May 30-31, 2020

May 30 00:41 Jacob Frey, portrait of passivity
May 30 07:27 Gov. Tim Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey: portraits of DFL pacifist ineptitude
May 30 13:47 Minneapolis riots a result of DFL spinelessness
May 30 18:29 More DFL word salad

May 31 08:23 They'd had enough
May 31 23:18 What law enforcement reform should look like

Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr

Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

Jacob Frey, portrait of passivity

If Jacob Frey represents anything, it's that he represents passivity and spinelessness. In that sense, he's much like DFL Gov. Tim Walz. In my private emails with friends, I've said that Frey has played to perfection a "boy toy" because he hasn't shown any ability to make a decision that change the trajectory of his city.

Frey's spinelessness and lack of a plan have displayed weakness, too. According to Fox9's reporting, "Mayor Jacob Frey said he made the call to evacuate police officers from the 3rd Precinct before rioters set the building on fire Thursday night as protests continued to boil over in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd." Then it added humiliation to the defeatism, saying "Police said officers were able to safely evacuate as rioters breached the perimeter and started a fire that spread through the building. Shortly after, city officials warned protesters to move from the building after receiving reports that gas lines may have been cut."

Why have a police force if the mayor won't let them protect its citizens? Mayor Frey doesn't have a plan to stop the rioters. Neither does Gov. Walz. During this morning's press conference, Gov. Walz continually kept conflating the protesters with the rioters. They aren't the same. The rioters are out-of-town anarchists who don't give a damn about healing the divide. This is what passes for leadership in Minneapolis:

They urged people to move away from the building. In a tweet, Mayor Jacob Frey said the fire department is working to respond to the fires that have been set. However, he added, "We all need to work together to ensure the safety of our friends, family, and Minneapolis residents. And right now working together means clearing the area."

Frey said he made the decision to sacrifice the building and call off officers as rioters moved in. He told reporters early Friday morning that the decision came down to safety for both officers but members of the public. "Brick and mortar is not as important as life," Frey said.

What Frey isn't saying is that he's failed at his primary responsibility of protecting his citizens. If the people aren't safe, they'll move out quickly. In 2010, I wrote that "people voted with their mortgages." That's what they'll do this time, too. In this video, a reporter asked "Mayor, what's the plan here? What are we doing?" Frey responded by asking "With regard to?" The reporter replies "There's been a lot of businesses have been burned down. A lot of livelihoods have been burned. We've seen very little police."
[Video no longer available]
This is someone who isn't equipped for the situation. I've said this before but I'll repeat it again. Jacob Frey isn't a leader. He's a boy toy. If he ran for election in a real city, he wouldn't make it out of the primary.

Speaking with FOX 9, Fruetel confirmed that some National Guard soldiers had moved into the city but only 35 were made available to the department as of about midnight. The Guard said 500 soldiers had been mobilized to the metro.

It's painfully obvious that training for disasters isn't a priority for Frey. For instance, in Florida, the state equivalent of FEMA trains frequently so that their instincts kick in the minute a hurricane approaches. It's painfully obvious that the state of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis aren't trained. Their responses were more deer-in-the-headlights than leader-in-charge.

What's been interesting is that people of all political persuasions are calling for Walz's and Frey's resignations. With hundreds of businesses torched or looted, it's easy to sympathize with those calls.

Posted Saturday, May 30, 2020 12:41 AM

No comments.

Gov. Tim Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey: portraits of DFL pacifist ineptitude

The first affirmative responsibility of government, whether it's at the local, state or federal level, is to protect its citizens. In Minneapolis, Jacob Frey has failed miserably at this responsibility. If I graded him on a scale of A-F, he'd get an F-. It wouldn't take much to talk me into giving him a lower grade than that. The DFL mayor isn't capable of doing his job. Metaphorically speaking, he's in over his head in a mud puddle.

At the state level, Gov. Tim Walz has failed, too, though he hasn't failed as badly as Frey. Still, he's a portrait of incompetence. Just minutes ago, Gov. Walz posted this tweet:


Walz sounds more like he's pleading with the terrorists and anarchists to stop looting and rioting:

"The absolute chaos - this is not grieving, and this is not making a statement [about an injustice] that we fully acknowledge needs to be fixed - this is dangerous," Walz said. "You need to go home."

