the way, where is Bill Clinton these days? We see Hillary too often. Ditto with President Obama. Bill Clinton is nowhere to be found. That isn’t difficult to figure out. Bill Clinton doesn’t want his legacy tarnished by today’s Democrats.

Things aren’t working too well for the anti-police Democrats:

A progressive Minneapolis neighborhood that pledged not to call the police in the wake of the death of George Floyd is now dealing with a 300-strong homeless encampment in a local park, according to reports. Traffic has reportedly increased in the neighborhood around Powderhorn Park, as drug dealers seek to meet their clientele displaced during the civil unrest, rioting and looting following Floyd’s death at the end of May. At least one person overdosed inside the park and was brought out by an ambulance. Prostitution has also been reported in the area. Residents though have agreed to “check their privilege” and “protect people of color” by not involving law enforcement to report instances of property damage, according to the New York Times.

By checking their privilege, there’s been an upsurge in prostitution and drug overdoses. Isn’t that lovely? Thanks to the Democrats’ bad faith and their unwillingness to negotiate during this historic opportunity, major cities are falling apart. Needless to say, these cities are run by Democrats.

If you think that Democrats care about crime, you’re kidding yourself. There’s no proof that Democrats are willing to do the things that are required to maintain a civil society.

If Lisa Bender, Jeremiah Ellison and the rest of the Minneapolis City Council think dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department will be easy, then they’re too stupid to hold elected office. This article alone makes their goal a steep uphill fight. That’s without considering the possibility that people whose homes and businesses were just demolished or looted might not vote for less police protection.

According to WCCO-TV News, “ShotSpotter technology has picked up more than 1,600 gunshots in Minneapolis in the past 30 days.” Later in the article, WCCO reports “Just after 2:30 p.m., four people were shot near the 1600 block of Morgan Avenue North. At about 4:09 p.m., four more people were shot at West Broadway and North Lyndale avenues. At 6:41 p.m., another person was shot near North 25th Avenue and North 4th Street. In addition to Monday’s shootings, one man was killed and another was critically wounded in a double stabbing in downtown Minneapolis.”

To the idiot Democrats on the Minneapolis City Council, additional law enforcement officers are needed, not less. This is so straightforward that even a Democrat should be able to figure it out within 3-4 guesses. (Republicans would figure it out the first time but that’s a totally different discussion.)

The shootings prompted Frey to call on the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office, the Minnesota State Patrol and others for help. “That’s the ATF, that’s the Secret Service, that’s the FBI for investigative purposes,” Frey said.

Little towns can get away with not having a fulltime police force. Minnesota’s biggest city can’t rely on outside law enforcement agencies from the county, state and feds.

This is the time for the activists on the Minneapolis City Council to make a decision. That decision is whether they want to remain hair-brained, irresponsible activists or whether they want to become adults and start governing like adults. If Lisa Bender, Jeremiah Ellison, et al, want to remain activists, then it’s up to Minneapolis voters to reject the Council’s charter amendment and throw out the childish activists.

The people of Minneapolis need police protection. Without the police, there won’t be people downtown. There won’t be businesses opening up. There’s only businesses leaving. This pattern is detectable. The same thing is happening on a smaller scale in St. Cloud.