Cities and businesses are not immune to the laws of cause and effect…
…although some mayors and city governments seem to think so.
The most elementary and basic task of city government is to preserve an environment in which people feel safe from attacks on their persons and property. Of course, that safety can never be perfect. Crimes are committed, natural disasters happen, and rogue cops can even go against their charge and do harm. But a municipality must be run well enough that such things are rare, and when they do occur, the response should prevent the worst results and assure the residents that the government is competent at the task.
In the case of Minneapolis and Chauvin and the other three police officers, they’ve been arrested and charged, and they will be tried (I tend to doubt they’ll get a fair trial because of all the publicity, but they certainly will get a trial). How common is police brutality or mistreatment, serious or minor, in Minneapolis? I don’t know, but I have little doubt it’s been studied and will be studied some more. At any rate, deaths such as that of Floyd are rare and I don’t think they will ever be eliminated anywhere despite all efforts, because of the nature of police work and of human beings.
But a city cannot afford to let looting and rioting and arson go on. When I use the word “afford” I mean it literally. Take away all the verbiage about how people feel – their anger and their pain or whatever feelings you ascribe to them – and you are left with the practical matter of a city’s lifeblood, its economy, which depends on creating an environment that favors investment and commerce. Businesses will leave for safer places if they don’t feel secure in a particular city. They are not sentenced to do time in that place – for now we continue to allow businesses to make their own choices about where to locate, although if the left has its way that could change as well.
Any mayor who voluntarily tells police to stand down during a riot is forfeiting that trust and safety and most likely condemning his/her city to a bleaker future. If a mayor does that because he or she actually believes it will placate rioters and make them feel better and solve some of the problem, then that mayor is a fool. But perhaps the mayor just realizes that the police and fire departments are overwhelmed by sheer numbers and that throwing them into the mix would put them at too much risk. If so, then it’s time to call in the National Guard as quickly as possible, because order must be restored.
Mayors in various cities did not do that, and those cities will pay a price. Again, that’s not a metaphor – it’s a literal price. Here’s an example:
Kris Wyrobek, president and CEO of 7-Sigma, decided to move his business out of Minneapolis after rioters burned his plant to the ground.
They don’t care about my business…They didn’t protect our people. We were all on our own.
Why should the business feel any allegiance to a city whose leaders abandoned it?
A mayor such as Frey should understand that there is a cause and effect operating here. In that process, the city ends up losing more than the business – it loses more businesses, people, tax revenue, trust, and quality of life.
And the arsonists? They’re not thinking about attracting business or city revenue. They’re either angry and striking out at targets of opportunity, or (even more likely in this particular case) they are Antifa anarchists bent on destroying capitalism and masquerading as anti-Fascists. They count on the weakness and stupidity (and or alliance) of modern progressive mayors such as Frey.
Mr. Wyrobek, president and CEO of 7-Sigma, leave Minneapolis and, if possible, bring your employees and their families with you. There are plenty of fine places in the country that will welcome you.
Camerota asked, “What if, in the middle of the night, my home is broken into? Who do I call?”
Minneapolis City Council President Bender said, “Yes, I mean, I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors, and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege. Because for those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done.”
Or as Queen Victoria is said to have said “lie back and think of Britain” or for Ms. Bender think of white privilege. That’s the Malmo approach; they may let you live Ms Bender, but they may not. Ideologies have consequences.
I checked out a Tucker Carlson video posting. It surprised me.
In one of the most remarkable humiliations I have seen captured on video, the boy mayor of Minneapolis was being verbally harrowed by a relentless questioner at a Black Lives Matter rally, only to then be booted out of the public square to the sounds of a jeering and hooting throng …. beating his long, shameful, and solitary retreat from the square, after being told to get the fu#k out of that public space.
It could only have been better done if they had stripped him naked and made him dance like a chimp as the price of his life.
Carlson also made a important point. One I had not considered, events are moving so fast. That is that: the calls for defunding the police does not mean that the Antifa and BLM movements actually want no police. It means that they intend to get rid of the present population of police, and replace them with something under their control.
I thought, ” Yeah, like a Chavista militia, perhaps.”
But til then, it had not occurred to me.
DNW:
I think that was expressed pretty clearly in the interview with BLA leader Hawk Newsome quoted in this post. Take a look.
I suspect that 10 years hence, Minneapolis will look more like Detroit circa 1977 than what they’d hoped for in 2030.
