MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a member of the controversial progressive “Squad” and advocate of the “defund the police” movement, has recently seen the 5th Congressional District that she represents – made up of the city of Minneapolis – experience a huge spike in crime in a majority of categories.
One year ago, Omar had supported an effort to disband and replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a public safety service, but ultimately the effort was not supported by her constituents, who successfully voted down the measure.
Since then, however, crime in Minneapolis in 2022 has increased dramatically, with nine of the 14 categories showing distinct jumps year-over-year, according to Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute’s policing and public safety initiative, who said that the anti-law enforcement sentiment fostered by Omar and other progressives is partly to blame.
“Minneapolis is a case study in what happens when municipal leaders decide to demonize the police and criminal justice system for their political advantage,” he said. “As in many other big cities, homicides and other violence spiked in the city following the murder of George Floyd and rise of the defund the police movement…a movement to which Minneapolis uniquely capitulated.”
After Floyd died while in Minneapolis Police custody in 2020, the city was wrought with violent protests, riots, looting, and vandalism, and crime rates have remained at elevated levels ever since; in 2021, the city was just one homicide shy of tying its all-time record of 97, originally reached in 1997.
So far in 2022, Minneapolis has seen a 32.3 percent year-over-year increase in vehicle theft, a 30.4 percent increase in larceny/thefts, a 21.1 increase in carjackings, a 12.8 increase in destruction of property, an 11.4 percent increase in assaults, and a 10.3 percent increase in burglaries/breaking and entering.
Omar’s anti-police sentiment nearly caused her to lose her job; in last Tuesday’s Democratic primary, she narrowly won against pro-police challenger Don Samuels – who was endorsed by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey – by less than 3,000 votes, compared to the 35,000 votes she won 2020’s primary by.
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