The residents of the Powderhorn neighborhood of Minneapolis pledged never to call the police because they were convinced that the police are the enemies of black people people of color, treat them cruelly, and kill them with or without the least excuse. That – yes – even black police officers do this. So until police forces can all be abolished in America, the least a good white person can do – if “good white person” isn’t an oxymoron – is boycott the police.

Some of them came to regret their decision, especially when Powderhorn Park was occupied by vagrants homeless people, and the neighborhood, including the park itself, became a high crime area. (See our post Reality incorruptible, July 14, 2020)

Daniel Greenfield takes the story further at Front Page:

“If you are a comfortable white person asking to dismantle the police I invite you to reflect: are you willing to stick with it?” Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender had demanded [in early June]. “Will you be calling in three months to ask about garage break-ins? Are you willing to dismantle white supremacy in all systems, including a new system?”

Powderhorn residents had taken that message to heart and refused to call the police.

A few days later, a “juvenile” girl was assaulted. The Associated Press reported that “the people who took the victim to the hospital did not call police”.

By July, the encampment had grown to 800 people …

There have been assaults, rapes, theft, drug-dealing, overdoses, fights, bloodshed –

The oppressive system of “white supremacy” was being dismantled one rape at a time.

But –

Minneapolis officials have been steadily denying that dumping hundreds of vagrants in the park could possibly lead to crime.

“When we talk about crimes that happen here, these are not new crimes,” Minneapolis Park Board Commissioner AK Hassan insisted. As a Somali immigrant, he claimed that he won’t vote to evict anyone. “Let’s not find excuses.”

Hassan, a Rep. Ilhan Omar ally, had praised the vote to defund the police as an “opportunity to reimagine how we approach public safety, not only for our city but the entire country.”

How is the reimagining going? In effect –

Minneapolis’ Democrat leaders have reimagined public safety as utter terror. …

In response to the spiraling violence at Powderhorn Park, Commissioner Londel French urged people to get to know the vagrants and junkies:

There are some real issues about sanctuary, and I think the way we fix those issues are by having conversations with not only the neighbors and homeowners who live around Powderhorn, but some of the residents of the sanctuary and come up with some solutions to some of the issues that we’re having.

These hypothetical conversations could involve the drug dealing, prostitution, needles, stolen cars, bodily fluids, and other benefits of having a homeless encampment next door.

French, a Bernie Sanders supporter, had run for office vowing that he would use the Park Police to test out  –

… new ideas for how policing can engage our communities. Specifically, I will work to ensure that the Minneapolis Park Police use methods of restorative justice.

New ideas. Exciting prospect, reimagined public safety.

Anything new showing up yet? Is public safety better assured now? Is justice being or becoming restorative?

There’s been a small beginning:

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board [MPRB] … began designing a new green uniform for park cops even as it turned the parks into violent hellholes.

The 33 officers of the park police don’t have their new uniforms yet, but its okay because they aren’t being called.

“MPRB staff are encountering unsafe situations in the evening with locking up the bathrooms” and the portable restroom provider announced that it wants police to be there when its employees service the bathrooms because “encampment residents are going through their vehicles”.

But everyone is pledged not to call the cops. So –

If the lefty activists want to defund the police, they’ll have to be the ones fixing the toilets. …

The reports also mentioned high concentrations of “biohazards”.

Still, Powderhorn Park is a model:

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board of Commissioners declared that [all] the city’s parks were now “sanctuaries” for anyone who wanted to live in them. The resolution cited Governor Walz’s declaration of a “peacetime emergency” which banned removing homeless people from anywhere they wanted to be.

Since then, 38 more Minneapolis parks have been turned into tent cities … 

Will it be long before all the parks of Minnesota will be showcases of restorative justice?

All the parks of America?