News and Analysis

‘Defund The Police’ Advocate Ilhan Omar Now Blames Police For Rising Crime Rates In Minneapolis

   DailyWire.com
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 9: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) speaks during a press conference at Black Lives Matter Plaza calling for an end to U.S. support for a Saudi Arabia-led blockade of Yemen on April 9, 2021 in Washington, DC. 26 year-old Iman Saleh is on her 12th day of a hunger strike for Yemen in Washington, DC. Millions of Yemenis, including children, are on the edge of famine, which some attribute partially to the blockade that has choked the delivery of food and fuel into the country.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Far-left Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), one of the leading voices in the push to “defund the police,” is now blaming Minneapolis police for rising crime rates in the city.

“The lawmaker’s comments come as violent crime has surged in Minnesota over the last year, rising 17% in total while setting records for murders,” Fox News reported. “Minneapolis, the state’s largest city, has had to fight the surge while its police department suffers from staffing and morale problems after the death of George Floyd in the city, something some say has fueled the crime surge.”

Omar, speaking at a town hall event on Saturday in Minneapolis, blamed the rising crime rates on the police department in the city, which comes after she previously called them a “cancer,” and said “we need to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.”

“What we must also recognize is that the reduction in policing currently in our city, and the lawlessness that is happening is due to two things,” Omar claimed. “One, the police have chosen to not fulfill their oath of office and to provide the public safety they are owed to the citizens they serve, right? It’s documented. But even before that, it was documented. The Minneapolis Police Department is the most dysfunctional police department, in our state and probably in the country.”

“The second part is that there has to be accountability,” Omar continued. “And someone that is actually taking responsibility for what the police does invest in to. And that doesn’t exist in this moment. And I do believe that the current charter that we have, that’s tied the hands of those who want to have that accountability, because we are mandated to have a specific amount of policing, we are mandated to, you know, have the kind of these union contracts that we have right now. I don’t know any other big city in the state of Minnesota that has the charter that we have, it just doesn’t exist.”

WATCH:

TRANSCRIPT:

REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): What we must also recognize is that the reduction in policing currently in our city, and the lawlessness that is happening is due to two things. One, the police have chosen to not fulfill their oath of office and to provide the public safety they are owed to the citizens they serve, right? It’s documented. But even before that, it was documented. The Minneapolis Police Department is the most dysfunctional police department, in our state and probably in the country. The second part is that there has to be accountability. And someone that is actually taking responsibility for what the police does invest in to. And that doesn’t exist in this moment. And I do believe that the current charter that we have, that’s tied the hands of those who want to have that accountability, because we are mandated to have a specific amount of policing, we are mandated to, you know, have the kind of these union contracts that we have right now. I don’t know any other big city in the state of Minnesota that has the charter that we have, it just doesn’t exist.

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The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  ‘Defund The Police’ Advocate Ilhan Omar Now Blames Police For Rising Crime Rates In Minneapolis