We live in a bizarre hellworld in which many are now opposed, in principle, to law enforcement. It is hard to see how this can end well, but in the meantime we are being treated to plenty of absurdity. Like this story: Minneapolis Park Board votes to expel State Patrol from shared office space.
A divided Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board passed an emergency resolution to kick the State Patrol out of park headquarters, where troopers would take breaks and eat lunch.
It was an emergency!
Commissioner Londel French, who authored the resolution, advocated ending the Park Board’s relationship with the State Patrol due to its role suppressing protests and riots over police brutality.
How dare they suppress riots? After all, the riots were mostly peaceful:
Nightly demonstrations have taken place in front of the Brooklyn Center Police Department. While most demonstrators have been peaceful, some lobbed bricks and fireworks over the department’s security fence. … Brooklyn Center shopping centers were looted in recent unrest, with some incidents in north and south Minneapolis, as well as Uptown.
So what Park Board facilities, exactly, has the State Patrol been using?
Since 2012, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has had a license agreement allowing State Patrol troopers to use its headquarters at 2117 West River Road as a rest area for free, where they can work on reports as long as they use their own equipment.
They also can use the bathroom. But the Minneapolis Park Board considered any association with law enforcement to constitute an emergency, so the State Patrol had to go.
It is all theater, obviously. One Park Board Commissioner responded candidly:
Commissioner LaTrisha Vetaw objected. “This seems like political grandstanding to me,” she said. “It’s my understanding that they use the parking lot and the toilet.”
But a majority of the Park Board couldn’t stand to be associated with law enforcement any longer.
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