Minneapolis is almost on track to beat the murder rate from the “Murderapolis“ years.
There have been 50 homicides so far this year in Minneapolis, which is close to the amount that had accumulated by the summer of 1995 — the year the city was given the nickname “Murderapolis.” There were 97 total murders that year.
Unlike most Minnesota endeavors, I wouldn’t rule out Minneapolis “winning“ the title this time around. During the Murderapolis years, both of the Twin Cities mayors believed that law and order and public safety our primary jobs city government what is there to do. Not “privileges“.
I can’t say I was a huge fan of Sharon Sayles Belton, but she and the City Council she had actually knew what their priorities were supposed to be.
While Jacob Frey ran for office as a “law and order“ candidate (compared to the contenders in the field against whom he ran, at any rate), Minneapolis is weak mayor system and strong, and progressive to a fault, City Council make that more or less futile.
A weak mayor system headed by a weak minded mayor and utterly insane city council, what a combination – and quite fitting for a weak minded, utterly insane electorate.
Law enforcement operates on reduced funding (and a nasty anti-police publicity campaign), those arrested are released on little or no bail, criminals’ sentences are stayed, criminals in jail are released before serving their sentences… but “CBS Local” is all over the complaints to the Chief of Police and HennCo Sheriff.
I’ve said this before, but it is worth repeating. With the exception of the vandalism to idiot Lisa Bender’s porch, the thugs are careful not to physically hurt any gubmint stooges with a “D” after their names. Meanwhile, the drooling sycophants that vote them into office, are getting shot and assaulted. I don’t want to wish ill will on anyone, but I sure wouldn’t feel sorry for any member of the Murderapolis or St. Paul city clowncils or state legislatures if they were the victims of their own ludicrous policies.
boss, all that would do is channel whatever remains of the police force to private security detail for these gubmint stoogies. Leaving utterly insane electorate in even more peril. But they will gladly pay more and vote more often for a safer, greener, nicer, MN.
The Minneapolis City Council is already hiring their own private security. Meanwhile, another MN state legislator thinks it is racist and harassment to have to reveal his address – he doesn’t want people doing to him what he has done to other public officials by staging peaceful intimidation protests in front of his house.
It strikes me that if the GOP can find some reasonably mature candidates, they’ve got at least an outside chance of getting some adult representation on the City Council. In the words of a movie I can’t remember the name of, “I don’t like you because you’re trying to get me killed!”.
bike – perhaps such a candidate could get some traction, but s/he would likely be “rank choiced” out of the running if they won w/o a majority thanks to this DFL Protection Clause.
I don’t know why you would be that optimistic, bike. A candidate for City Council who is reasonably mature would not be representative of the electorate in any of the wards of the city.
jdm, you can say I’m a dreamer, but I’ve got the crazy hope that one of these days, the electorate will decide that enough is enough, I’m going to go with the adult this time. Hopefully the Twin Cities aren’t entirely like Gary or Detroit by that time.
Well, god bless ya, bike. I’ve seen little if anything that might indicate a latent maturity lurking in the Twin Cities electorate. Moreover, due to implementation of policies that increase the relative size of the left’s political base through distortionary, wealth-reducing policies (the Curley Effect), the reasonably mature people have little reason to hang around.