Among the most tyrannical, destructive and common techniques of the Socialist/Communist, Democrat left is the “consent decree.” With the 2020 “Summer of Love,” Democrats had substantial success in defunding blue city/state police agencies. But with time, the reelection of Donald Trump, and a partial restoration of sanity, that utterly insane “movement” has died or gone underground for rebranding. Unfortunately, even in major blue cities that no longer overtly pursue obliterating their police forces, enormous damage has been done. One such is Minneapolis, the capitol city of Tim Walz’s Minnesota, a state vying with California for the most insane, destructive, Marxist state in the union honors.
Graphic: X Screenshot
Since the Summer of Love, Minneapolis has lost 40% of its officers. As one might expect, crime rates have skyrocketed, as Police Chief Brian O’Hara confirms:
"It is incredible," O'Hara said. "It's not just that we lost 40% of the force, they've been facing the highest levels of crime and violence, in some categories, that the city has ever seen."
Minneapolis is facing a surge in assaults, and nearly three dozen shooting calls a month.
Agencies forced to defund officers, even if that lunatic policy was eventually ended, experienced a mass exodus. Officers that could retire did. Others fled to red states where they were allowed to do their jobs, and many quit the profession entirely. Recruiting became nightmarish. Capable, competent men and women don’t want to work, regardless of signing bonuses, for cities that hate their police where Soros prosecutors are far more likely to prosecute officers for lawfully doing their jobs than criminals. Many such agencies are under political pressure to hire DEI candidates, which has forced them to dramatically lower hiring standards. They’re hiring people with serious criminal records, histories of drug and alcohol abuse, past DUIs, financial instability and other problems that should be immediate disqualifiers. Even so, agencies remain badly understaffed.
Blue states have convinced the next generation of potential police recruits they’d have to be insane to work in those places. The remaining officers are forced to take mandatory overtime, commonly work double, even triple shifts and are under enormous stress, far more than is normal in that high-stress occupation. As a result, illness, injuries and all manner of psychological issues are at record levels. And because officers know any complaint, particularly those lodged by favored victim groups, could end their careers, bankrupt their families and send them to prison, most absolutely avoid minority criminals and do as little as possible.
Is it any wonder crime is out of control in Minneapolis?
At the last minute of its malignant administration, the Biden DOJ tried to impose a consent decree on the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). Like all federal consent decrees, if implemented, it would have proclaimed the MPD systemically racist and evil and give a federal judge total authority over the MPD’s daily operations. A special monitor, at great expense, would be appointed to run the MPD, and entirely lawful tactics like stop and frisk would be outlawed. Crime and civil disorder, already out of control, would become even more Kafkesque. Consent decrees of this kind are essentially eternal, in force as long as the DOJ and judge involved choose.
The Biden DOJ did its best to push this consent decree over the finish line before Trump took office. Fortunately, the Bondi DOJ asked for a stay, which U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson granted until May 21. The police-hating city government and mayor are not taking this lying down:
The city objected to the stay, writing in court documents that the DOJ “cannot keep moving the goal posts by claiming a necessity for the entire litigation to be paused in order to bring individual attorneys up to speed.”
Jim Michaels, attorney for the police union, notes:
“The City of Minneapolis seems hellbent on imposing the terms of the Consent Decree on itself even if the DOJ and the Court dismiss it,” Michels told Alpha News. “This is nothing short of bizarre. Usually, a defendant in a lawsuit is more than happy to have the case dismissed without suffering any penalty or adverse consequences.”
He said the only possible explanation for this situation is “consistent with comments made by many of the City’s elected officials—they want to weaponize the terms of the Consent Decree to impose certain provisions on police officers even though State Law and the Collective Bargaining Agreement require that those terms be negotiated.”
At the last minute, the federal DOJ has injected a note of sanity:
The Trump Department of Justice has just filed a two-page motion to dismiss the case with prejudice without ruling on the pending motion for approval of the consent decree: “After an extensive review by current Department of Justice and Civil Rights Division leadership, the United States no longer believes that the proposed consent decree would be in the public interest.”
Minneapolis will have to continue to destroy itself without the help of the Federal Government.
On a different subject, if you are not already a subscriber, you may not know that we’ve implemented something new: A weekly newsletter with unique content from our editors for subscribers only. These essays alone are worth the cost of the subscription.
Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.