Walz Botched Riot Control, Minneapolis Burned

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz withheld law enforcement responses following 2020 Minneapolis riots triggered by the May 25^th death of George Floyd that destroyed more than 1,500 buildings and businesses with damage estimated at $500 million.

Although the livelihoods of business owners and residents annihilated by the mayhem and carnage were incalculable, most of the Minneapolis rioters faced no consequences; police were too overwhelmed to make many arrests, and almost nobody was prosecuted.

Making matters worse, V.P. Kamala Harris worked to raise donations to a Minnesota Freedom Fund that bailed out arsonists, looters and other criminals.

Those riots were particularly devastating to less affluent neighborhoods where numerous minority business owners lost everything, while V.P. Harris nevertheless supported cashless bonds for the offenders.

At 6:30 p.m. of that first day, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey asked Gov. Tim Walz to activate the Minnesota National Guard, then followed up with a written request at 9:11 p.m.

Walz didn’t respond until 4 p.m. the next day — May 26 — when he signed an executive order activating 500 state soldiers.

By the time the Guard arrived on May 28, it was too late to save the Third Police Precinct station which had become overrun and torched immediately after about 10 p.m. when Mayor Frey had ordered its evacuation.

Whereas the limited number of Guard troops initially called to duty was insufficient by then to quell the growing bedlam, on the morning of May 30 Walz finally activated the entire Minnesota National Guard of more than 5,000 soldiers and airmen who eventually restored order.

At a previous May 29 press conference, Gov. Walz had thanked the rioters for their “commitment to safely protest during this pandemic” — an apparent reference to wearing masks —a nd “encouraged everyone to be safe, especially in light of the COVID 19 pandemic.”

Attributing the riots to systemic racism, Walz described himself as “saddened to see that some of the protesters were in harm’s way,” whereby “The ashes are symbolic of decades and generations of pain, of anguish, unheard.”

And the primary perpetrators of the oppression and suffering?

Walz spoke of “people who are concerned about that police presence of an overly armed camp in their neighborhoods that is not seen in communities where children of people who look like me run to the police, others have to run from.”

Putting this alleged oppression by police in perspective it might be noted that of 309 Black people shot in Minneapolis in 2021, only one was by a law enforcement officer who was returning fire, with the remaining 99.7% of Black victims shot by civilians who were overwhelmingly Black as well.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis homicides nearly doubled from 2019 when Walz became governor to 2021, and aggravated assaults were up by one-third. Carjackings increased more than fivefold between 2019 and 2020 and remain at record levels, often caused by armed juveniles as young as 12.

The Minneapolis riots and Walz's response have taken an obvious toll on police morale as officers fear accusations of racism if they make too many stops and arrests in high-crime neighborhoods. Consequently, retirements and recruitments by 2023 dropped the city’s patrol strength to the lowest level in at least four decades.

Nevertheless, although Minnesota’s incarceration rate had already been dropping in tandem with the rise in crime, Gov. Walz signed legislation in 2023 to lessen criminal penalties, expunge convictions and reopen felony murder sentences.

So far, since Gov. Walz took office in 2019 homicides are up 112% in Minneapolis overall (300% in the Third Precinct), with robberies up 84%. Crime in the state is up 12% since 2019.

And whereas Walz has been banefully prone to be restrictive of police regarding true criminal activities, he has proved far less so regarding peaceful citizens who violate his self-imposed executive mandates.

In March 2020, Walz’s administration implemented a hotline encouraging people to snitch on their neighbors who weren’t following his government’s COVID lockdown orders. The tattle-tale line remained operational until June 2022.

Lisa Hanson, a law-abiding wine and coffee bistro owner and mother of eight children about 90 miles south of Minneapolis was thrown in jail for violating Walz’s COVID lockdown orders which were putting many small establishments out of business.

Hanson had joined a group of nearly 200 fellow business owners called "Open Minnesota," believing the governor, supported by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, was operating "in a rogue fashion outside the law."

Although Hanson had initially complied with the shutdown ordered in March 2022, the closures were never lifted months later for businesses deemed “nonessential” such as bars, restaurants, gyms, dance studios and hair salons, whereas by contrast, Gov. Walz never shut down liquor stores, big-box stores, or even strip clubs.

Gov. Tim Walz appears to have his regulatory priorities exactly backward, extending gratitude to masked rioters who certainly didn’t honor social distancing rules and terrorized poor businesses and residents while closing honest and valuable businesses who, simply to survive, violate arbitrary executive mandates.

In short, that same governor who waffled in failing to protect citizens and businesses when Minneapolis burned, then again turned his back on justice in encouraging them to snitch on one another and destroy constitutional freedoms of assembly and commerce, is now a vice presidential candidate pursuing a key role in torching criminal justice across the entire country.

Let’s not make Minnesota tyranny and lawlessness a model for America.