The headline is a quote from Associated Press reporter Philip Crowther, who understandably worried where dozens of shots came from — and where they were going to as well. The journalist happened to be recording a video segment on today’s anniversary of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, using what’s now known as George Floyd Square as a backdrop. The shots rang out just as Crowther started to make a point about police reform efforts in Congress:

Here’s the moment shots were fired near George Floyd Square earlier this morning. pic.twitter.com/NIWRBr6b9Y

— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) May 25, 2021

“We’re okay, we’re okay,” a voice reassures Crowther, but not necessarily by much. The shooting actually took place one block over from Floyd Square, apparently still within the unofficial “autonomous zone” where police usually are reluctant to tread:

In a downtown park near U.S. Bank Stadium, the George Floyd Memorial Foundation is hosting a six-hour celebration starting at 11 a.m. that will have the feel of a festival while featuring guest speakers, music and dance. Games, food and inflatable attractions for children are also being planned.

At the intersection of 38th and Chicago, where Floyd was killed, a day of events are planned. “Rise & Remember,” a daylong event starting at 1 p.m., will include community art, children’s activities and concerts. A candlelight vigil is planned at the square for 8 p.m.

Setup for the event was temporarily jarred when police responded to call of shots fired at 10 a.m. one block from George Floyd Square and witnesses saw a vehicle speeding away. One person showed up at a nearby hospital for treatment of a non-life threatening gunshot wound, police said. Bystander video captured the sound of at least 20 rounds fired as people scrambled for cover.

As Crowther noted above, the people in the square aren’t terribly interested in reporting on all of the nuances of the zone. In the absence of police, the mob sets the terms, even for journalists.

On the issue of police reform, this is where Minneapolis stands — demanding less policing and getting more crime as a result. Mayor Jacob Frey had to start begging neighbors for extra law-enforcement personnel this week after months of escalating crime and police resource drains. My friend and neighbor John Hinderaker laments the city’s sharp decline over the past year, and wonders at Power Line if anything can be done now to stop it, let alone reverse it:

Above and beyond Minneapolis’s appalling crime statistics, there is a broader breakdown in social norms, in law and order. What used to be unthinkable has, over the past year, become not only thinkable but a daily reality.

Thus, lawless elements are drag racing on the city’s streets, cheered on by big crowds and apparently immune to arrest, as law enforcement retreats in response to hostility from the local political establishment. One such drag race recently culminated in a fiery crash in a tunnel used daily by many thousands of Minnesotans that was captured on camera. A couple of people burned alive.

In addition to drag racing, there is something called “burnouts.” Late last Saturday night, a big crowd–it looks to me like a couple thousand people–gathered in South Minneapolis to watch cars doing burnouts at a major Minneapolis intersection, Lake St. and Lyndale Avenue. This is not a slum, but rather the heart of “Uptown,” which historically has been one of Minneapolis’s main entertainment and retail districts. And yet large numbers of lawless individuals illegally blocked traffic on both major thoroughfares, in both directions. The festivities ended only when a car doing a burnout, whatever that is, inadvertently skidded into the crowd, sending at least one victim to a hospital. Personally, I find this video more shocking than an increase in gang violence[.] …

Has any country ever survived, let alone prospered, when led by elites that hate their own country? I doubt it. The City of Minneapolis is a pretty good guide to where the Left’s anti-American, anti-civilization policies are taking us.

When mob rule prevails, civilization inevitably declines. It only recovers when people stand up to the mobs and enforce the law. Minneapolis and especially its city council explicitly rejected law enforcement, and thus the predictable decline and rot are well under way. Thus far, Minneapolis doesn’t appear ready to do enforce the law for itself, even as Frey begs for nearby cities and the federal government to do it for them. Good luck with that request.