No shit, Sherlock. It's time for a real leader to stand up to these terrorists. Pleading with paid thugs to 'please go home' is a waste of time. They're paid to incinerate cities. They don't care if they aren't honoring George Floyd. This video of the middle-of-the-night press conference is embarrassing:
[Video no longer available]
Walz admits that the National Guard was numerically overwhelmed by the terrorists. Thursday night, when asked what the plan was, Frey answered the question with a question:



Implying that organized outsiders, perhaps including anarchists, white supremacists and drug cartel agents from outside Minnesota, were contributing to the chaos, Walz said, "The sheer number of rioters has made it impossible to make coherent arrests. ... The capacity to be able to do offensive action was greatly diminished" by the sheer scope and seemingly organized nature of the assaults.

Forget about arresting these thugs at first, you blithering idiot. Hit them with rubber bullets. Make them feel pain. Don't let these terrorists pillage the city. The arrests can happen afterwards. The first responsibility is to eliminate the threat to civilians and businesses.

In the 1970s, Democrats were known as appeasers and soft on crime. Today's Democrats are pacifist appeasers, too, cut from the same cloth as Jimmy Carter and George McGovern. Listen to this stupidity from Frey:

"Minneapolis, I know you are reeling," Frey said. "We as a city are so much more than this. We as a city can be so much better than this. There is no honor in burning down your city. There is no pride in looting local businesses that have become institutions of a neighborhood."

"If you care about your community, you got to put this to an end. It needs to stop," Frey said. "I know in my heart we can do it because I know in my heart that Minneapolis is everything we believe it to be."

If you aren't willing to use force to dispatch the terrorists, then Minneapolis isn't "better than this." At minimum, the city's leadership isn't better than this. When Frey said "I know in my heart we can do it", you hear the Frey inner child crying out. It's time to start a conversation with the citizens who are hurting. It isn't time to start a conversation with the terrorists looting and vandalizing the city. To the terrorists vandalizing the city, it's time to overwhelm them with everything, including the proverbial kitchen sink.

This isn't leadership:


Gov. Walz and Mayor Frey, you've failed in your most basic responsibilities. You let the city get terrorized and the businesses to get overrun. That's the definition of failure. Finally, that failure gets put solely at the feet of the DFL's pacifists.

Posted Saturday, May 30, 2020 7:27 AM

Comment 1 by eric z at 30-May-20 10:30 AM
Frey and the BCA and FBI need to get to the root of a pervasive culture of police brutality. There is Bob Kroll. There is banned "warrior" training still going on. The police are to be servants to and protective of the people; not feared killers. A RICO conspiracy of some proportion? Investigation may provide an answer.

Gary, don't sweep it under the rug. Black lives do matter.

Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 31-May-20 08:45 AM
Eric, to me, leadership, training & funding have always been the heart of this crisis. R.T. Rybak, Betsy Hodges &, I suspect, Boy Toy Frey have made it clear that they won't have their officers back. That means they aren't recruiting the best officers. That's essential for big city PDs. Their jobs are infinitely tougher than policing in smaller communities.



Too often, I've had to write about how these jackasses didn't get as much LGA as they wanted, which led to Minneapolis cutting officers. One story I wrote for Examiner.com talked about cutting 2 officers & a firefighter. The good news, from the city's perspective, was that they were able to retain their Bike Trail Coordinator at a salary of $125,000/yr.



Too often, the Black Lives Matters activists were terrorists. I wrote about how they stopped traffic on either 94 or 35 for a couple hours. When law enforcement showed up, BLM went up to the bridge & started throwing concrete blocks at the officers. That's terrorism. Period.



If the FBI & other law enforcement agencies are being taught how to crush a man's carotid artery, then that needs to stop immediately. Similarly, mayors & governors need to have their law-abiding officers' backs more often. It must be a partnership. It won't work any other way.



PS- Eric, you should read this article, too.

