The logic-defying pledges to defund police departments while also allowing “autonomous zones” to birth and fester is the bane in cities which allow such atrocities, and law-abiding tax-paying citizens are socially, emotionally, economically, and physically succumbing to the will of political panderers satiating those who demand undue indemnity.
Recent reports out of Minneapolis explain how a felony crime was committed against a merchant. “Dan,” the proprietor of Mill City Auto Body, was assaulted and robbed, requiring emergency medical attention/transport. Problem (a big one) was that a certain tract of city streets was cordoned off with barricades emplaced by activists, essentially copycatting Seattle’s “autonomous zone.” The Mill City Auto Body crime scene is within said autonomous zone.
Per KSTP, the Minneapolis-based autonomous zone to which we are referring is “a four-block area” in the vicinity of George Floyd Square.
The significantly injured crime victim necessitated both police and EMS personnel to respond; they did so…until they were impeded by the autonomous zone barricades. Response time increased while Dan suffered further and his accoster had more time to escape justice, an otherwise avoidable tragedy if not for the ludicrous concept of defunding public safety and unjustly demonizing cops.
Dan explained his circumstances for the Minneapolis media: “I had a broken cheekbone, teeth missing, stitches in my head and I was knocked out. It took police and the ambulance a very long time to get here because they had a hard time getting inside the barricades.” How shameful! What if he were shot or stabbed and bleeding out? Then what? That easily could have been a life unsaved due to a coup aided and abetted by local “leaders” holding elected office. Sounds as if Dan was sort of held hostage not only by a criminal imposing his will but also by anarchists taking territory and making demands to the detriment of others, doesn’t it? All permitted by the powers occupying City Hall.
And we have larger examples transpiring in the Big Apple, where crime is incessant and big city governance is betraying its primary role of public safety.
New York City mayoral candidate Bill Pepitone (a former NYPD cop) called the Big Apple for what it is nowadays: An “anarchist jurisdiction.”
“Our city is now an ‘anarchist jurisdiction,’” decried Pepitone. “This is what happens when there is zero leadership from City Hall.
“This is what happens when a mayor condones and encourages riots, looting, arson, and assaults, and certain members of City Council create ludicrous laws that essentially neuter the police and embolden violent criminals.
“This is what happens when a mayor paints and graffities streets to antagonize the President of the United States, all while begging for a federal bailout. When a government refuses to uphold its primary responsibility of protecting its people.
“What happens is the hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens suffer the consequences, and we will.”
Mr. Pepitone concluded: “New York City [is] an ‘anarchist jurisdiction.’ The time is coming where we will have one last chance to save it.”
Pepitone quoted the term anarchist jurisdiction, meaning the words were spoken by someone else. That someone else is none other than United States Attorney General Bill Barr, the nation’s top cop who is an unwavering supporter of law enforcement practitioners. But Mr. Barr was not the one who originated the term either, it was President Donald Trump who wrote those words in a memorandum to his administration officials, the purpose of which was to counter the slashing of police budgets while crime spreads like unmitigated cancer.
In part, the president’s memo instructed certain authorities among his administration: “…to the heads of agencies on restricting eligibility of or otherwise disfavoring, to the maximum extent permitted by law, anarchist jurisdictions in the receipt of Federal grants.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council hacked one billion dollars from the NYPD budget of $6 billion. The city’s maneuver to significantly slash the NYPD budget also meant not hiring 1,161 new police officers, at a time they are so direly needed. This, while radicals run rampant and generate a modern-day Woodstock, except there is little peace, love and happiness among the five boroughs (counties) comprising Gotham and its roughly 8.5 million population served by a dwindling police force of approximately 34,000 cops.
It is noteworthy that, despite New York City governance (to include the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo) arrogantly spanking cops for trying to swim upstream, the offer of federal law enforcement assistance to combat crime in the Big Apple was declined. This, while the mayor’s hand was still extended for roughly $7 billion federal dollars allocated for the city.
In keeping with the White House directive to rescind federal aid to municipalities condoning anarchist behavior and literal takeover of city streets (ala Seattle and Minneapolis), the U.S. Department of Justice formulated a list of those jurisdictions catering to unmitigated violence.
In the context of our topic as it relates to “anarchist jurisdictions” and innocents who suffer consequences, Mr. Barr offered the following in a Department of Justice press release: “When state and local leaders impede their own law enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected, including those who are trying to peacefully assemble and protest.
“We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of citizenry hangs in the balance.” That sounds like a derivative of what occurred in Minneapolis, with Mr. Dan being an unattended victim due to activists thwarting first responders and critical aid.
Barr continued, “It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.”
According to the New York Post, three cities have been identified so far: New York City, Seattle, and Portland. One may suspect that Minneapolis, Atlanta, Kenosha, and others may be under the federal microscope too. We shall see…
As I was composing this material, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis went live and publicized how “lawless jurisdictions” will not be tolerated, that the state will “back up law enforcement” efforts to quell anarchist activity and impose law and order…punctuating his message by saying any ensuing violent “protests” radicalized by bad actors can expect “a ton of bricks raining down” on them.
The rule of law and defense of police officers emanated from the podium at which Florida government boasted “empowering law enforcement,” announcing state legislation titled the “Law Enforcement Protection Act.” In the brief press conference, the torpedoed morale of law enforcement officers was emphasized, synonymously complimented by doing for LEOs in Florida what other states failed to do for their police warriors enduring something like Portland’s 100-plus days of protests, many not-so-peaceful and rife with anti-police tsunamis.
For his authority as Florida governor, DeSantis followed suit with the posture taken by the White House: any law enforcement agencies defunded by cities in Florida can expect to have state aid rescinded. The rule of law is tantamount, and the governor is putting money where his mouth is.
As for our victim’s situation in the Minneapolis autonomous zone, a Minneapolis police report elaborated on the impediment to respond to Dan’s calls for help and how activists treated cops and EMS attendants: “The crowd from the George Floyd Memorial began moving toward us and people were hollering that they were going to kick our asses and that we would have to kill them.”
In rebuttal, a so-called citizen organizer at the autonomous zone, Marcia Howard declared, “They came in unimpeded, unfettered with EMS.” Perhaps EMS had easy flow, but what about the cops? Howard continued, “They are not being met with violence or hostile crowds and any suggestion otherwise is a blatant lie.” Well, that’s the word from someone openly admitting affiliation with a group taking over land to which it has no sovereign entitlement, otherwise named “The Free State of George Floyd.”
Hoping for some clarity from Minneapolis officials, only contradiction ensued: “There is no autonomous zone in the area […] or anywhere else in the City of Minneapolis. Laws and enforcement responsibilities have not changed for any part of the city.”
Per KTSP, however, “The [city spokesperson’s] statement also said the city is in negotiations with people occupying the zone and is working toward a phased reopening of the area sometime ‘before winter.’”
So, some “people” took over and occupy/restrict some city streets, and city officials engage in negotiations to regain their own territory which they had no right to cede to radicals with a cause. Sounds like Minneapolis belongs on a certain DoJ list, no?