The second, and even more important reason I’m leaving Minnesota is that crime has destroyed much of what I used to enjoy in the Twin Cities. Up until a few years ago, I thought to avoid being a victim of violent crime all I needed to do was avoid being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But today in the metro area, every place could be the wrong place at any time of every day.

A few weeks ago, a resident of bucolic St. Anthony Park was shot dead outside his home at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday. Car thefts are up 95% this year in Minneapolis, and carjackings, a crime seldom heard of before 2020, occur every week throughout the metro. At the recent Art-A-Whirl studio tour in northeast Minneapolis, a 70-year-old woman was sent to the hospital when she was randomly punched in the face as she crossed the street to go to a restaurant on a Friday evening.

Because of high crime, the downtown Minneapolis restaurants I used to enjoy are closing early or permanently. The Basilica Block Party is gone, and you couldn’t pay me to attend the new Taste of Minnesota July 4th block party on Nicollet Mall after last year’s July 4th mass shooting and private fireworks anarchy. Even the State Fair at night has become a risky proposition.

As Rep. Ilhan Omar asked recently, “What happens if I am killed?” But unlike her, I don’t have armed security[.]

(via Power Line’s Scott Johnson)

[We left Minnesota in 2021 for a number of reasons, most of them having to do with health, mobility, and weather. But I can’t pretend that the same issues Root cites in this column didn’t play a significant role in pushing us toward that decision, especially the crime that the state and local authorities ignored or demanded that its citizens ignore. The ruling clique in Minnesota abandoned the people they’re supposed to serve, and instead are serving themselves and their own personal whims and agendas. Minnesota Nuts pretty much sums it up, and I’m happy to be several states away from it. Maybe I can convince my pals at Power Line to join me in central Texas at some point. — Ed]