Minneapolis riots a result of DFL spinelessness

President Trump shouldn't let the Minneapolis riots continue another day. It's obvious that boy toy Jacob Frey and in-over-his-head Little Timmy Walz don't have the will to do what's needed to stop the rioters. Frey and Walz are pacifist Democrats in the truest sense of the word. They're as feckless as George McGovern or Jimmy Carter.

Ed Morrissey nails the problem in this post . He highlights the fact that Gov. Walz is mobilizing the National Guard:


Then Ed notes "Mobilizing is one thing. Having the will to use that force is very much another thing. If all Walz plans to do with a fully mobilized Guard is to conduct bigger retreats, he might as well leave them at home and have Trump call them up instead." At this point, there's no reason to think that Gov. Walz, or any other Democrat in the state, has the fortitude to stop these terrorists and anarchists. What's the result of the Democrats' pacifism and appeasement? This :

As of Saturday morning, at least 232 businesses across the Twin Cities had been vandalized, looted or had doors and windows smashed. Some have been reduced to rubble, destroyed completely by fire. Others have reported extensive water damage or severe fire damage.
While this is an incomplete list, businesses near the Third Precinct are likely to have experienced damage. As protests spread across the metro, many larger companies with multiple locations have temporarily or indefinitely closed, including several CVS and 24 Target locations. We will continue to update as we learn more.

At this point, Jacob Frey is totally worthless. Tim Walz is terrible but Frey is utterly worthless. Too often, they're siding with protesters without differentiating between local activists and out-of-town anarchists.

These Democrats' pacifism have cost lots of minorities their life savings, their businesses. That's totally unacceptable. It's time for a man with a mean streak to re-establish order. Add St. Paul DFL Mayor Melvin Carter to the list of pacifist idiots:
[Video no longer available]
It's ok to feel heartbroken. I feel it too. That's essentially Carter's message. It's word salad. What's needed in this time of crisis is a leader who will step forward and tell the rioters that their actions will be met with overwhelming force. The key is separating the legitimate activists from the terrorists. Once that's happened, it's time to make those terrorists pay for their actions. If the activists refuse to separate from the terrorists, then they deserve to feel the force of law enforcement.

Too many lives are getting destroyed. Too little action is being taken to protect the minority communities from the terrorists. This is typical Frey:

Frey also defended the city's largely hands-off approach with the looters. "We are doing everything that we can to keep the peace," he said, adding that National Guard members were stationed around the city at banks, pharmacies and grocery stores.

What peace? Buildings are burning. Livelihoods are being lost. This is the state of Frey's illusion.

Posted Saturday, May 30, 2020 1:47 PM

Comment 1 by Douglas Wilken at 31-May-20 10:14 AM
Gary, I think the Sheriff of Hennepin County is in the chain-of-command between Mayor Frey and Governor Walz. How has he managed to avoid getting in the news?

More DFL word salad

This article is typical of the gibberish that we've gotten from the MSM. It's also typical of the things DFL politicians have said, too. For instance, deep in the article, it says "Mayor Jacob Frey ordered a citywide curfew at 8 p.m. local time, beginning on Friday. In that city, peaceful protests picked up steam as darkness fell, with thousands of people ignoring the curfew to walk streets in the southern part of the city. Some cars were set on fire in scattered neighborhoods, business break-ins began and eventually there were larger fires."

Please explain how "peaceful protests" turn into a night when some " cars were set on fire in scattered neighborhoods, business break-ins began and eventually there were larger fires." I have a theory but it doesn't fit with what the AP reported. My theory is that peaceful protests is code for 'right before the rioting starts'. It shouldn't suggest that the rioters are peace-loving activists. It just means that they're waiting for sunset.

President Trump is intent on not letting the DFL word salad brigade deprive neighborhoods of law-abiding people of their right to earn a living and live the American dream. Earlier this afternoon, President Trump commented on the rioting in Minneapolis. Here is that speech:
[Video no longer available]
Thanks to the indecisiveness of DFL 'leaders' like Tim Walz and Jacob Frey, entire neighborhoods in Minneapolis and elsewhere have gotten torched. That isn't right. This article sets the right tone immediately:

We've just come back from surveying the wreckage of south Minneapolis and we're angry. Angry that our city is being burned and looted. Angry that residents are having to become firefighters, security staff, and janitors of their own streets. Angry that communities in need are losing vital stores and pharmacies. Angry that hard-working business owners are seeing their endeavors go up in smoke. And above all else angry that the killing of another black man by police is being perverted for selfish or nefarious ends.

