(The Minnesota Sun) — The mayor of Minneapolis, who himself has bashed police in order to placate the Black Lives Matter mob, now says that calls to “defund the police” have led to a spike in crime in the city.
“The violence needs to stop. It’s unacceptable. People deserve to feel safe in their neighborhood, they deserve to be able to send their kids out to the sidewalk to play and to recreate without bullets flying by. That’s unacceptable. We should be holding these perpetrators accountable,” Mayor Jacob Frey said.
But that is a strikingly different tune from Frey’s message last summer, when Minneapolis was engulfed in riots after the death of George Floyd at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
At that time, he went on a tirade against police after a Black Lives Matter rally, calling them “racist,” among other unfounded accusations:
“If you’re asking whether I’m for massive structural reform to revise a structurally racist system, the answer is ‘yes.’ If you’re asking whether I will do everything possible to push back on the inherent inequities that are literally built into the architecture, the answer is ‘yes.’ If you’re asking whether I’m willing to do everything I possibly can throughout the rest of my term to make sure that the police union, the police contract, the arbitration system, and some of these policies that have resulted in problems for specifically Black and Brown people and murder over series of generations, I’m all for that. I’m not for abolishing the entire police department, I will be honest about that.”
He was booed by the crowd for his failure to pledge to totally abolish the police force.
Frey’s comments have placed him in a bind between radical elements in the city, and his own police department, which has been severely depleted.
The department has been scrambling to find replacements for about 200 officers who are no longer patrolling the streets as of 2021. In February, the City Council voted to spend millions of dollars to bolster the number of officers among its ranks.
Still, as reported by The Minnesota Sun earlier this month, residents in the city are complaining about the lack of police response to their 911 calls.
Frey is still walking a fine line between appeasing the anti-police faction and keeping Minneapolis residents safe.
“It’s just the reality of the solution, you know. When you make big, overarching statements that we’re going to defund or abolish and dismantle the police department and get rid of all the officers, there’s an impact to that,” Frey said Monday. “Do we need massive change? Yes, we do. We need accountability and a culture shift within our department, and we need police.”
Pete D'Abrosca
Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Minnesota Sun and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to qnoebfpnercbegf@tznvy.pbz.
