How A City Commits Suicide

The Wall Street Journal today has an article about how Minneapolis is remembering George Floyd.  Buried ten paragraphs down is the real story about what’s happening in that city.

Here’s the heart of it:

After Mr. Floyd’s killing, a majority of Minneapolis city council members supported efforts to defund the police, or abolish the city’s police department. A state agency killed the push for now.

John Elder, spokesman for the Minneapolis Police Department, said an increase in crime there mirrors upticks happening in a number of U.S. cities.

Year-to-date, murders are up 65% compared with all of 2019. Shootings have more than doubled compared with the same period last year. Carjackings are up more than 300%, with 385 reported through Dec. 8.

“There has been such an anti-law-enforcement rhetoric that people have been emboldened to go out and do what they want,” Mr. Elder said.

Ms. Jenkins, the city council member, attributed some of the rise in the area’s crime to the barriers.

“This autonomous zone has created an atmosphere of criminal activity and drug sales and violence, gun shots, and that’s separate from people who are occupying the space,” said Ms. Jenkins. While she supported a council pledge to defund police, Ms. Jenkins recently voted to spend $500,000 to temporarily bring in more police to combat the crime wave, in a vote that narrowly passed the council, 4-3.

No serious person doubts that the officers involved with Floyd’s death should face justice and accountability in a fair and impartial trial.  But the idea that a city can improve life for its citizens by decimating their protection  —  protection most needed by minorities and the poor  —  is, not to put too fine a point on it, insane.