My thoughts:
It is time for conservatives to have a chance addressing the problems of the inner City. There has not been a Republican Mayor in Minneapolis for 60 years, and the City has been without conservative policy making for 40 years. The problems we have today were created by liberal politics. It is time for a change.
I have lived in the Whittier Neighborhood for 30 years. Since coming back to Minnesota after living on the East and West coasts, attending college, and being married and then divorced I have been extremely fortunate. I am an urban Republican, which is different than a rural Republican, which is to say every day I look upon the problems of the City and ask why these problems persist.
The well-intentioned efforts of the Democratic party have failed miserably – the protests turning into riots and homelessness are symptoms of a collapsing society. The Police are not the problem – the lack of jobs and consequence for personal behaviors are. Affordable housing for many of the homeless is myth.
Hennepin County must change its homelessness response system. Even if provided safe, “culturally specific” housing, too many of the “unhoused” are incapable of managing their lives. Drug use, lack of hygienic awareness, and substandard personal grooming make necessary a shift toward an institutional setting.
When protests easily transition into rioting and looting the only solution is the forceful protection of public assets. While there is a danger of Police overreacting when they are personally threatened, a modest or retreating law enforcement reaction is inappropriate.
Putting Police Officers in harms way and taking away the tools which will protect them is lunacy. If the current elected officials think that more social workers and mental health therapists will solve the problem - Fine, put them in front of the Officers and see how that works!!