Sometimes people accidentally say the quiet part out loud.
It is called a "Kinsley Gaffe," named after the liberal political reporter who pointed out the phenomenon where a politician or pundit gets himself into hot water by accidentally telling the truth.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara is acting more as a politician these days than a police officer. Police officers, as I understand it, do not order each other to ignore dangerous public disorder, especially when fellow law enforcement officers are getting ambushed and assaulted by mobs.
O'Hara is also acting as a political flak pushing the messaging of the Governor and Mayor Frey. As a political appointee, that should not surprise us, but it is also a reminder that he is in his position not because he is the most effective law enforcement officer in the city or the best leader; in fact, he came here from Newark, New Jersey, where he was Deputy Mayor.
I bet you didn't know that. Our police chief was chosen out of all the options, being plucked from a highly political position from a different state, and from a city that looks as much like Minneapolis as does Mogadishu. Well, that is a bit unfair, but still.
O'Hara's great achievement was implementing a massive DEI push to comply with a federal consent decree, and he pushed so far so fast that it created chaos in the department. A consensus leader he was not; what he was was a political operative, which is how he wound up as an appointed Deputy Mayor.
Mayor Frey picked O'Hara precisely because he was a lefty, hoping that a lefty Police Chief would satisfy the "Defund the Police" crowd while still having public safety chops and a long history of having served in the Newark Police Department, which interacts with an 88% minority population. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. Police, but lefty police.
Outrageous, here’s the clip 👇https://t.co/EFYMUKOa9T
— Kevin Kijewski (@KevinKijewski) January 25, 2026
O'Hara doesn't exactly have a stellar record when it comes to maintaining morale in the department, which is currently well below the level mandated by the city charter. And there is a good reason: he believes that when there is a conflict between law enforcement and people in the public, the mob should rule.
Jonathan Turley hits the nail on the head when he describes this approach to public safety:
Law enforcement officers do not expect blind deference on shootings. However, they have a right to expect a fair chance for an investigation to hear their side of a shooting — not a governor or a mayor rushing before cameras to effectively accuse them of murder.
At this point, it may not matter. Only the mob matters. Minneapolis Brian O’Hara explained: “even if there is an investigation that ultimately proves that at the time of the shooting it was legally justified, I don’t think that even matters at this point, because there just- there is so much outrage and concern around what is happening in the city.”
Walz has demonstrated politics of the lowest kind, stoking anger as citizens and officers alike are injured. Walz is pledging to go to court to stop further operations—a lawsuit that would be another frivolous filing. Previously, the state, including Attorney General Keith Ellison, filed to prevent the federal government from increasing forces to investigate fraud and immigration violations.
Walz, Maye, and others are following a long line of demagogues who sought to use social unrest to advance their political careers. For Walz, sending people into the streets has the benefit of not having them at home watching and reading about the growing fraud scandal in his state.
It is not a defense of democracy, but mobocracy in Minnesota.
O'Hara, Minneapolis' chief law enforcement officer, has joined with Governor Walz, Attorney General Ellison, and Mayor Frey in arguing that the mob should rule, and each of them has worked very hard to stoke up the anger of the mob and increase the number of conflicts between law enforcement and the mob.
BREAKING - At least two Democrat Minnesota state officials and a campaign adviser to Tim Walz, Amanda Koehler, have been identified as “admins” and “dispatchers” in a now-leaked Signal group chat used to stalk and impede federal immigration operations in the state. pic.twitter.com/qkZcvAB9cZ
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) January 25, 2026
It is well known that ICE and the Border Patrol are leery of informing Minneapolis police of their whereabouts now because every time they do, somebody in the Department leaks the information. A Minneapolis City Councilwoman is organizing members of the mob and administering a Signal channel directing protesters. Other councilmembers are participating in the disruption of law enforcement efforts. Hennepin County prosecutors are participating in felonious protests.
Good find in the Don Lemon footage from @lukerosiak: one of the protesters he spoke with is a top aide for the Soros prosecutor in Minneapolis that would be responsible for prosecuting the church protest.https://t.co/t73Vlbu9EE
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) January 20, 2026
They are all stoking the chaos and then demanding that law enforcement stop enforcing the law because of the chaos they are causing.
I have called this the "heckler's veto" strategy; if you generate enough chaos, you get to decide who can do what. If you are aggressive enough, the rules don't apply to you.
And the chaos is not organic. It is well-funded, well-planned, and is the product of a coordination between outside activists (many of whom get government funding) and government officials.
This is the manual instructing people on how to interfere with law enforcement operations pic.twitter.com/sslWhQzUCi
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) January 25, 2026
Trump may be right about his reluctance to use the insurrection act to quell the chaos, but that is a tactical question in a political war; but practically speaking, this really IS an insurrection, with state and local officials demanding that they have veto power over the federal government and federal laws.
Their claim is that "Minnesota values" trump federal law and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Last I checked, that was the same claim made by the slave states when they seceded.
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