Are Minneapolis’s Police Protests Causing a Crime Wave?

[Geee]

Free Beacon

An average of over 50 gunshots per day have plagued Minneapolis since the police killing of George Floyd led to city and nationwide protests, prompting fears that hostility to the police is driving a violent crime wave.

The bloodshed has included gunfire at a park full of children in broad daylight and more than 70 rounds loosed on a crowded street in the city's Uptown. The Star Tribune reports that the violence has also spread to St. Paul, with firearms discharges double 2019 levels.

This violence, coming amid rising anti-police sentiment, raises the specter of the much-debated "Ferguson effect," originally coined to refer to a rise in violence coincident with—and, some argue, caused by—the 2014 protests sparked by the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Minneapolis, the city council of which is moving to disband its police department amid public hostility, seems like a perfect test of whether the effect holds today.

Official data released by the Minneapolis Police Department, however, paint a complicated picture of crime in the city. Floyd's death on May 25 was followed by an unprecedented spike in gun assaults, but overall levels of crime in the ensuing weeks have remained in line with historical trends.

[Valin]

The Callousness of Liberals, Exemplified

John Hinderaker

July 24, 2020

The Minneapolis Effect is easily measurable: in the wake of the George Floyd riots, law enforcement has pulled back, with police stops down by as much as 90 percent. In this anti-police environment, criminals have taken over the streets. Violent crime has spiked. (Non-violent crime is way up too, but no one has time to worry about that.) This map shows gunfire activity in the City of Minneapolis during 2020:

At last count, homicides were up by 100%. One of the victims was a 17-year-old boy who was shot last night, a few blocks from the homeless encampment at Powderhorn Park.

In response, a Minneapolis resident expressed her concern about “the lack of police & what it’s doing to our community” to U.S. Senator Tina Smith. Here, the resident shows us what she got back from the senator’s office:

(Snip)