New Police Crowdfunding Craze in Minneapolis

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A new crowdfunding trend is emerging in Minneapolis, which was the birthplace of the #DefundThePolice movement. It involves police officers.

Residents of the City of Lakes are so tired of rising crime and decreasing police patrols that they’re hiring off-duty cops.

Officially, the Minneapolis Safety Initiative has approved the crowdfunding effort. It was established by the city council in January.

The suggested contribution for the program is $220 per household per month. This is a “buyback”, in their words, of two hours of additional patrolling each month.

“In aggregate,” the Safety Initiative’s site claims, “We expect that all neighbors’ contributions will purchase 10 hours of additional patrol per day, based on the number of households that we expect to contribute.”

$2,640 yearly is a lot of money for most household budgets, and those extra patrol hours won’t be kind to a police force already stretched thin.

Despite a furious backtrack on #DefundThePolice in the wake of popular opposition, the police force is still understaffed. Around 200 police officers took the hint and quit or retired in 2020-21. Wikipedia states that MPD employs 588 officers, out of a total of 750 officers.

NewsNation Now reports that “burglaries have increased by 6%, thefts have increased 31% and carjacking has increased 14%” in 2022. Neighborhood Scout, a crime monitoring website, claims that the city is safer than only 2% of American cities. It also has a higher crime rate than any other part of Minnesota. Minneapolis has a murder rate that is 2.5 times higher than the national average and more than twice as many rapes.

It’s no wonder that residents turn to off-duty police.

Ironically, it is the most well-off neighborhoods that are able to afford to have police officers on their streets. It is likely that the most affected by rising crime in the city will have to make do with less.

Lowry Hill, a wealthy area, raised $210,000 to fund additional patrols. Lowry residents will receive an additional 190 hours of police work, despite the fact that crime is lower than in other areas.

NewsNation Now reports that Cedarside Community Council Executive director AJ Awed, a progressive lefty, complained that the council needed more officers. This policy…has pitted neighborhoods against one another.

Indeed. Progressive politics is known for making it worse for the underclass, which has been made permanent.

One way to ensure that the most elite lefties get the best services possible is another.

Perhaps leaders of cities didn’t realize the extent of the harm they were causing when they demoralized police officers. Perhaps they didn’t realize that wealthy neighborhoods could afford additional police patrols while the poorer ones would have to be left behind.

They might not have intended to create a bad situation that they could use for political gain.

But, considering the destruction of Democrat-dominated urban areas all over the world, this would be a lot of ignorance without any excuse.