Flanked by state troopers and Metro Transit police leaders, DFL Gov. Tim Walz declared at a press conference last week that increases in crime in Minnesota “are simply unacceptable.”
It was an official press conference, even if it looked and felt like a campaign event. As the incumbent, Walz gets to do incumbent things – official events that can also help your reelection campaign. In a close election, it’s the advantage Walz has.
But one of the disadvantages for incumbents – having your record out there – presented itself a day after the press conference: Just before 4 p.m. on Friday, the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released a report showing year-over-year violent crime incidence had jumped nearly 22 percent in Minnesota.
Walz’s Republican challenger, Scott Jensen, responded quickly.
“While we have all felt and seen lawlessness in our streets, today’s crime report data confirms Minnesota is experiencing a public safety crisis under Gov. Walz. Yet shockingly, Gov. Walz announced yesterday at a press conference he is going to maintain the status quo when it comes to public safety. Clearly, the status quo is not working,” Jensen said.
At the press conference, Walz had announced he would continue efforts to assist urban police departments with enforcement. Since spring the DFL governor has directed the Minnesota State Patrol to provide extra patrols around the Twin Cities and has partnered with local police to go after street racing. Twenty additional troopers plus helicopter and airplane patrols have been deployed. He also spent $7 million in federal America Rescue Plan money to pay for the extra state work.
“We’re here today to acknowledge to everyone in the metro area, statewide and nationwide that over the last several years the increases in crime are simply unacceptable,” Walz said over the chimes of light rail trains.
“We’re here to make it clear to Minnesotans that this presence is going to remain here, it’s going to remain strong while at the same time we haven’t reduced our core mission of trunk highway traffic safety,” Walz said. Residents should expect to see the increase in crime numbers to stop and start to come down, Walz said.
But the latest state crime statistics, called the Uniform Crime Report, are an example of a disadvantage of being the boss. The numbers aren’t pretty. Besides the nearly 22% increase in violent crime from 2020 to 2021, murders increased from 185 to 201 in that time. That compares to 104 murders statewide back in 2018. Aggravated assaults – defined by the U.S. Department of Justice as those accompanied by the use of a weapon or by other means likely to produce death or great bodily harm – jumped from 6,693 in 2018 to 10,967 in 2021.
Last year was the first year carjackings were counted separately from motor vehicle thefts so there aren’t comparisons to previous years. Still, there were 779 carjackings, defined as car thefts that involved the use of force or threat of force.
Asked ahead of the crime stats release why he was holding a special announcement that he was going to continue state law enforcement support in the Twin Cities, Walz said: “Because this is not the norm. It’s an unprecedented surge in support,” he said, while again calling for more money from the Legislature for overtime and support for local police departments.
“This is not a long-term, sustainable plan,” he said. “This is not how it works in any city or any state but we are surging in support of that.” How much longer? “We’ll do it as long as it’s necessary to do it.” Both he and his top cop said it is working.
“They’re catching bad guys and they’re holding people accountable,” said state Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington. “That’s the message I want everyone to understand. … If you commit a crime in Minnesota, you commit a gun crime in Minnesota, we’re coming after you.”
Crime and public safety have already been at the top of the Republican campaign agenda with Walz and DFL Attorney General Keith Ellison being blamed for the surge that began in the summer of 2020. Some blame the pandemic, which left young people locked down and desperate. Some blame the reduction in commissioned officers following the police murder of George Floyd, the riots that followed and the criticism of police culture and tactics that followed that.
Whatever the cause, most departments around the state and country are reporting reduced forces from increased departures and difficulty in hiring. Wes Kooistra, the general manager of Metro Transit, said his police force is 60 officers below its budgeted deployment – 30 from unfilled departures and 30 from unfilled new positions paid for recently by the Met Council.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]In June, Scott Jensen held his own press conference to talk about his plan for combating crime.[/image_caption]
The first deployment of extra state troopers came in May. After the fireworks chaos in downtown Minneapolis on the Fourth of July, the state increased its anti-street racing presence in the city. During the following weekend, The patrol said it made 1,459 traffic stops across the metro the weekend of July 9, recovering six guns and making 45 DWI arrests.