” . . . city’s lifeblood, its economy, which depends on creating an environment that favors investment and commerce.” [Neo]
Absolutlely. Refer back to the old song:
Dems and Progressives laud cities, mass transit, etc. and want people to live there, but what draws people to cities? Opportunity. The social contract is “come live here and you won’t need weapons, we’ll protect you, and you wont need to keep chickens in your backyard, grocery stores will be available, you won’t even need a car because we have public transportation” etc.. Then when open looting, rioting and vandalism occur These same people excuse, dismiss or side with the looters. Why? Because it is more important to have a situation that responds to the politically correct with the “right” ideas than the realities of life (MBunge’s Elite adjacent) . It’s like preferring a minimally competent surgeon because s/he is a minority rather than an excellent surgeon who is not.
They first promise a civic contract and then break it when they fail to follow though on their actual or implied promises. Make no mistake, the civic contract is broken, and, as I’ve written here before this is almost exclusively a Democrat problem at every level: Democrat mayors,Democrat city councils; Democrat sheriffs and police chiefs; Democrat supporting municipal unions and violent rioters who, if they vote at all, will most likely be supporting Democrat candidates.
I’d guess that economic development organizations, in surrounding states, have now started to court Minneapolis businesses. It’d be relatively easy to move to Des Moines, Sioux Falls, or Fargo. Most of their employees might even like the change.
Years ago, when California started to collapse, some who fled were futilely warned not to Californicate Colorado. Will Minneapolis escapees now spread their insanity to other states?
I had read that posting and the Newsome quote. However, I had assumed that Newsome was proposing a paramilitary shadowing force, not a complete substitution of the municipal police with a Chekist style militia, or Chavista colectivos and revolutionary guards.
So, some BLM guy shows up at ypur door drexsed in a leather jerkin, jodphurs, and neat scarlet beret, and informs you that your dwelling is being appropriated in the name of social justice. Not because the children of the revolution and their lumpenproletarian clients have no roof over their heads, but because theirs are presently filled with excrement and detritus they have themselves deposited, and they now require a new place to squat. One more in keeping with the dignity of their identity. You can still clean up if you wish.
Your neighbor, who us down with the movement, replies, “Yes, very good. These new arrangements are much more just. ”
You get a sense you have heard all this before. In an old movie or something.
You can pay protection, for a short time. But if you have money they’ll try to clean you out.
Or Aleppo, Syria. Which is probably what the majority of the voters there deserve.
What clause in the Constitution is most likely to become an effectively dead letter besides those “incorporated” bill of rights civil liberties?
My answer: the guarantee to every state in the union of a republican (small “r”) form of government.
Helll, New York is almost a sham right now.
Meet the future … the Dukes of Cuomo, the Hereditary Revolutionary Council of the Minnesota Collective ….
Living where I do the Twin Cities has been a place where we bumpkins could enjoy as a place of ‘civilization’. No more.
Mr. Wyrobek, president and CEO of 7-Sigma, leave Minneapolis and, if possible, bring your employees and their families with you.
Brian Morgan: During the Iraq War Michael Totten had this exchange with an Iraqi:
___________________________________________________
At one point, apropos of something I can’t remember, Ahman said to me: “I can tell you in one sentence how my country feels about your country.”
“Really?” I said. “Can you really boil it down to one sentence?”
“Yes,” he said. “And it is this: Thank you for coming, now please leave and take us with you.”
I laughed because it seemed totally contradictory and totally right.
–http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/000730.html
“It means that they intend to get rid of the present population of police, and replace them with something under their control.”
That seems to be what Ace links to here…
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2020/06/welcome-to-free-capitol-hill-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone-forms-around-emptied-east-precinct/
At the very least, this is going to end the gun control debate for at least a generation.
Mike
One would hope that the Feds installed some “listening devices” in the Seattle Capitol Hill police precinct building before it was turned over to the woke mob.
I wouldn’t want to have the fire insurance policy on that building, “Palestinian rules” being what they are even in Seattle. Residents of the Capitol Hill area are in for some new rulers, shouldn’t be too long before the bodies start to show up.
Will the Federal courthouse/office building be the locus of attention now? Which area of Seattle will the woke mob decide needs to be “liberated” next? Amazon better get out of town while they can. Pure speculation on my part.
“Kris Wyrobek, president and CEO of 7-Sigma, decided to move his business out of Minneapolis after rioters burned his plant to the ground.”
I have to wonder whether Wyrobek will vote for Biden or Trump in Nov.? I have little doubt of whom the majorities of his employees will vote. Generally, people look in the mirror last, that is if they ever do so at all.
