A quick question for the Mayor and the City Council of Minneapolis. How’s that whole “abolish the police” thing working out for you so far? The plan has hit a few rocky patches, with the Charter commission recently suggesting perhaps they need to slow down a bit before turning over control of the streets to social justice workers and armed militias. So it’s turning out to be a bit of a problem for the politicians. But do you know who’s really been benefitting from the shrinking number of cops on the force? Carjackers. The most recent numbers show that Grand Theft Auto has moved off of people’s Playstation screens and into the real world, with a spike in automobile thefts happening in numbers far outside of any statistical anomaly. (CBS Minnesota)

Brazen robberies and car thefts, often in broad daylight, highlight a growing problem across the city.

According to Minneapolis Police Department crime data, there have been 2,170 stolen vehicles this year through July 26. That’s a 46% increase over the same time period in 2019 — when 1,485 auto thefts happened.

There have been 886 robberies, a jump of 36% over the same time last year.

CBS reviewed the case of Olivia Arnold and her boyfriend, a man who does gig-economy food deliveries for a side job. He had pulled over at a customer’s house and in the ten seconds it took for him to jump out of his vehicle and drop off the delivery, a waiting thief jumped behind the wheel and took off. And they aren’t alone in experiencing these problems.

Across the city, there has been a 46% increase in vehicle thefts along with a 36% rise in robberies. In the city’s third precinct they’ve seen an increase of more than 100% in robberies, while car thefts are up by 67%. These property crimes come on the heels of a reported surge of violent crimes in similar proportions that Ed reported on last week.

It’s not hard to believe that the City Council simply isn’t listening to the concerns of its own citizens. One resident named Steve Taylor who was interviewed for this report sees things going off the rails.

“When (City) Council has their own armed security and community members are being robbed at gunpoint often in broad daylight, that just seems unfair.” …

“I think we need more police. Of course we need reformed police and better police that police all of Minneapolis equally, keep everyone equally safe from violent criminals,” Taylor said.

Ironically, when the CBS reporters finished interviewing Mr. Taylor, they turned around and their cameras caught “a road rage incident involving a baseball bat” at the corner up the street from his house. And this was all taking place in broad daylight with no police in the area responding to the incident.

This is obviously the result of elected officials responding to mobs committing crimes by trying to eliminate the police to appease them. Criminals see what’s going on and they move in to take advantage of the situation. How was all of this not entirely predictable for the people in charge? The actual protesters in the streets (as opposed to all of the rioters and other criminals) make up only a small percentage of the entire city’s population. And most of those people expect the municipal government to keep them safe. That job isn’t currently being done. But if the residents of the city go back in the fall and keep electing the same people again, we really can’t have all that much sympathy for them.