According to a recently retired Minneapolis police officer, nearly 200 cops have left the force in the last year because they feel “helpless.”
“You take away loitering laws and the ability to pursue vehicles. You don’t have to stop for the police in Minneapolis anymore, thanks to Mayor Frey and the city council. Cops get frustrated,” said Steve Dykstra, who left the force last summer, adding that he refuses to be a “stand-down cop.”
“What you see is chaos, violence, and reoccurring crime.”
Will this be the price of living in an American city in the future? With so many policemen retiring and the radical city council still calling for more cuts in police funding, what’s happening in Minneapolis is likely to be duplicated in many cities.
Grappling with a shortage of officers and increased crime, Minneapolis is seeking federal and state resources after the latest bout of violence in the city included a mass shooting that left a college student dead hours before his graduation Saturday.
Amid the increased violence in the city where George Floyd was killed nearly one year ago, officials also announced a $30,000 reward this weekend in the hunt for suspects responsible for the separate shootings of three children over the past several weeks, including one 9-year-old girl killed by stray gunfire while jumping on a backyard trampoline.
Rewards won’t stop any violence or murders. Kids are going to continue to die bloody, meaningless deaths because adults live in a fantasy world where there are no bad people, only bad cops.
During the early Saturday mass shooting, two people were killed and another eight wounded after gunshots rang out just before 2 a.m. outside in the 300 block of N 1st Ave. Investigators say two men got into an argument and began firing amid a crowd gathered on the sidewalk near Monarch nightclub.
Nearly 200 Minneapolis police officers have left the force in the wake of the death of Floyd, with many filing post-traumatic stress claims due to the civil unrest that followed. Minneapolis has seen at least 31 homicides this year, not including this weekend’s violence.
Would putting more cops on the street really make a difference? That’s a question many cities are asking. How many is enough?
City-data shows that the number of working police officers has fallen from 817 to 638 in January. Some of those officers are on leave after the riots last summer. Many of them will not be returning.
Police Department Finance Director Robin McPherson said to her knowledge none of the officers who went on leave last year have returned to duty.
The council created a public safety staffing reserve fund in this year’s budget. Funds in the reserve could be accessed by the chief after presenting a hiring plan to the council.
That hiring plan calls for 674 officers on the streets by year’s end. Given the number of retirements and officers on permanent leave, the department shouldn’t have any problem meeting that number.
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