“I suspect that 10 years hence, Minneapolis will look more like Detroit circa 1977 than what they’d hoped for in 2030.”
Along with Detroit, look to San Francisco and Chicago for their future.
“: the calls for defunding the police does not mean that the Antifa and BLM movements actually want no police. It means that they intend to get rid of the present population of police, and replace them with something under their control.” DNW
IMO, no doubt of that at all. However, if Trump is reelected and survives… his having directed the DOJ to declare Antifa to be a terrorist organization may well put a wrench into Antifa’s plans. And BLM is Marxist run, so their days may be numbered as well.
“A mayor such as Frey should understand that there is a cause and effect operating here.”
Really? You’re still learning, aren’t you? Look at his background. Look at his education. I was a political science major and the only thing that kept me from going full leftist was that I paired it with an economics major. Even then, this was a second rate institution that did not really cover the topic in a robust manner. It was only when I got to University of Chicago for graduate school that I was taught a truly robust approach to analyzing government and business decisions. It was the beginning of my permanent turn away from the left and aggressive self education process. Look at the background of most of these people on the left. They all have similar backgrounds. The one big mystery to me is AOC-an economics degree from BU? Well, take that place of my kids’ list of potential educational institutions.
Chris J:
No, I’m not still learning – not that, anyway. You didn’t understand what I was saying.
I didn’t say “a person such as Frey” or “a person with the background and training of Frey.” I said “a MAYOR such as Frey.” Perhaps it would have been even more clear had I used commas more liberally.
Let’s try again: “A mayor, such as Frey, should understand…”
In other words – “A person in the post of mayor should understand…”
“A person in the post of mayor should understand…”
God bless the Wiki. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Frey
Frey is 38 years old. He moved to Minneapolis in 2009 after graduating law school. He was in town for four years working on employment and civil rights law before running for city council. He was on the council for four years before running and winning the job of mayor.
How in the expletive deleted does someone with that resume get elected mayor of a city of over 400,000 people? Why would you expect him to be prepared to handle anything like what has just happened?
When I was a kid, if you saw an adult reading comic books you probably thought he was mentally retarded. Now, traditional comic books are almost entirely read by adults. Today’s grownups aren’t as grownup as they used to be. They don’t take things seriously. They don’t sit down and read the manual. They think someone else is always going to do it.
Mike
I would think there will soon be a lot of houses for sale in Minneapolis. Prices then drop, tax revenues drop, and . . . you get the downward spiral.
[testing]
How in the expletive deleted does someone with that resume get elected mayor of a city of over 400,000 people? Why would you expect him to be prepared to handle anything like what has just happened?
His resume doesn’t look bad compared to that of his predecessor.
The most salient datum which indicated that people were less grown up than they once were was when you had an explosion in resort to divorce courts. That particular ecosystem flip began in 1967 and concluded in 1979. This began in earnest with the cohorts born around 1938. Coincident with that was the explosion in resort to abortion (albeit among younger cohorts). Also, from about 1958 to about 2010, you saw an explosion in illegitimate child bearing. It began (roughly speaking) with the 1940 cohort and reached a plateau with the 1990 cohort. Then you saw the propensity of people to get married tank. This began around 2000 and ran its course over about 15 years. As we speak, we can expect about 30% of the Millennial cohorts will never marry.
People’s harmless diversions are not indicative of much.
M William on June 9, 2020 at 11:09 pm said:
I would think there will soon be a lot of houses for sale in Minneapolis.
It’s already started, given the outcome of their games..
1) Los Angeles upper crusty are moving out… (taking tax rev with them)
2) Covid and riots taught businesses they can save a bundle with work at home professionals, who actually do more work when at home
3) Given the treatment, having a certain address means nothing any more
Maybe its purposeful as a way to turn other states as they move out, invade, then vote stupid again?
At some point, the people siding with this will realize that they are serious about taking the fruit of their lives and more and it isnt just a phase college kids go through, but a stupidity they take with them later in life that informs their (lack of) judgement
@Art Deco: I wonder what international movement to improve the world did that?
Wait till the ladies find out what happens when no police around to administer rape kits and people from certain places exercise alternative belief systems… [and the men in general feel minding their own business is the better thing to do given toxic masculinity and the way things turn out]
While we’re at it, Jerome Cavanaugh was elected Mayor of Detroit in 1961 at the age of 33 and had never held an executive position before. These sort of imprudent decisions by electorates are not novel. (Cavanaugh had a working-class, Depression-era upbringing and a passel of kids, so one might wager had more mettle than Frey; unlike most of his contemporaries, however, he had never been in the military).
