Monday, June 8, 2020
The Gross Incompetence of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey Has Been Costly to America.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is Grossly Incompetent
Cities run through a gauntlet of mayors: conservative, progressive, competent, builders, imaginative, entrepreneurial, dull, conciliators, facilitators, incompetent, frugal, profligate, lazy, corrupt. New Yorkers elected Republican Rudy Giuliani after years of incompetent Democrats who drove up crime and rode the city into bankruptcy. He was succeeded by Michael Bloomberg, otherwise a progressive, but who knew New Yorkers needed law and order.
We sometimes referred to as Democratic candidates decades ago as "Blow-dried liberals;" They all seemed to emerge from the same studio.
Many of the candidates today are young, telegenic, empathetic, social justice warriors, full of promises. Several have been community organizers. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is one of them, as Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend. Many are ill-equipped mentally to handle a major crisis. Not ready for prime time.
The question is: who’s the worst in at least modern American History.
Contenders are many.
The decision was close: Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis or New York Mayor Bill De Blasio. Who will go done in history with London Lord Mayor Thomas Bloodworth as the worst in history?
Mayor De Blasio wins hands down as worst in New York City history, but he’s been consistently incompetent. New Yorkers expect the worst from Warren Wilhelm, Jr. He has underachieved expectations.
Lord Mayor Thomas Bloodworth of London sets the mark globally.
The young, inexperienced Bloodworth was Mayor on September 2, 1666 when a fire broke out in a bakery. The old cities built on wood were highly combustible. The preferred method of stopping urban fires was to form a firebreak by destroying structures in the fire’s path
He refused to order the demolitions. Indeed, he thought the early fire was so weak that “Pish. A woman could piss on it.” He was worried about the costs of compensating owners whose houses would be destroyed.
The result of his decision was the Great London Fire of 1666 which burnt for 73 days over 75% of London. 13,200 houses, 87 parish churches, and the great St. Paul’s Cathedral were destroyed. 70% of the city’s residents lost their homes.
King Charles II ordered demolitions the next day, but it was too late.
The mayor’s inaction was condemned in Samuel Pepy’s Journal. History has called his decision an “Act of Damnable Folly.”
Ironically, Londoners had just survived the Great Plague of 1865.
The Lord Mayor was responsible for destroying London. Mayor De Blasio has simply run New York City into the ground.
The young, inexperienced Jacob Frey did not cause the protests; that was Derek Chauvin. The Mayor’s inaction set loose a paroxysm of national looting and rioting. The toll is still being added.
The police have kept a tight boot on the inner cities for decades. The pressure builds, like a presser cooker. When it blows, it blows.
The question is not why? We know why. The question is when!
Mayor Frey’s immediate reaction to the killing of George Floyd was to condemn the homicide, promise reform in Minneapolis, and demand the four officers be arrested. So far, so good.
But then riots and looting joined the protests.
Rioters threatened Minneapolis’ Third Precinct Police Station on Wednesday. Police drove them off with tear gas, rubber bullets, and smoke bombs. The Mayor was asked by a reporter earlier that day: “What is your plan?” The Mayor had no answer.
The rioters showed up the next night in greater strength.
Mayor Frey had to make a decision – the most significant and consequential of his life.
He ordered the police to abandon the Precinct as it was under attack. The mob quickly entered the station, looted it , and then torched it.
The message was quickly sent throughout America. The police will not stop you! Go for it!
And they did.
The mob becomes explosive, frenzied, irrational, crazed, a force of its own. I wanted to add senseless and meaningless, but a lot of the looting is directed through the internet with flash mobs.
The toll is still being totaled: Lives lost, police dead and injured. buildings torched, businesses destroyed, scores of police cars burnt, Molotov cocktails thrown at police, cars, and buildings.
Here’s the significant toll in Minneapolis. The peaceful protestors for Black Lives Matter and Justice were swamped by the mob – an estimated $500 million in rebuilding costs. A large percent of the destroyed businesses were minority owned as was a $30 million low income structure under construction. Minorities are often the victims of urban riots.
Thomas Bloodworth burnt London.
Jacob Frey unleashed the mob across America.
His explanation:
“The symbolism of a building cannot outweigh the importance of life, of our officers or our public. We would not risk serious injury to anyone.
“You know brick and mortar is not as important as life.”
The Mayor had also blamed the riots on "white supremacists and outside agitators." The white supremacist claim got some initial national airplay, but it was clearly false.
Governor Walz had to call out the National Guard on Thursday, taking Mayor Frey out of the picture.
And now the cry to defund the police, starting with Minneapolis.
A veto proof majority of the Board of Supervisors has vowed to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Force over the objections of Mayor Frey.
Derek Chauvin will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The young, inexperienced Jacob Frey has to relive his decision.
Even Mayor Frey’s constituents booed him the other day, but for not going far enough in dismantling the Minneapolis Police.
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