The Conversion of an Anti-Police Activist

A Minneapolis Democrat party leader who demanded that the police department in her city be dismantled in 2020, has now become a tough on crime advocate.  What happened?  She got mugged by reality on Tuesday.  Lindsay Kornick of Fox News reports that the next day Shivanthi Sathanandan posted on Facebook that she was “violently carjacked” by “four very young men, all carrying guns.” She said they assaulted her in front her children outside their home in broad daylight. She also included a photo of her head injuries and reported having a “broken leg, deep lacerations on my head, bruising and cuts” around her body as well as feeling “rage” against the lack of accountability against criminals.

“These men knew what they were doing. I have NO DOUBT they have done this before. Yet they are still on OUR STREETS. Killing mothers. Giving babies psychological trauma that a lifetime of therapy cannot erase. With no hesitation and no remorse. I’m now part of the statistics. I wasn’t silent when I fought these men to save my life and my babies, and I won’t be silent now. We need to get illegal guns off of our streets, catch these young people who are running wild creating chaos across our city and HOLD THEM IN CUSTODY AND PROSECUTE THEM. PERIOD.  Look at my face. REMEMBER ME when you are thinking about supporting letting juveniles and young people out of custody to roam our streets instead of HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS,”

There were multiple witnesses to the attack and police have since recovered her car.  No mention by anyone regarding the race of the suspects.

Three years ago Sathanandan wrote:

“We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. Say it with me. DISMANTLE. As allies, what can we do right now? LISTEN and LEARN from our Black siblings. And then AMPLIFY this message right now, in this moment. MPD has systematically failed the Black Community, they have failed ALL OF US. It’s time to build a new infrastructure that works for ALL communities. If you are still disagreeing with that BASIC FACT, I’m not sure what to say to you.”

Sathanandan also advocated for the removal of police officers from Minneapolis schools writing,  “Thank you, Minneapolis School Board Members, for getting this done! Exactly as it should be – MPD should have no place in our children’s schools.”

Law enforcement was not important to her, Black Lives Matter, and the corporations and politicians that were successful in defunding police departments in scores of cities across the country in the name of racial justice.  While they were basking in their virtue, thousands of people were being assaulted, robbed, carjacked, raped and murdered by criminals that understaffed police departments could not arrest and soft-on-crime political leaders refused to punish.

Several years ago, as we were discussing the increasing crime that was occurring as “progressive” politicians were cutting sentences and handcuffing police, a career law enforcement leader told me that the public was not going to kick the politicians out and demand change until “blood ran on the streets.”

Ms. Sathanandan found out last Tuesday that some of that blood belongs to Democrats.