Oh, Minneapolis, our thoughts and prayers are with you, hoping you will wake up and see the dangerous errors of your ways. After the hideous murder of George Floyd, you panicked, crumbling under social pressure, and made the unthinkable decision to abolish your police department. Then your oh-so-wise and powerful city council members hired private security details for themselves.
To say that this is an ironic move is an understatement. We all know the meaning of irony, but perhaps the best definition to describe this city council’s action is this:
“[A] literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions are clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.”
Reminiscent of a tragic play, the council members fumble about trying to demolish law and order in a city already rife with crime, while the nation looks on in disbelief.
In the past three weeks, $63,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent on security for council members who claim to have received threats. Currently, citizens are paying approximately $4,500 per day until the councilors feel safe enough to dispense with their private details. This used to be the job of the local police department, by the way.
The council wants to replace its police with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention, “which will have responsibility for public safety services prioritizing a holistic, public health-oriented approach.” Members, who have arranged security for themselves, claim death threats are coming from white nationalists after they announced plans to abolish the police department, with a unanimous vote on June 26. The Minneapolis Police Department said it had received no reports of any threat; the council’s response? Members were too busy dealing with the pandemic and civil unrest to officially report them, but not too busy, however, to hire private security.
Throw the Law Out the Window
If the plan to overthrow law enforcement succeeds, what happens then? If the city will be “protected” by civilians assigned by the local government, what happens to citizens' rights? Or will it be up to individual citizens to hire security to follow them around and protect their homes?
The proposed new protection service could hire peace officers, but the director must be someone without any law enforcement experience, and the officers would have to answer directly to him or her. Will they legally be able to arrest anyone, and if so, will constitutional rights be respected?
Defunding the police is worrisome enough, but to completely do away with legal law enforcement is just downright craziness, especially in a city as large and as crime-ridden as Minneapolis. While people want a reform that will prevent injustice and racial profiling, polling shows citizens are not too thrilled with disarming and abolishing local law enforcement agencies.
Leftists are so absorbed and consumed with playing the social justice warrior card that they don’t see the ramifications – or the irony – of their actions. Minneapolis City Council moving to abolish its police presence while simultaneously hiring a private security detail for themselves is but one example. A police officer on TikTok highlights another:
“So I come in this morning, and we’re informed there’s going to be a protest to, um, defund the police. Well, that’s fine. I like protests. Except for, they requested a police presence, you know, for their safety, at the defund the police event.”
So, in other words, we demand you redirect the budget, effectively disarming and endangering law enforcement and, at the same time, insist that this very same outfit protects you. Another example of the left’s inability to comprehend logic.
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