As I have watched the protests in Minneapolis, it seems clear to me that America is at risk of entering another disastrous anti-law enforcement crisis.
Here’s a cold truth: there are people in this world who enjoy hurting other people and taking other people’s things. These people are not sick. They are not confused. They are not mixed. It’s not that their mothers or fathers didn’t love them enough. They’re just antisocial. I don’t know why God made some people this way. When I get to heaven, I’m going to ask.
Every society deals with these people differently, but in America we have chosen to hire brave men and women to enforce our laws by confronting antisocial people when they commit crimes. We rarely hear about these courageous officers and the millions of positive interactions they have every day. We only hear about the handful of police officers who – through negligence or choice – harm other people while enforcing the law.
The defund-the-police movement seized on some bad examples of law enforcement to sell the lie that cops are worse than criminals. These activists believed that our country would be better off if we fired all police officers and replaced them with social workers.
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Community members confront federal agents following an immigration raid that resulted in detentions and followed the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 13, 2026. (Tim Evans/Reuters)
Before the death of George Floyd, the defund-the-police movement was a fringe idea popular only among Marxist academics and soy-latte-drinking NPR totes with Karens in them. Honest Americans knew it would be insane to replace the police with social workers. Murderers, thieves, drug dealers and carjackers don’t need hugs; they need prison cells.
But the Karen wing of the Democratic Party saw Floyd’s death as an opportunity to promote the defund-the-police movement. This presented Democratic officials, including Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, with a choice. Door #1: They could ignore the Karens and restore law and order. Door #2: They could discourage, discredit and demoralize every officer in the state to appease the Karens.
Walz, Frey and many others chose Door #2. They allowed rioters to retaliate against law enforcement, stood by as police stations burned, and sat in silence as activists vilified the countless good police officers who kept their cities safe.
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These decisions created one of the worst crime waves in American history. Commercial burglaries increased 43%, carjackings increased 93%, and homicides increased 44% in the wake of the George Floyd riots.
The defund-the-police project failed faster than anyone could have imagined, and Democratic mayors scrambled to undo the damage. But maintaining a strong police force is not a light switch that can be turned on and off as the woke crowd demands. After years of demoralizing police officers and denigrating them as bigoted racists and murderers, many officers did not want their jobs back.
Nationally, police departments are still operating with an average of 6% fewer officers than in 2020. In Minneapolis, the police force is still 36% smaller than before Mr. Floyd’s death, despite longstanding efforts to hire more officers.
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If anyone can recognize the profound stupidity of the defund-the-police movement, it has to be Walz and Frey. But today, it appears they are willing to lead their Democratic friends down the same anti-law enforcement path – with a little twist.
Instead of arguing that police are a bigger problem than criminals, Walz and Frey have joined the Karen wing of the Democratic Party and say that enforcing immigration laws is racist and vetting migrants is a form of white supremacy. Once again, these activists see the chaos in Minneapolis as an opportunity to use George Floyd’s playbook to get Congress to defund ICE and the Border Patrol.
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Before the death of George Floyd, the defund-the-police movement was a fringe idea popular only among Marxist academics and soy-latte-drinking NPR totes with Karens in them.
But rioters cannot dictate what laws the federal government enforces, which illegal immigrants it deports, or what types of fraud it investigates. The federal government, empowered by voters, has the right to make these decisions under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, and it is illegal for states to obstruct legitimate federal law enforcement.
I understand that Walz, Frey and their Democratic colleagues must follow their hearts. I just ask them to bring their brains.
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It was stupid gun quality to defund the police in 2020. It’s just as stupid to discourage ICE today. From terrorists entering the country to cartels smuggling people and drugs into our communities, President Joe Biden’s open borders policy has been a disaster for the security and prosperity of the United States. President Trump may have made it look easy to secure the border, but it wasn’t. ICE and Border Patrol have worked hard from day one to restore order at the border.
No one wants to see violence on our streets, but we must learn the lessons of 2020 and recognize that good law enforcement is the solution, not the problem.
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