In Minneapolis, Defund the Police Abruptly Becomes Refund the Police

After the George Floyd riots, Minneapolis citizens defunded the police, who they deemed a menace to the community. Now, however, massive spikes in murder, robberies, rape and car-jackings have changed the minds of Minneapolis residents, who now live in fear, not from the police, but from criminals running rampant.

Some “woke” liberals have woken to reality. They are seeing that law enforcement is not the problem; it’s the solution. After partially defunding the Minneapolis police department this summer, many now think it was not such a good idea after all.

“Defund and abolish the police” was a leftist mantra that shocked law-abiding citizens everywhere. It delighted anarchists and spread like wildfire nationwide in 2020 thanks to leftist media, liberal politicians and corrupt universities.

The Minneapolis City Council not only sought to defund the police but officially petitioned the Minneapolis Charter Commission to disband the police on June 26, 2020. The radical move must be approved by a referendum.

In less than twelve months, the Minneapolis City Council has been mugged by reality. Council members now admit that their defunding of the police has been “misinterpreted” by almost everyone including its own members. It is destroying the security of the community. They have now resolved to return $6.4 million to the police department’s budget.

The Council members are now walking back their earlier radical and “misinterpreted” statement about the need to “end policing as we know it.” Council member Andrew Johnson now says that he meant the defunding was to be “in spirit” not by the letter. Phillipe Cunningham says that the pledge is “up for interpretation” and council president Lisa Bender says that the pledge has “created confusion in our community and wards.”

Indeed, the defunding created confusion everywhere, especially the police department. To appease professional agitators, the Council took away $8 million from the police department and applied it to health and social programs in 2020. The immediate result was officers retiring and resigning in droves. The unwanted department is now finding it difficult to recruit and train new officers. The Minneapolis police department had nearly 800 officers before the riots and now has 638 available for duty thanks to these liberal policies.

The confusion is especially felt in the community that finds itself plagued with violent crime. By July of 2020, the Minneapolis police department issued a statement that advised residents to “be prepared to give up your cellphone and purse or wallet” and “don’t fight with criminals, remember your safety is most important.”

A police force cannot stop crimes, but only respond to them. Fewer officers translates into less response to crime. Police officers are not the problem, criminals are. Thus, Minneapolis has seen homicides spike fifty percent with over 500 people shot in 2020, which is double 2019 and the highest number in more than ten years.

More than 4,600 violent crimes include robberies, car-jackings and other offenses. The year 2020 has the highest rate in the last five years. The explosive mixture of moral decay and an eviscerated police force have had their toll on the city.

Another source of confusion are new “policing techniques” that hamper the normal procedures of dealing with crimes. The constant threat of false allegations of “systemic racism” and misinformation has made it difficult to respond to crime. It is worthwhile noting that almost every allegation of police misconduct is acquitted in an internal investigation or criminal trial.

The greatest confusion is found among law-abiding citizens, who rarely, if ever, have an encounter with the police. Now they are victims of rampant crime. The whole community has found out the hard way that if there are no police, there will be no peace.