It's become patently clear over the past few days that Minneapolis is currently the scene of two distinct groups: protesters and rioters.

That's exactly right. It's time to deploy what I call the first rule of bullies. Even though I'm a big guy, I've had to deal with schoolyard bullies before. I quickly figured out that most bullies will keep pushing the proverbial envelope until something changes.

I've found that the something that changes a bully's perspective quickest hitting them hard first . The guy that'll fight back is like the car with a visible security system. It isn't that the system is impenetrable. It's that the thief figures that there are other cars that are easier to heist so they just move onto that easier vehicle.

Thing is, until authorities start finding and arresting the culprits, we're not going to know their political persuasion. We're not going to know their motivations. We're not going to know where they live, though it's becoming increasingly apparent that the vast majority are not from Minneapolis, or even Minnesota.

It's time to kick the bully's knee out and put him in pain. That forces the Antifa bullies to, at minimum, rethink whether the looting is worth it.

Antifa doesn't have a reason to change their behavior until the DFL word salad bunch grows a spine.

Posted Saturday, May 30, 2020 6:29 PM

No comments.

They'd had enough

After 4 nights of unrestricted violence, residents of war-torn Minneapolis and St. Paul had had enough. They wouldn't rely on boy toy Mayor Jacob Frey to protect them from rioters. Saturday night, residents took matters into their own hands:
In Longfellow, Hillary Oppmann watched vandals loot the corner Walgreens for three straight nights without interference before arsonists finally lit it on fire last night. Firefighters didn't make it to the scene for more than 7 hours. "We can't lose anymore community assets, like our libraries, pharmacies and post office," said Oppmann, who lives three doors down from Lake Street. "They were simply left to burn."

The thing that Tim Walz and Jacob Frey didn't appreciate right away is that the rioters weren't just burning down buildings. It's that they were destroying communities, neighborhoods and livelihoods. These weren't just brick and mortar, as Frey said earlier this week.


The people of these neighborhoods had an attachment to these places. In some cases, they had worked in these buildings. In other cases, they had spent hours reading in a library.
Community members planned to fan out in small groups throughout the night to guard the various businesses in the area. The only damage the neighborhood had suffered as of Saturday night was a broken window at one of the properties the group owns.

"We just didn't want to leave them to be vandalized," Goze said. An immigrant business owner in the neighborhood had recently spent "all her money" to renovate her cafe, Goze said. "She was worried that it would be all lost, and so I decided that this is what we've got to do," he said.

These neighbors had invested too much in their neighborhoods and their small businesses. To them, these buildings weren't just brick and mortar.



Good leaders understand that. Walz and Frey didn't understand that.

Posted Sunday, May 31, 2020 8:23 AM

No comments.

What law enforcement reform should look like

I've been thinking for quite some time about what police reform would look like. Frankly, most of it is impossible to accomplish without significant citizen buy-in. One of the things that must change is getting ride of bad officers.

Officer Chauvin is a perfect example of what needs to happen but didn't happen. Various reports say he had anywhere between 12 and 18 citizen complaints. That can't be allowed to happen.

A friend of mine in law enforcement told me that officers often get disciplined and kicked off the force. This friend then told me that officers that often get booted from the force then file an appeal in court, where the court orders them to be reinstated.

Another thing that we discussed was how difficult it was to work in big cities. My friend said that big city mayors frequently don't put a high priority on public safety, instead putting a higher priority on quality-of-life issues than on public safety.

That's foolish because people don't care how many parks or bike trails there are when the city is overrun with violence. If cities don't get the core functions of government right, everything else is meaningless. That led the conversation in another direction. When Minneapolis or St. Paul don't get the money that they want in LGA, they immediately talk about cutting police and firefighters.