“It’s Already Starting” Minneapolis Manufacturer Pulls Up Stakes & Vows To Rebuild Elsewhere
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWItPcnsfqQ
Manufacturer that burned as Minneapolis protests turned violent plans to relocate from city
‘They didn’t protect our people,’ 7-Sigma owner says of city officials.
https://www.startribune.com/manufacturer-that-burned-during-mpls-riots-plans-to-move-out-of-the-city/571104922/
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) at an “anti-law enforcement rally” in Minneapolis over the weekend: “I will never stop saying not only do we need to disinvest from police but we need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department… The Minneapolis Police Department is rotten to the root. And so when we dismantle it, we get rid of that cancer and we allow for something beautiful to arise. And that reimagining allows us to figure out what public safety looks like for us.”
Antifa Seizes Seattle PD, Sets Up ‘Autonomous Zone’ Just Like ISIS and the Paris Commune
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/06/09/antifa-militants-seize-seattle-police-hq-set-up-autonomous-zone-n512621
The antifa rioters appear intent on creating an automonous state, not unlike the ISIS-run territories in the Middle East or the surrounded proto-communist experiment of the Paris Commune in 1871. (The Paris Commune was a key moment in the history of socialism and communism. It lasted between March and May 1871, after the Prussians had defeated the French in the Franco-Prussian War and were besieging Paris. Karl Marx called it an example of the “dictatorship of the proletariat.”)
What could go wrong?
VDH confirms from history what I have repeatedly said..
Victor Davis Hanson warns protest leaders: ‘Today’s revolutionary becomes tomorrow’s counter-revolutionary’ because you can never satisfy the mob and you have to get more and more extreme.”
“You’ll never be able to satisfy the iteration as they get more radical,” Hanson added, “all we’re waiting for now is a [French revolutionary Maximilien] Robespierre to come out and say, ‘You know, I think we need to rename the months of the year or extend the weeks from seven days to 10 so we don’t privilege Sunday, or we should start worshiping a new god’.”
“If a mayor does that because he or she actually believes it will placate rioters and make them feel better and solve some of the problem, then that mayor is a fool. But perhaps the mayor just realizes that the police and fire departments are overwhelmed by sheer numbers and that throwing them into the mix would put them at too much risk.” – Neo
The second reason is valid, but should be made clear to the police & other responders, as well as the public.
The first is craven stupidity.
The news report MBUnge linked on Seattle ceding control of their precinct to the protests had an interesting array of comments. I was expecting wall-to-wall leftist boilerplate, but there was actually a pretty fair balance across the ideological spectrum.
Well, no one posted MAGA! or Molon Labe! anywhere, but the center and near-right were better represented than I expected. And the leftists were of the “soft” variety rather than hard-core.
I am considering the possibility that BLM has overplayed their hand and lost control of their branding to people who are genuinely concerned about racial inequity (although still woefully ignorant of the facts), and who don’t have a commitment to the marxist foundation of the official BLM movement — because they don’t know it exist, primarily, but also because many of them don’t want anarchy, just parity (and maybe some preferential treatment, since that’s what they’ve been conditioned to want).
Most people don’t want to be the egg that’s broken for some ideological omelette, even if they don’t mind someone else being tossed in the pan.
Over at Ace, the 523+ post thread on Charles Kane, Jr., also known as Jeff Bezos, generated a great deal of commentary. Here’s my pick for the best.
Among those getting the new B(Marxist)LM Wokery from museums, with members fearing destruction of their great collections, Taliban style:
“I had an art history professor who was from Africa.
“One day, he mentioned offhandedly that American collectors and museums had more or less purchased all of the third world’s art, and asked us to discuss that.
“A predictable hour-long, Maximum Wokefest ensued, which I just sat out.
“After he let the little tykes cry themselves out, he said ‘you’re all wrong. Our parts of the world became too unstable to protect our ancient artworks. Because Americans bought everything, now my daughter can learn her heritage, here, where it is safe from theft and destruction.’ “
Posted by: Yudhishthira’s Dice
“Because Americans bought everything, now my daughter can learn her heritage, here, where it is safe from theft and destruction.’ “
Not for long.
