When I prepared to move out of Minnesota to Central Florida, it was at the end of COVID and shortly after the George Floyd incident. During that time, many police departments (especially in Minnesota) lost officers from their forces, and activists were advocating for the defunding of the police. Many went as far as believing a police force was completely unnecessary, that a better way to defeat crime was to provide funds and programs to “change” criminals and their behavior. Those advocating for the defunding of the police got a boost when some courts and prosecutors decided certain crimes would not be prosecuted in the court system. The people advocating for the defunding of the police apparently thought that fewer police officers would mean there would be fewer criminals being antagonized by police. At the very least, they thought fewer police would mean fewer deaths of criminals.
At the same time, police departments were requesting more funding for more officers so they could be more effective in fighting crime. Unfortunately, there were fewer and fewer men and women interested in pursuing a law enforcement career. Which means with fewer police officers, there are fewer people fighting crime, and criminals find it easier to break the law.
Last week, I was encouraged to watch a documentary called “A Precarious State, Minnesota.” The documentary was produced by a long-time Minnesota news anchor who researched the decline of Uptown Minneapolis. One of the people he interviewed was a man who started buying and fixing up apartment buildings and renting to low-income people; he began his rental business about 30 years ago and became the largest apartment owner in the Twin Cities. He said the first 25 years of his career went really well, and during those years, he continued to purchase apartment buildings and owned dozens of them in uptown Minneapolis. Then he explained that during COVID and the George Floyd incident, and the loss of police officers, crime started to make his tenants feel unsafe, so they started ending their leases and leaving, forcing the owner to start selling his properties – all due to increasing crime. Businesses started shutting down due to a lack of customers and increasing crime. The city council did nothing to help. What few businesses survived started getting robbed by people living in a homeless camp, rampant with drug use – the city council funded occasional cleanup of the homeless camp, but did nothing to help fight the crime.
According to the documentary, the decay of the business climate and the lack of people returning to the uptown area to work have forced the sale of very large buildings at three cents on the dollar. Investors are passing up opportunities to own property in Minneapolis because of the diminishing business climate.
There was also some time dedicated to the decline in education and how parents have turned to homeschooling – it was a small part of the documentary, but it was important to show the change in direction our society is taking, and the decline in test scores.
In the end, the documentary pointed to the dire need to change leadership and ideals before it’s too late. Those in the documentary said Minnesota (and particularly Minneapolis) can’t spend another four years under the current leadership, or it may never recover.
The documentary was well done, and I encourage anyone interested to go to YouTube and watch the hour-long documentary, “A Precarious State: Minnesota.”
Have A Good Week!