But Republican critics say even this response has been slow. House Republicans first called for the State Patrol to be used to help the Minneapolis Police Department in June 2021. Public safety was central to the GOP agenda during the 2022 legislative session. A June MinnPost/Change Research poll of likely voters shows crime as a top issue with 63 percent saying they strongly disapproved or somewhat disapproved of Walz’s job performance on the issue.
Jensen has taken advantage of the incumbent’s disadvantage. Walz was in charge when riots and arson broke out following the murder of Floyd, and there were delays in the deployment of state police and National Guard forces. During the delay, blamed on a miscommunication between Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, some of the worst damage occurred, including the destruction of the Third Police Precinct. But the deployment, a curfew and the plea from community and church leaders to stay off the streets, quelled the unrest.
Walz has also been in office during the crime surge that has hit most cities in the U.S. A disagreement with legislative Republicans over a response bill has led to an impasse on his requests for increased funding for local police agencies.
In June, Jensen held his own press conference to talk about his plan for combating crime. It, too, was well covered by regional news media. Jensen called for tougher penalties on carjacking, a ban on non-profit groups paying bail for those arrested for major crimes, and new scrutiny on judge appointees who have practiced “catch and release” for repeat offenders. He also called for increased literacy and skills training for those in prison and said he would deploy the National Guard quickly – and preemptively – if intelligence gathered by law enforcement suggests it is needed. (Walz did deploy the guard several times ahead of jury decisions in the trials of the former officers charged in Floyd’s death.)
“It starts with one question,” Jensen said on June 9. “Do you feel safer today than you did four years ago?”
The difference between a challenger’s plan and a governor’s announcement is that Jensen was announcing what he might do if elected, while Walz can talk about what he’s doing now.
When asked about Jensen’s plan, Walz said it has a significant gap.
“It has no funding,” Walz told MPR News the day after the primary.
So Gov Walz doesn’t support the elimination of catch and release justice, because there is no funding? Doesn’t sound like a winning platform.
What is the Republican platform? “Get tough on criminals?” Now, there’s an original thought. How do they propose to do that? And how do they propose to pay for it? And how do they propose to handle the longer-term implications of mass incarceration?
Making public policy is about a little more than getting a chorus of “Yeah!” from the folks listening to talk radio.
In the long-run, it’s a losing policy, and any attempts to extricate the state from it will be next to impossible because of the hype. Look at California’s “three strikes” law. Good, solid common sense tough-on-crime legislation driven by a populist radio host. A few years later, that law was changed dramatically, good, common sense notwithstanding.
And, for the last ****ing time, “Democrats” are not generally campaigning on “defunding the police.” The only ones who have been trotting out that phrase are Republicans. I’m sure that there are Democrats still campaigning, but they are definite outliers, despite what the right-wing agitprop mills are saying.
PS I know all about the Minneapolis initiative and am sick to death of explaining that it failed in a spectacular faction. It has nothing to do with anything anymore
Ilhan Omar and Keith Ellison campaigned to defund the Minneapolis Police Department . Both are continuing that position
The DFL endorsed candidate for Hennepin County Attorney campaign slogan is People not Prosecution
I agree with Omar you have been hypnotized into believing dems are always right and gop is always wrong
The crime that had the greatest adverse effect on our state and country was committed on January 6 when Trump incited an failed insurrection intended to install himself as an unelected dictator after Joe Biden decisively defeated him in the popular vote and the Electoral College. That event injured 140 police officers. Republican like to claim they support law enforcement. That proved those claims a lie.
