A progressive Minneapolis neighborhood vows no more cops, demonstrates the self-harming, demented nature of the modern left

There's lots of great stuff in the above article on how the residents of the left-wing Powderhorn Park neighborhood in Minneapolis reacted to George Floyd's death and the associated protest movement by deciding to no longer call the police on people in their own neighborhood. Predictably, it doesn't end well, but it does make for a great demonstration of some of the more incredible pathologies of white liberals today.

After the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, Ms. Albers, who is white, and many of her progressive neighbors have vowed to avoid calling law enforcement into their community. Doing so, they believed, would add to the pain that black residents of Minneapolis were feeling and could put them in danger.

Almost immediately after their vow, a homeless camp was set up in a park in the neighborhood, with drug deals, drug use, sexual harassment of residents, and other problems.

Dozens of multicolored tents appeared in the neighborhood park. They were brought by homeless people who were displaced during the unrest that gripped the city. The multiracial group of roughly 300 new residents seems to grow larger and more entrenched every day. They do laundry, listen to music and strategize about how to find permanent housing. Some are hampered by mental illness, addiction or both.

Their presence has drawn heavy car traffic into the neighborhood, some from drug dealers. At least two residents have overdosed in the encampment and had to be taken away in ambulances.

The influx of outsiders has kept Ms. Albers awake at night. Though it is unlikely to happen, she has had visions of people from the tent camp forcing their way into her home. She imagines using a baseball bat to defend herself.

Not being able to call the police, as she has done for decades, has shaken her.

“I am afraid,” she said. “I know my neighbors are around, but I’m not feeling grounded in my city at all. Anything could happen.”

Even the left-wing residents acknowledge the camp is a threat to their children.

“I’m not being judgmental,” said Carrie Nightshade, 44, who explained that she no longer felt comfortable letting her children, 12 and 9, play in the park by themselves. “It’s not personal. It’s just not safe.

Not calling the police doesn't work out like they thought it would.

But some people in the neighborhood have already found their best-laid plans to avoid calling the police harder to execute than they had imagined.

Last Thursday night, Joseph Menkevich found a black man wearing a hospital bracelet passed out in the elevator of his apartment building two blocks away from the park. Mr. Menkevich, who is white, quickly phoned a community activist but she did not pick up. He felt he had no choice but to call 911, so he did, but requested an ambulance only, not the police.

Ultimately, a white police officer arrived at the scene. The officer checked the situation out briefly and then returned to his squad car.

The residents continue to defend those who've harmed them and their community, refusing to let up on their left-wing perspective.

To the extent that illegal activity is going on in the park, Ms. Miller does not blame the tent residents. “My feeling around it is those are symptoms of systemic oppression,” she said. “And that’s not on them.”

Work that seemed clearly innocent or benevolent in the past now strikes them as racist. (Maybe they were right about things before.)

Some of the self-examination she and her mother have done recently has led them to the same place. Ms. Miller came to see her decision to buy a home in the neighborhood as potentially preventing a person of color from doing so. And while Ms. Albers used to feel only pride about the work she put in to revitalizing the community, now, she sees her work as gentrification that may have pushed out nonwhite residents. The neighborhood’s black population has dropped more than 5 percent since 2000.

Another example of residents feeling the safety of their own children had been compromised but instead of doing anything about it, they continue to express sympathy for the criminals.

On a recent afternoon, Sarah Kenney and Diane Cullumber, who are both white, were speedwalking behind their toddler sons through the park leading up to the camp...

She said the experience had challenged her to consider not only the safety of her own family, which has a comfortable home and locked doors to retreat behind when they feel uncomfortable, but also that of people living outside without protection. Ms. Cullumber agreed.

A male resident is robbed at gunpoint by two black teenagers. He gives them the wrong keys by accident so they steal someone else's car. This should show this person that even if they're fine with being victimized themselves, other people get victimized by the same criminals too, and who are you to say that's acceptable?

He does call the cops on them but later regrets it.

Mitchell Erickson’s fingers began dialing 911 last week before he had a chance to even consider alternatives, when two black teenagers who looked to be 15, at most, cornered him outside his home a block away from the park.

One of the boys pointed a gun at Mr. Erickson’s chest, demanding his car keys.

Flustered, Mr. Erickson handed over a set, but it turned out to be house keys. The teenagers got frustrated and ran off, then stole a different car down the street.

Mr. Erickson said later that he would not cooperate with prosecutors in a case against the boys. After the altercation, he realized that if there was anything he wanted, it was to offer them help. But he still felt it had been right to call the authorities because there was a gun involved.

Two days after an initial conversation, his position had evolved. “Been thinking more about it,” he wrote in a text message. “I regret calling the police. It was my instinct but I wish it hadn’t been. I put those boys in danger of death by calling the cops.”

Normal, sane people do not think like this.