Minneapolis, you great lovely city, you broke my heart. I had such high hopes for you.
Aerial of Downtown Minneapolis from Stone Arch Bridge
The foundation for my disappointment was a crime — a black man passed a counterfeit bill, was identified, was pursued, was apprehended — all good to here.
Then, it really came off the rails when four of your cops either put their knee on the guy’s neck or assisted the neck-kneeler or watched while it was done. Those were crimes also.
One bad cop, three cops who stood around and could have done something, but did not.
Regardless of what George Floyd did, when taken into custody, nobody needed to do, the situation didn’t warrant what was done.
The cop needs to be charged, arrested, and tried. You were a little slow on the uptake, but you finally did it.
Then, you totally lost your way, Minneapolis. You, your weak, first time, liberal, Democrat Mayor, 37-year-old Jacob Frey, failed to preserve order. This clown right here didn’t have the balls to maintain order. He gave in to the terrorists.
You turned the night over to the thugs, you thought they could be mollified, you thought they just needed to blow off steam, you gave them the right to take revenge, and you failed your job as Mayor — to keep the city of Minneapolis safe.
Your job is to keep order, to ensure that something doesn’t explode when a fuse is lit.
You and your cowardly Chief of Police ceded a police precinct headquarters to thugs, rioters, terrorists who burned it to the ground. When you let thugs, terrorists burn a police precinct headquarters to the ground, you invite more of the same. You signal that you are weak, easily intimidated, and unable to control the situation.
In that environment, these sharks smell the blood in the water, they know you are prey, they can smell the cowardice, and they pounce. All because you didn’t recognize your job was to keep order regardless of what happened.
There is nothing wrong with peaceful protest, but it is not “peaceful protest” when thugs burn down a police precinct building, torch an affordable housing project, burn cop cars, loot your downtown, and engage in violence against your own police force.
Whilst you dithered, you should have done the following:
1. Set a location for peaceful protest and forbid all protests that didn’t happen in that designated location — exactly what the City of Charlottesville did in their hour of trial;
2. Set a curfew, an hour before dusk. Enforce it. Really bad things happen during the anonymity of darkness.
3. Designate downtown as “off limits” to everybody after the curfew hour.
4. Call the Governor and ask him to preemptively send the National Guard to cordon off and protect private property.
5. Make it clear that violence, arson, looting would be prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law.
6. Verbally condemn not peaceful protest, but importing Antifa and similar organizations, violence, arson, looting, and lawlessness of all types.
You have made Minneapolis a laughing stock of the country, empowered domestic terror, put kindling in the streets and let the terrorists light it up, destroyed the reputation of your police department, and empowered the terrorists like Antifa.
Mayor Jacob Frey, you have failed as the Mayor of Minneapolis. It is time for you to resign. 