In the last week, when the FBI leader honored a warrant sanctioned by a federal judge (both Trump appointees), Republicans have been threatening violence against the judge and the FBI. Scott Jensen had threatened a vendetta against the State Board of Medical Examiners, working off the Trump script, because it investigated his pandemic quackery. Matt Birk is in the same mold – he made his money pushing people around, and continuous by a person vendetta against non submissive women.
Want someone who believes in law and order, or someone who considers themselves and wants to use laws to order others around, Every leading Republican politician in Minnesota will say or do anything to get elected, other than come up with practical ideas to make our state the best place to live in the country for those who can hack cold weather.
For Jensen and Republicans to seize on crime alone is nothing but political theater. Of course they want to strike fear in the hearts of voters. But my fear is this: what if one of those Republicans had been in charge when the pandemic hit? There but for the grace of God…
If Jensen wants to criticize Walz on the issue of crime, he has a right to. But it would be less disingenuous if the doctor admitted his own party’s stiff arm resistance to the governor’s efforts to beef up crime prevention. Republicans would rather Minnesotans suffer than actually pitch in to try to solve the issues facing the state. Where is the leadership? Why have they left the table? Why are they kicking this can down the road past the elections? If Minnesota has real problems that need to be faced today, why are they standing outside, hollering about all the problems that aren’t getting fixed?
Thank goodness we have a few grownups in St. Paul.
“What if one of those Republicans were in office when the pandemic hit?” I was in Florida when the pandemic hit and one of those Republicans (Ron DeSantis) was in charge. We survived as well as MN without all the economic dislocations caused by shutting down everything, including our schools.
Good old DeSantis! I would say he’s making the trains run on time, but Republicans hate rail transport.
Walz and Frey sat back and watched a city burn.
Lawlessness is rampant.
It’s been two years and Walz hasn’t done much.
The public knows why Walz is afraid to debate.
Just watch how the media will cover for him.
Yes, it would be undignified for him to be seen laughing himself silly at something Dr. Jensen said.
So Jensen and the GOP is going back to their Willie Horton dog whistle roots. Cool. Did they ever stop to consider that cop numbers are down statewide because most people don’t want to work in historically corrupt, racist, and violent institutions? Combine that with the large number of MPD officers claiming fake PTSD leave and there’s your answer to lower numbers of police.
Don’t even get me started about the soft strike and shakedown culture of MPD withholding services in order to punish citizens while inflating crime stats. This is more about the former than it is about the later as traditional law enforcement has never been effective at preventing crime. Rebuilding public safety institutions is the only viable solution.
Cop numbers are down because cops are tired of putting their lives on the line every day, arresting armed gang bangers, and then watching them released back onto the streets hours later. Who wants a job where prosecutors and judges don’t have your back and aren’t willing to lockup repeated violent criminals who are terrorizing our cities.
Fake PTSD? Did you read their medical records? Please back up your accusations. There are issues with the DFL no doubt, throw money at something, hope it sticks, around and around we go. However, no way will I vote for Jensen. I may vote for some other lower level Republicans for office, but I don’t want a Dr. who denies science based covid facts, or a Governor and Lt. Governor who don’t have a grasp of why women work, or an understanding of how complex DHS is or what is needed. Both parties are failing.
The dems control Mpls city council and can anyone remember the last Mpls mayor who wasn’t a dem?
The conduct of the Mpls police department is the result of the Dem leadership of the Mpls Council and mayor
Defund the police is a dem idea.
The Mpls police force being down over 200 officers is the result/product of the leadership the dem Council and mayor. The mayor’s and council’s lack of support of the Mpls police resulted in almost 300 officers resigning, retiring or taking a disability leave
The Mayor has and always had complete control of the MPD regardless of what conservative PAC money said during the last campaign. Many MPD officers did indeed quit after a few of their peers were finally held accountable for killing black people. Many of those who quit are enjoying most likely fraudulent disability claims creating a big drain on the city budget.
