Security for me — but not for thee

Over the weekend Minneapolis’s FOX 9 broke Tom Lyden’s story of the three Minneapolis city council members who have private security officers protecting them at city expense. Tom’s story is posted here. The video is below.

The three council members are vocal proponents of substituting a Department of Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows for the Minneapolis Police Department. They all voted in favor of the ordinance advancing such a proposal last week. I posted a copy of the ordinance here yesterday.

The council members — Andrea Jenkins, Phillipe Cunningham, and Alondra “Arma virumque” Cano — are a little vague about the threats to which they have been subject. Lyden obtained this giggle-inducing quote from Jenkins: “My concern is the large number of white nationalist(s) in our city and other threatening communications I’ve been receiving.” I’m thinking the number of white nationalists in Minneapolis must be smaller than the the number of Minneapolis members in our local chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition. Considerably smaller.

Lyden adds this: “Jenkins said she has not reported the threats to Minneapolis Police because she has been preoccupied with the dual crisis of the ‘global pandemic and global uprising’ over the killing of George Floyd.” The city of Minneapolis has become a political madhouse.

Cano is not singing. Lyden reports that she “did not return messages seeking comment.”

While Lyden’s story rocketed around the national media over the weekend, the Star Tribune wasn’t singing either. Today the Star Tribune’s Liz Navratil reports the story. She adds nothing to Lyden’s report while failing to mention it.

The council members’ private security arrangement gives us a glimpse into the future. It is the future Jenkins et al. will deliver in Minneapolis if they get their way.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses