A former member of the Minneapolis City Council criticized Rep. Ilhan Omar and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for being “out of touch” with voters on public safety.
In an appearance on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” Wednesday night, Don Samuels characterized voter rejection of Charter Amendment No. 2 as a “democratic revolution” against ideological exploitation by people and organizations outside Minnesota.
“The admission that we did need change in policing by everyone, I think that was exploited to some degree by forces outside our city,” he said. “We are going to come back from the extremes and find practical solutions that won’t betray us in their outcomes, making things worse.”
An on-screen graphic showed that groups like the ACLU of New York, the Solidaire Action Fund in California, and George Soros’ Open Society donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Amendment No. 2, which proposed the abolition of the Minneapolis Police Department.
Yes 4 Minneapolis, the political committee that spearheaded the effort, received most of its donations from out of state.
In response to Omar and Ellison’s support for abolishing the MPD, Samuels said they were out of touch and that the voters’ rejection of Amendment No. 2 is indicative of that.
“The people of Minneapolis want a sensible solution to both renegade police officers and the culture of policing, and to keeping our communities safe. It’s both-and, not either-or,” he said. “The either-or was going to win on the ‘either’ and put the ‘or’ at great risk, meaning the 30 children shot in our city, the 80 people who’ve been killed, 85% of those being African American.”
“We’re proud of our voters and grateful to the people of Minneapolis for making the common sense approach.”
Samuels is a frequent media guest because of his opposition to defunding the police. He previously painted a grim portrait of daily life in north Minneapolis, an area of the city facing routine carjackings and gun violence with little to no law enforcement response.
“You can’t take a risk to interact with anyone, to position yourself to intervene in anything, because everybody knows, you know, the person you’re intervening with knows, that nobody is coming if things get out of hand,” he said in an August interview on “The Chad Hartman Show.”
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
