In this pair of articles,
Minneapolis Is About to Vote on Whether to Dismantle the Police
The Past 2 Years Have Left Portland Reeling. What Kind of Recovery Comes Next?
written by leftist loons, we are educated by the authors on how it’s not the fifteen months of riots, murder, arson and robbery that have made their cities hellholes that tourists avoid and residents flee for safer places. It’s actually the police that are the problem. And remember these two cities, Portland and Minneapolis are governed by the most anti-police city governments in America. Both cities are actively working to dismantle their police departments. So effectively there is no policing going on in either city. The police, such as they are, barely make their presence known. They wait until the crimes have occurred and show up to record the details for police reports that can be used by the victims for insurance purposes and to direct the ambulance or morgue truck to the bodies, living or dead. But the articles are clear that it is systemic racism that is killing these cities. Although the Portland article is clear in telling us that Portland is safe and vibrant. It’s only prejudice and racism that is spreading the false impression that the city is a dirty, abandoned shell of its former self, filled with homeless encampments and homicidal drug addicts.
These articles are very long so you might want to skim them. Better advice is just skip them. I’ve done the public service of reading this crap for you. I think the take away I got from these articles is that even in the leftist bastions of Portland and Minneapolis it is getting difficult to sell people on the “defund the police” narrative. They try, they really try. We get thousands of words about policing being slave control and Jim Crow and blah, blah, blah. But I think they’re trying to sell all this to people who just want their lives to go back to normal. And not just white people. Minneapolis has become very dangerous. And that has been noticed by the black neighborhoods. The change impacts everyone. The white neighborhoods have seen an enormous increase in property crime but also things like carjackings. But it’s in the black neighborhoods where things have gotten out of hand. So, it will take a lot of talking in circles to convince the black population in Minnesota that they really want to get rid of the police.
Portland is one of the whitest big cities in America. Their problem is the enormous homeless population. Druggies come from far and wide to live in a place that reflects their values. When there was a working police force, it could be kept under control. Now that’s gone. So, you have antifa and BLM rioting, the homeless defecating in the streets and addicts robbing you at knifepoint but Portland wants people to think it’s a “vibrant” and safe place to visit and live. It turns out that’s a hard sell.
It will be interesting to me to see if these two cities are able to convince their residents to get rid of their police. Maybe they can. Leftists are very good at ignoring reality. Maybe they can make it happen. But if they do, I’d guess that the size of these cities will shrink way down. Most people want to live in a place where they are safe. And this goes double for families. It takes a really hard-core leftist to be willing to let her kids be victims of street crime to prove a point. But the writers of these articles sound like they just might be crazy enough to try. It does indeed take all kinds.
So good luck to you folks in Portland, Minneapolis and of course Chicago and New York. You’ve made your bed and now you get to sleep in it. Enjoy.