As cities across America witness peaks in violent crime — including rape, robbery, and murder — the war on cops has claimed another victory in one of those cities. The Minneapolis City Council passed a 2021 budget Thursday morning that slashes funding for police by $8 million. That money will be “redirected” to mental health and violence prevention programs.
After the city council failed earlier this year to abolish the Minneapolis Police Department, radical members went back to the drawing board and came up with the “Safety for All” plan. That plan included this budget. To put into perspective just how liberal this budget is, note that it was a bridge too far even for liberal poster boy Mayor Jacob Frey. The version that passed was changed from the original “Safety for All” plan. The original would have cut the maximum number of police officers — known as the “authorized strength” — from 888 to 750. The city council was forced to make last-minute changes removing the cut to the number of officers because Frey said he would veto the budget if that cut were included.
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Though the maximum number of police officers allowed is not affected directly, the $8 million slashed from the police budget will have a negative impact on policing in Minneapolis since it will affect “extra duty hours.” That means cuts in officers working overtime. This comes at a time when — due to retirements, resignations, transfers to suburban departments, and low recruitment — the Minneapolis Police Department is already understaffed and is having difficulty responding to calls. Fox News reported Thursday that it can take up to five hours for police to respond to a simple call. This budget cut will increase that time and make it harder for police and easier for criminals.
It is also at a time when Minneapolis — like other metropolises — is already experiencing a spike in violent crime. With more than three weeks left in the year, Minneapolis has already had nearly 5,200 reports of violent crimes. The number of violent crimes in 2019 was 4,097. In 2018, it was 3,637. As anti-police sentiment has risen, so has crime.
Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officer’s Federation of Minneapolis, told The New American, “Our authorized strength is 888” but the actual number has hovered “between 860 and 880” for the past few years. Kroll also said, “ About a year and a half ago, the chief had requested of the mayor and the council to increase the department — because even 900 is a small number for the size of the city, since it has grown immensely — and we haven’t been keeping the department up according to the population. So the chief had asked that over a five year period to phase in 400 more officers.” The response, Kroll said, was, “No. Nothing.” To put those numbers in perspective, Kroll said, “When you compare other large cities, per 1,000 residents, we are very much at the low end of that. We’ve got about two officers per 1,000 and comparable cities our size have as many as four officers per 1,000.”
After refusing to increase the authorized force, this new budget assures that Minneapolis will continue to slide further behind in its police-to-resident ratio and that overtime for officers — needed to keep crime at bay with an understaffed force — will not be available even when needed. The end result is the same as cutting officers at a time when more are needed. A reasonable person should expect to see a continued increase in violent crime in the city that was known in the 1990s as “Murderapolis.”
As a direct result of anti-police sentiment and anti-police activism within the city council and mayor’s office, Minneapolis is beginning to return to the “bad old days,” with no end in sight.
Minneapolis is not an anomaly. As the war on cops continues to spew an increasing anti-police narrative, other cities have seen similar increases in violent crime. For instance, New York City is seeing a 14-year high in violent crime, with more than 1,400 shootings already this year. In the Big Apple, this spike follows this summer’s disbanding of the plain-clothed anti-crime unit that was largely responsible for getting illegal guns out of the hands of street criminals. Again, decreased policing and increased anti-police rhetoric are shown to correspond to increased crime.
In Minneapolis, the failure on the part of the radical members of the city council to outright abolish the police department and replace it with mental health workers and social workers was merely a minor setback. By taking this step of partially defunding the police, they have kept their eyes on the prize of doing away with the police. As Fox News reported:
The council earlier this year coalesced behind a plan to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with unarmed professionals that would respond in circumstances that normally involve police, like mental health calls and domestic disputes.
The city’s charter commission, however, opted not to put that issue to voters in a referendum, effectively pushing it off until at least 2021. Jeremiah Ellison, a Minneapolis City Council member and the son of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, at the time said that he was still committed to eventually dismantling the police department.
“This is NOT the last chance we will have to dramatically rethink public safety in our city,” he said. “We will quickly be in 2021 budget discussions, we will continue to ramp up community engagement on the future of public safety, and we will revisit the charter change for the 2021 ballot.”
And after successfully politicizing those “2021 budget discussions” to strip the Minneapolis Police Department of $8 million in much-needed funding, members of the council celebrated their victory on Twitter.
Lisa Bender, president of the city council, tweeted:
The City Council adopted a 2021 budget!!
All the #SafetyForAllBudget proposals passed for 2021. Mental health, violence prevention, oversight and more.
The budget makes important investments in affordable housing, health and economic recovery.
Thanks to all who got involved!
And Steve Fletcher who serves as the council representative for the city’s third ward, tweeted:
The Minneapolis City Council passed our 2021 budget, including the #SafetyForAllBudget package! In 2021, our city will implement mental health emergency response, support community safety programs, add violence prevention capacity and improve police accountability.
This much is clear, this step to defund the police is a step in the Left’s long march to abolish police and leave America’s cities to the mercy of the criminal element.