Meanwhile, the cops who remain are on a passive strike–ignoring or delaying response to service calls; shaking down small businesses to provide “protection”–in order to further the fear based crime is out of control narrative and the Mayor proposes more and more money in the budget for an ineffective and deeply problematic department. Defund the police is something that never happened and is a part of the conservative fear monger PR campaign.
Walz has said or done very little to stop the lawlessness running amok in his city. A small percentage of people create most of the violent crime in any big city, lock them up. Minneapolis lets the criminals back on the street hours after being arrested. This no cash bail started with the Minneapolis fund to bail out the peaceful protesters that burned down the city on Walz’s watch. If a Governor of a state wanted to stop crime he would lock up all violent criminals and lock up repeat offenders. That takes care of most issues. Not that hard!
I was unaware that our Governor was also Mayor of Minneapolis? Does he also recieve credit for those areas of the state with low crime rates, or is that an honor residents of said backwaters reserve for themselves?
Matt, every city in the state is Walz’s city. He is responsible for all cities and the citizen’s safety all across Minnesota.
“Joe,” did you know that the Legislature is responsible for setting the penalties for criminal offenses, and that prosecutors who are elected at the county level are responsible for seeing that those convicted receive the lawful punishment? Did you know that this is not the job of (to borrow a term from another commenter) “Unilateral Tim?”
No RB, the cash free bail is being done by the AG with support from the Democrats. No Conservative would back letting violent criminals out without a high bail and repeat offenders let go time and time again. It is your policies that have caused the crime wave, at least own them.
“Joe,” you need some basic understanding of the government. The Governor is not the Attorney General. Prosecution decisions, including when to ask for bail, are handled at the county level by the county attorney, a separately elected office.
You should also understand that excessive bail is prohibited by the US and Minnesota Constitutions, in one of the many parts of those documents not referring to gun ownership (Who knew?). Minnesota’s Constitution also requires that all persons charged with a crime are eligible for bail (you should also know that bail is set before a person is convicted of a crime, when they are still presumed innocent of the charges. Its purpose is only to ensure that the accused shows up for future court appearances).
Bail is set by judges, not Democrats, and they are supposed to consider the threat to public safety when setting bail.
You know what is hard Joe ? Republicans who refuse to cooperate with sensible proposed weapons laws because they could take their campaign reelection funds away from Gun owners of America, NRA, ammunition suppliers, and white nationalist organizations like the Proud Boys, et. al.
Dennis, the first law that conservatives back is LEGAL gun ownership. If the Lefties actually cared about crime they would lock up anyone who committed a crime using a gun. Sadly some Lefties will use gun control talk to bypass having to look at the crime spree running amok in their city.
“Dennis, the first law that conservatives back is LEGAL gun ownership.”
What I’m seeing this year is that the first law they back is making abortion unlawful.
Aside from the fact that Jensen is a little bit crazy, his idea of Minnesota is just a little bit crazier. Minnesotans go to the polls with sound minds and trust in government. We’ll do the same in November.
Julie, what has Government done to earn our trust?
Put some thought to it Joe…you can start with the minimizing of the Covid cases and deaths because of sensible workable guidelines for the majority of Minnesotans who followed them and were not, and still are not, sucked into trump cultism.
Then, think about Minnesota being a safe haven for women who want to decide for themselves if they want to complete a pregnancy.
From there Joe, go to education and the fact that this administration has worked to return funding to local school districts… funding that was taken away by the inept Pawlenty Republican administration so that they would not have to raise taxes on their wealthy donors.
That is some of the trust that the majority of Minnesotans appreciate, those who will turn out in November to defeat Jensen and the other cultist Trump office seekers.
Well, just last week for instance, the government conducted the most beautiful search warrant of a known criminal at his home. That gave me some hope for our country.
