Many of you have read

Many of you have read the Trunk’s brilliant column on the recent murder of an 11-year-old girl by Minneapolis gangsters, “The Silence of the Liberals.” Tomorrow morning, the Minneapolis Star Tribune weighs in with an editorial on the same topic. The editorial starts relatively well, but predictably veers leftward. In the Strib’s view, the gangsters are apparently the real victims:
“But what next? How to prevent some of Tyesha’s classmates from turning into those sullen young men standing around street corners with no jobs except selling drugs, with no greater ambition than to shoot guns at rival gangsters in a kind of nihilistic child’s play?”
How indeed? The average citizen would no doubt assign law enforcement a prominent role in preventing young men from “shooting guns at rival gangsters.” Law enforcement, however, is never mentioned by the Strib. Instead, the newspaper blames Tyesha’s murder on……Ronald Reagan. You think I’m kidding?
“Minneapolis citizens, from City Hall to the kitchen table, must resolve that the downward spiral of the 1980’s will not resume, that the heroic and successful work of rebuilding Powderhorn and other inner-city neighborhoods will continue.”
This verges on the mind-boggling. The murder victim was not even born in the 1980’s, and it is not clear what this reference is supposed to mean. In the last twenty years, it would be hard to think of a single Minneapolis politician who been elected without the Star-Trib’s endorsement. The city’s government has been exclusively in the hands of liberal Democrats throughout that time. City, county, state and federal spending on social programs has increased steadily. So what on earth is the Strib tallking about?
Of course, Minneapolis has experienced a “downward spiral” since the 1980’s. The downward spiral has involved a welfare/crime explosion and has been the direct result of Minnesota’s decisions to 1) pay far higher welfare benefits than surrounding states, and 2) refrain from punishing criminal activity wherever possible. These decisions have resulted in a rapid influx of welfare recipients and criminals (typically, the boyfriends of welfare recipients)–a fact which every resident of Minneapolis knows, but which the Strib never hints at.
But the Strib isn’t quite done. It also suggests that :
“Another constructive step would be to visit the Lagoon Theater in Uptown Minneapolis or the Southdale Center in Edina to see Michael Moore’s powerful documentary film ‘Bowling for Columbine.’ Whether or not you like Moore’s slant on politics, and despite his rather loose way of dealing with fact, the film overall is a gripping indictment of the fear and paranoia that produced and sustain America’s gun culture.”
Even the Strib recognizes that Moore is a liar. But never mind, see his movie anyway. It’s against guns. Of course, the gangsters who murdered Tyesha weren’t “fearful” or “paranoid.” Those terms would describe the law-abiding citizens who cower indoors to avoid the gangs. (That didn’t save Tyesha; she was shot inside her own home.) The gangsters are loose and confident, secure in the knowledge that Minneapolis’ civic authorities are–if not precisely on their side–certainly not anxious to do anything that would interfere with their fun.
Fortunately, the Minneapolis Police Department–which knows perfectly well who the gangsters are–arrested the murderers before policemen had an opportunity to read the Strib’s editorial. Otherwise, they might have been watching “Bowling for Columbine” instead of checking their own arrest warrants, which, coincidentally no doubt, included two of the murderers.

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