Appearances like Vance’s at burned-out Third Precinct building are more than photo ops

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

On Monday, U.S. Sen. JD Vance — the Republican candidate for vice president — returned to Minnesota and visited Minneapolis’ still-vacant Third Police Precinct. He also met with retired police officers who were in that building during the violent riots in 2020. Vance repeated what I and most Minnesotans have been saying over the past four years:

“What was Gov. Tim Walz doing to keep these officers safe and to bring order to the city of Minneapolis? The answer was absolutely nothing.”

Vance also pointed out that crime has risen significantly in Minnesota under Walz’s governorship and that more than 1,400 businesses have packed up and left the city.

And the responses to these comments? “Unserious,” from Mayor Jacob Frey. The Minnesota Star Tribune said that Vance “painted” and “portrayed” the city in decline. U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips said Vance came to “shame, blame and fear-monger.” The Star Tribune then ran a follow-up piece about Minnesotans who “clapped back” online at Vance’s comments.

With Minnesotans facing a decision that will determine the future of our state and country on Nov. 5, it is important to understand the truth about the crime statistics in Minneapolis. As Mark Twain famously said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” And even though the statistics show that crime in Minneapolis has dropped slightly since its peak following the riots, the full story is that since Walz was elected and Democrats have governed our state, crime has risen drastically in Minneapolis.

There were significantly more murders, shootings, reported gunshots, aggravated assaults and robberies reported in 2023 than there were in 2019. There were also more carjackings — which were not tracked as a category independent of robberies until 2020 because there were not enough occurrences worth reporting independently. And it is not only the statistics that are shocking — the crimes themselves continue to shock us, too. Just last week, six juveniles aged 11 to 14 were arrested for a string of armed robberies.

Yet Walz, Democratic politicians and their media allies still deny that there is a problem and insist that crime is down by highlighting the small decrease in the past two years while ignoring the overall rise since 2019. Walz and the DFL continue to insist that the police are the problem. Democratic County Attorney Mary Moriarty regularly returns criminals to the streets and focuses her attention on prosecuting police officers.

This continuous revolving door only discourages officers from staying on the force. Since the riots, the Minneapolis Police Department has lost 40% of its workforce. At the beginning of 2024, Minneapolis had one of the worst officer-to-citizen ratios in the country.

Minnesotans notice these issues, and a recent poll showed that 52% of Minnesotans disapprove of how Walz handled the protests and riots of 2020. Despite how Democrats try to hide the truth, Vance was spot-on in his comments on Monday. There have been numerous accounts in this paper of people moving out of Minneapolis due to safety concerns. It is also clear that the Minneapolis business climate has gone into steep decline as concerns about safety combined with the anti-business agenda of Walz and the DFL has been enacted into law.

As Vance stated on Monday, “The story of Minneapolis is coming to every community across the United States of America if we promote Kamala Harris to president of the United States.” He is not exaggerating. Crime increased nationally over the past two years under the Biden-Harris administration. While the Star Tribune highlights those who took offense to Vance’s statement, what we as Minnesotans should be offended by are leaders like Walz who do not support law enforcement or safe communities and choke out Minnesotans’ businesses and livelihoods. Vance and former President Donald Trump want the best for Americans — safety, thriving communities and a climate that encourages, not repels, business.

On Nov. 5, Minnesotans will think about many issues. How the top priorities of the Walz and Biden administrations have been managed — deterring crime, enhancing public safety, and encouraging economic growth will be front and center when it is time to vote. The record is clear: Biden-Harris, Walz and the Democrats have failed in their fundamental responsibilities. Republicans believe Minnesotans want to live in safe communities where they can raise families and build businesses. We are prepared to act on those priorities. As Gov. Walz recently said in another context, “We can’t have four more years of this.”

David Hann is chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota.