I chatted yesterday with an older Bay Area Democrat with orthodox political views. For example, he transitioned from supporting Obama to Hillary to Biden to Kamala without noticing that there was any difference in their political views or plans. He tries to be moderate and calm so, rather than describe his plans to #resist, his position regarding the civil unrest in Minneapolis is that ICE agents should have “better training” and that this would reduce the number of riots and also prevent a repeat of the Alex Pretti shooting. I pointed out that ICE’s job was to apprehend undocumented enrichers and send them home. There was no reason to expect that they’d be trained in crowd control, have the necessary horses and equipment, etc. Crowd control required a lot more officers and was usually the job of a city police force.
Based on the videos that are circulating, Minneapolis is home to daily street brawls. Progressives fight against ICE agents, sometimes just making a lot of noise but also sometimes there is shooting when armed combatants on opposing sides get too close to each other. While these confrontations in the filthy snow proceed on camera the local police aren’t in the frame. Are the Minneapolis police relaxing in warm donut shops miles away? Aren’t the police supposed to “keep the peace” even if it means getting out in the miserable weather and even if they’re told by their mayor and governor not to assist the federal government (other than by using day cares to prevent the feds from accumulating too much taxpayer cash)?
I guess we can presume that the street brawls aren’t happening in elite neighborhoods because the elites would then demand that the peace be kept. But the police in most cities will go out to stop a brawl even in a non-elite neighborhood.
(A neighbor here in Jupiter pocket-dialed 911 around 9 pm a couple of years ago and, despite telling the operator that she didn’t need any help, four police cars arrived to investigate/assist. I was walking Mindy the Crippler with a neighbor who has two golden retrievers and came upon the scene. I asked an officer who was standing by his car if there had been a golden retriever attack. If the cops had shown up to find a brawl between ICE and some other group, I have to believe that they’d have intervened and at least said “Why don’t you all go to Minneapolis where they don’t mind fighting in the streets?”)
Loosely related, Inspector Clouseau concentrates on the monkey license question while a bank robbery is in progress:
Finally, let’s not forget that the Minneapolis Police do sometimes take aggressive action, as when Mohamed Noor killed Justine Damond.