And then, weekly now for the past few months, those traitors who thought they were being patriots are being convicted and sentenced, which makes me do a little happy dance, knowing those treasonous SOB’s are going to jail (truth be told, everyone of those sub-humans ought to have been charged with felonies, but that’s just me I guess)
With Walz’ screw-ups on shutting down the economy destroying countless small businesses and his failure to support a more aggressive approach to incarcerating the violent criminals in this state, he doesn’t deserve to be re-elected.
Wait what, crime is an issue for Walz? While its not a problem for the Republicans and the one man crime wave that heads the party and sets the tone for the entire country? Make no mistake lawlessness reigns on the Republican side. They scream about defunding law enforcement because they dared do their jobs in searching a criminal’s home. Rand Paul has proposed changing the Espionage Act so the leader of their party will not have committed one of the multitude of crimes he’s accused of committing. They are making excuses for criminals who attacked out capital and tried to over throw our government and stop the peaceful transfer of power. Sure these are national acts not local but every damn one of the Republicans in this state fully support this lawlessness. I hope Democrats don’t let them get away with this BS.
The enduring image of Walz is his lack of response to the burning and looting during the riots. This was the beginning of the ill fated defund the police movement and the major increase in violent crime.
His current efforts appear to be more campaign driven than a real commitment to law and order.
No surprise he is being challenged on his record.
Everyone should question his record on crime …. not just republicans.
This lazy reporting and the inane comments in reply are depressing. Even with the increase (whether it was a 22% increase, or it was an increase of 22 basis points – a CRUCIAL distinction – is simply not even noted, nor is there a comparison percentage for us to do the math ourselves), one thing we do know is that crime remains at historic LOWS! Lazy reporting and ignorant commenting shows that we have very little idea that we’re safer now than we’ve been all of our lives, though there are of course caveats. It’s not that simple when the news reporter is failing us from the get-go. For more, please visit, for instance, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/myths-and-realities-understanding-recent-trends-violent-crime.
Signed,
A Criminal Defense Attorney
Money quote from the article link I posted above:
“Despite politicized claims that this rise was the result of criminal justice reform in liberal-leaning jurisdictions, murders rose roughly equally in cities run by Republicans and cities run by Democrats. So-called “red” states actually saw some of the highest murder rates of all. This data makes it difficult to pin recent trends on local policy shifts and reveals the basic inaccuracy of attempts to politicize a problem as complex as crime. Instead, the evidence points to broad national causes driving rising crime.”
Read his comment again. Your paraphrase is so off base. He is saying that you are blaming liberal policies for the rise but the statistics show the rise is matched and in some instances exceeded in Republican run cities.
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/myths-and-realities-understanding-recent-trends-violent-crime
How is it that your consistent race-baiting gets approved for posting here?
Yes, Ms. Larey, if you are going to place all of the blame for violent crime on the shoulders of African Americans, that is racist. Own it, or rethink it.
“BLM will bail out any black arrested for a crime. All of these kids know they will be out same day, no reason to stop committing the same crime.”
“The Democrats won’t deal with crime because that would mean arresting and putting young black men in jail/prison, something they are loath to do.”
What a pathetic state of affairs that you endorse the race-baiting in remarks like that.
Ken, the problem is not that Mr. Rainville admitted, as everyone knows, that many of the trouble makers in that incident were Somali youth. The problem is that, in recognizing that Somali youth were involved in this behavior and then telling the Somali community “your kids are making trouble,” you are blanketing the entire Somali community as needing to reign in a handful of trouble-makers.
If a white kid robs a bank and is caught, do you suppose the voices will be screaming about how this damn German-English-Norwegian, et al community better get their youth under control, or else!?
No, they wouldn’t, and that is precisely the problem. The Somali (black) kids are identified by their skin color, and the entire community who has that shade of skin is implicated by the acts of few. That is racism, and that is what Mr. Rainville owed an apology for saying.
As to questions about crimes committed and who is doing it and so on, these are all very important questions and must be addressed. You say 19% of Minneapolis is Black but 89% of the shooters are black. Hmmm…what percentage of those people live in poverty? How many live in dangerous neighborhoods?