“…and we allow for something beautiful to arise…”
Just to remind ourselves (assuming that’s even necessary) where Ilan Omar is coming from:
https://apelbaum.wordpress.com/2020/04/30/jimale-the-jihadi-organ-grinder-and-his-little-tweeting-monkey/
“His resume doesn’t look bad compared to that of his predecessor.”
At least she was a native of Minnesota and had been living in Minneapolis for eight years before joining the city council and served another eight years before becoming Mayor. Frey literally went from (probably) never even been to the state of Minnesota to leader of its largest and most important city in half that time.
How little sense of yourself as a community can you have for something like that to happen?
Mike
Barry Meislin:
Ilhan Omar’s homesick.
At least she was a native of Minnesota and had been living in Minneapolis for eight years before joining the city council and served another eight years before becoming Mayor. Frey literally went from (probably) never even been to the state of Minnesota to leader of its largest and most important city in half that time.
Her family moved to Minneapolis in 1973. It’s a matter of no consequence, as she was a toddler at the time. However, she and her staff evidently thought it complicated her message sufficiently that they made a point of leaving the impression she was a native without saying so. Neither of her parents ever lived in Minneapolis prior to 1973. Her maternal-side uncle settled there around 1954. The family lived in the suburb of Wayzata (which is fine, and that she admits to; I think her parents and brother might still live there). She was in a graduate program at the University of Wisconsin and returned to Minneapolis after a 10 year absence when that didn’t work out. (Not sure if she lost interest or they lost interest in her; she was awarded an MA, and that was it). She worked as staff director for a succession of small non-profits over a period of seven years, then ran for the council. Her campaign literature suggested she was just minding her business when locals asked her to run. Her mother got off message in an interview and let slip that she’d returned to Minneapolis with the idea of getting involved in city government.
I was not clear as to whether she had a day job or not while she was on the council. I’m not clear about that in re Frey, either. Frey’s been rather more focused in his activities. She’d spent a couple of years as a graduate student and about a dozen years as a junior grade social worker when she ran for the council. She never cadged an MSW degree and never worked for the county welfare department or set up a counseling practice. He was a working lawyer who had other things to do with his life than get mixed up in electoral politics. She’s divorced, re-married, and childless. So’s he.
I think Frey would benefit from re-building his legal practice and building a family. For Hodges, that isn’t an option. Her skills are rather nebulous and at age 50 children haven’t been an option for her for some time. When her husband landed a job in Washington, the two of them blew town.
If you think it was silly of Minneapolis voters to select carpetbagger Jake, fine. I’d have a look at the people who ran against him. My impression at the time was that you had a choice between Botchy Hodges, Frey, and a collection of gargoyles.
“My impression at the time was that you had a choice between Botchy Hodges, Frey, and a collection of gargoyles.”
That’s the point, though. Minneapolis is over 400,000 people. That’s a good sized city by any standards and it’s at the heart of a 3.2 million person metro-area. How can there not be at least a half-dozen of legitimate candidates with long-standing in the community standing in between this guy and one of the most prominent positions in the state?
Mike
“How can there not be at least a half-dozen of legitimate candidates with long-standing in the community standing in between this guy and one of the most prominent positions in the state?”
That’s simple. Would you want to subject yourself – and more importantly, your family – to the anal exam and the all-inclusive search for skeletons that the woke news media would subject you to?
Not me. Even if you were squeaky clean, that hive of scum and villainy would make something up.
“How in the expletive deleted does someone with that resume get elected mayor of a city of over 400,000 people?”
[koff]Justin[koff]Trudeau[koff]
That’s simple. Would you want to subject yourself – and more importantly, your family – to the anal exam and the all-inclusive search for skeletons that the woke news media would subject you to?
They only do that quite selectively. What was interesting about Hodges’ 2013 campaign is the degree to which the Minneapolis press was a steno pool plagiarizing from her campaign literature. Her mother was available to be interviewed, but neither one was asked the most banal questions. The bits and pieces the media published were what the campaign volunteered.
” the police and fire departments are overwhelmed by sheer numbers and that throwing them into the mix would put them at too much risk.”
The police should arrest more rioters. Even if they are overwhelmed, that’s “their job”, so it cause them more work, and the protesters (arrested) more hassle. Less police in other places, but they’re standing down anyway, so not such a big difference if 10 or 30 in an area accept looting because they’re overwhelmed. But at leas there would be more info about some of the rioters.
Hard to know rioters from protesters.
Tom Grey:
Why bother? The leftist DAs in several cities (I forget which ones) are refusing to charge the arrested rioters and are ordering them all released.