I might be wrong but I think that, under R.T. Rybak, they cut 2 officers and a firefighter but they were happy that they didn't have to cut the city's bike trail coordinator. This speaks volumes about liberals' priorities. The Democrats' priorities aren't America's priorities.

I used to think that more training was essential to better policing. Today, I'm convinced that better civilian leadership is essential. Politicians that moisten their finger, then play to the crowd, aren't leaders. They're just politicians. When holding office is more important than doing what's right, corruption quickly follows.

There's more to reforming law enforcement but that's enough for tonight to chew on. Check back with LFR later this week for more on the subject.

Posted Sunday, May 31, 2020 11:18 PM

Comment 1 by Nick at 02-Jun-20 12:09 PM
In 1967, the US Supreme Court basically gave law enforcement "qualified immunity", which shields public officials from liability, even when they break the law.

Comment 2 by eric z at 03-Jun-20 02:00 PM
The Attorney General will investigate, and there already is an administrative agency complaint of denial of civil rights.

The rule of law is being followed.

Jumping prematurely to conclusions is a path facing potential error and having to walk back inflammatory assertions.

Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 04-Jun-20 07:02 AM
What does that have to do with law enforcement reform? That being said, Ellison is a former defense attorney. Color me skeptical of his prosecutorial skills.

Popular posts from this blog

January 19-20, 2012

Image
Jan 19 02:57 Minnesota Majority report an indictment against Minnesota's election integrity Jan 19 03:41 Ron Paul's Logic Jan 19 08:08 Newt thrives despite Mitt's hatchet job efforts Jan 19 09:19 Potential Game-Changer: Perry dropping out this am Jan 20 05:12 Newt takes Sen. Santorum to proverbial woodshed Jan 20 00:56 ABC, CNN, crawl into bed with National Enquirer Jan 20 04:00 Child Care small businesses file federal lawsuit Jan 20 04:41 Mitt's biggest policy blunder Jan 20 18:58 Gingrich, Reagan re-united Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Newt takes Sen. Santorum to proverbial woodshed Rick Santorum was really feeling it Thursday night. Then he said something that's certain to cause him pain this morning. Here's what he said that got him in trouble: SANTORUM: But you also have to admit that this freshman congressman who wasn't supposed to win a race came and did something you never did, which is blew the li...
Read more

March 21-24, 2016

Image
Mar 21 01:28 SCSU's budget cuts? Mar 21 02:29 When will the Range change? Mar 21 08:54 DFL's Marty in charge of environment Mar 21 11:45 OLA report, DFL & Meyer Associates Mar 23 12:48 Liberals' definition of moderate Mar 23 14:37 DFL activists: Government is racist Mar 24 08:59 IRRRB: Revamping vs. scrapping Prior Months: Jan Feb Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 SCSU's budget cuts? Cuts in Athletics at SCSU - Will it Really Save Money? by Silence Dogood With a $6,000,000 "structural deficit" and the need to "rebuild reserves by at least $3 million," SCSU has a $9,000,000 hole in its' FY17 budget. It doesn't take a Noble Prize in economics to figure out that reductions in expenditures (i.e., cuts) are going to be made at SCSU. On the Wednesday before Spring Break, SCSU President Dr. Earl H. Potter sent an email to the campus community announcing cuts to the athlet...
Read more

October 31, 2007

Oct 31 01:01 Media Matter's Alter Ego? Oct 31 03:32 Iraqi Civilian Casualties Dropping Oct 31 10:52 Hillary's Panderfest Blows Up in Her Face Oct 31 13:15 Brod, Emmer Call For Investigation of Mark Ritchie Oct 31 19:43 Ritchie's 'Episode' a Tempest in a Teapot? Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Prior Years: 2006 Media Matter's Alter Ego? One Media Matters-like organization is already too many. It appears as though there's another liberal apologist blog out there. Their name is News Hounds . The post that caught my attention dealt with last weekend's interview of Justin and Darryl Sharraltt on Hannity's America. To say that their post didn't attempt to refute Justin's story is understatement. In fact, they jump right into criticizing Mr. Hannity: Last night's (October 27th) Hannity's America was a strange magazine format which combined stories about mediums and haunted houses...
Read more