Unless we deal with those issues, mentioning color of skin is secondary, it is largely off-issue, and it is pointlessly inflammatory.
But more to the point, what are your GOP candidates going to do to fix a problem they evidently cannot or will not see – poverty and hopelessness? What are the “answers” seemingly in such absence today?
The simple fact that rightwing extremist Jensen told MN Repubs to walk away from the session without agreeing to compromise on a public safety bill tells you all you need to know about our Repubs’ “concern” about rising crime in urban areas of the state. They prioritized making crime a campaign issue over actually doing something to counter it in 2022. Victims who may be harmed in the meantime are merely collateral damage in the strategy.
Just as national Repubs practice Party Over Country, MN Repubs (led by crackpot Jensen) practice Party Over State.
Amazingly many Lefties here at Minnpost downplay the crime element in voters lives. Being safe is a primary need. The Left echoes their politicians cries of either “it is not that bad” or “nothing we can do”. Both are completely wrong and dismissive of their voters need to be safe. Actually admitting there is a problem that is very fixable would be a start.
Of course, no liberal here is saying anything like that, and all are acknowledging a rise in crime rates, although Mr Lambrect is cautioning that these statistics may be overblown and out of context.
It boils down to actually trying to come up with real solutions, given severely problematic discriminatory police departments, anti-reform officers engaging in mass early retirement, and recruitment chokepoints. And as usual your side of the aisle engages in unrealistic nonsense like declaring the problem “very fixable”, after they abandon their legislative obligations in hopes of making crime their campaign strategy. Why did Repubs flee from addressing a public safety concern that is “very fixable”, Joe?
Such an irresponsible party really shouldn’t be rewarded for such crass political opportunism.
A few things to think about. In terms of violent crime, Minnesota is among the states with the lowest rates. For the highest rates, look at the Republican states of the Deep South. Republican have a lot of rhetoric about law and order, but what are their ideas to reduce crime. In states where they are in charge, what they are doing is not working. What are Jensen’s ideas to reduce crime? Can anyone say or even guess?
What is the biggest high dollar crime in our country? Tax fraud among the wealthy? The Republican approach – starve the IRS to make cheating easier. The Democrats just passed a plan to hire more tax audits to collect billions of dollars owed on income the wealth don’t report. Let’s remember this. The wealthy are piling up huge income and wealth increases. Taxes are already low for the wealthy compared to the past and other countries. In fact, the wealthy have used their influence to write special tax breaks. With all that, they still want to cheat without consequences, with police focusing on $20 crimes of poor and minority?
Or let’s bring it down to a human scale. Auto deaths particularly among pedestrians are increasing. On the open road, essentially everyone is breaking the law. Speeding kills. Police cannot possible get people to slow down with current tools. Put in speed cameras and mail tickets to vehicle owners and the problem fades away. Use the same technology to catch red light runners, and stop a very high risk behavior. Will Republicans every support that? No.
Add to your list COVID. Where is the concern for public safety when over a million Americans have died and Jensen is discouraging a vaccine that without question lowers rates of hospitalization and death?
As has been said, Minnesota has a relatively low crime rate. Therefore, while the fact remains there’s been a 22% increase in violent crime, the fact itself is also misleading and disingenuous. As are those individuals, particularly Republicans, who constantly insist that crime is out of control – which, of course, it isn’t. Furthermore, such comments don’t help at all. Not only are they an insult to hard-working Law Enforcement personnel, who do their utmost to keep crime under control, they actually become
a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we believe that crime is out of control, then we’re letting the belief control us.
When Walz allowed the Thugs to demand that the Guard be removed from a parking lot during the RIOTS that showed he has no backbone under stress. Frey gave the Police HQ to the activists and Walz followed by not allowing the Guard to do their jobs! Total failure!!