Minneapolis residents, who still hope to see their police department abolished, are baffled by the huge National Guard presence and fortification at the site of the ongoing Chauvin trial. City officials have been placed in an impossible position by their own actions over the past year and their troubles are likely to only get worse. The heavily militarized defense of the trial raises a number of troubling questions for the city which was meant to lead the charge on defunding the police.
Consequences of the anti-police movement
Democrat politicians were generally won over last year by the shrill and violent calls for police abolition, rushing to embrace the Black Lives Matter riots before they became the next targets of the mob.
Increasingly, however, local leaders who supported the cause are beginning to understand that they are really expected to put these radical proposals into action. Minneapolis has been desperately trying to appease rioters with impractical plans for defunding the police and time is now running out for the city.
With the arrival of the long awaited trial of Derek Chauvin all eyes are once again on a Minneapolis which is positioned to face even more chaos and destruction. Regardless of how the trial ends, the violent mob which the left has embraced and encouraged is likely to repeat the events of 2020.
For now, terrified city officials have realized that without the police they can only rely on the Minnesota National Guard and an increasingly heavy ring of fortifications around the Hennepin County Government Center, where the trial is being conducted.
It is an unpleasant surprise for Black Lives Matter “activists” in Minneapolis, who expected to be allowed to loot and burn again without repercussions to show their displeasure about the results of the trial.
With protesters outside calling for the removal of the National Guard in addition to the police, local Democrats are finding themselves at risk of being eaten by their own revolution if they do not comply and send away their only protection.
Minneapolis ready to burn again
The fact that the National Guard is protecting government buildings in Minneapolis reveals that leftist politicians there are not completely out of touch with reality.
Clearly the city government understands that their constituents are ready to sack the courthouse and other government buildings in the absence of a police force protecting them.
It was easy for the far left to force leading Democrats to adopt their radically anti-police stance. Those who hold office, however, have struggled to address the fact that it is impossible to run a large city without a well funded police force.
Leftist protesters have apparently seen through the attempt to employ National Guard protection as an alternative for the police, declaring that they are still feeling “very much overpoliced.”
Homicides in Minneapolis have already doubled since the beginning of the anti-police protests and riots, a trend which has been replicated in other cities which attempt to pull resources and support away from their police departments in response to their own protests.
As Minneapolis continues this downward spiral, tensions nationwide are certain to rise in a repeat of the Summer of 2020. It is abundantly clear that the leadership of major cities will be just as unprepared this year to control the chaos and upheaval which saw them burn last year.
