Can Minneapolis Make a Comeback?

A reminder for those who forget about the riots that ruined an American city.

For five days and nights following the death of George Floyd on May 25, the city of Minneapolis was the scene of riots, arson, and looting. A two-mile stretch of Lake Street, located twenty blocks south of downtown, was almost completely burned. Local politicians’ reactions to the riots were sympathetic: officials expressed solidarity with the rioters’ concerns, the Minneapolis Police Department’s Third Precinct station house was abandoned to the rioters, and force adequate to end the violence, in the form of the National Guard, was not used for several days. Minneapolis’s City Council responded to the Floyd riots by vowing to defund the city’s police department. Lacking legal authority to do that, the Council passed a measure that would put defunding the department on the ballot at this year’s election, an initiative that the city’s Charter Commission mercifully tabled. Nevertheless, retirements and disability claims have significantly reduced the police department’s manpower. A group of Minneapolis residents, mostly black, have sued the city, alleging that the number of police officers has fallen below the legally required minimum. Subscribers, click here to read the full magazine. Not a subscriber? Click here to become a Patriot member today and receive access to The American Spectator in print and online! In the three months after the riots, there were forty homicides in Minneapolis, an increase of 150 percent over the average of the previous five years. Violent crime of all types spiked, and gunfire was reported at dozens of locations around the city. Then, on August 26, rioters attacked the Nicollet Mall, the heart of downtown Minneapolis. The Target store on the ground floor of Target Corporation’s headquarters was sacked. Arsonists burned a popular bar. Looters smashed the windows of department stores and walked out with armloads of merchandise. Law enforcement was more or less absent. Since then, an uneasy peace has settled over the city, while crime contin...