Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension 2020 Uniform Crime Report finds that the state had a record number of homicides in 2020. Last year also saw the highest number ever recorded in one year assaults against police officers in the line of duty.
The increased violence comes the same year that George Floyd died while in police custody, which set off months of destructive riots and protests calling for the defunding of police.
Minnesota recorded a 16.6 percent increase in violent crimes in 2020. There were 185 murders in 2020 compared to 117 in 2019, an increase of 58.1 percent, according to the report.
In addition, 75 percent of the murders in 2020 were shootings, up from 69 percent in 2019.
The report said in 2020, 667 incidents involving officer assaults in the line of duty — a 62 percent increase over 2019 and the highest number on record, according to the report.
The bureau report said 31 officer-involved shooting incidents were recorded in 2020, six more than in 2019.
Fox News reported on the crime surge in Minnesota:
Rev. Jerry McAfee, a civil rights activist who organized community patrols in north Minneapolis in response to a series of shootings that left at least two children dead this year, said the numbers of assaults, rapes and other violent crime counted by the bureau may be underreported.
After his 6-year-old granddaughter was killed by stray bullets earlier this year, local peace activist K.G. Wilson, who’s worked for decades helping to keep children out of gangs and guns off the streets, said he’s choosing to leave Minneapolis amid the record-breaking crime surge.
“When you have a police force operating 200 under, the distrust some of the people have with the police department, some good, some bad, and the overall level of trauma that exists within our community, it’s rough out here,” McAfee told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
“I’m just done in Minneapolis. I don’t want to work here. I don’t want to be here,” Wilson told Fox 9 Minneapolis.
Other report findings:
- Arson rose 53.7 percent over 2019.
- Motor vehicle theft rose 19.7 percent in 2020 with 13,662 vehicles stolen as compared to 11,410 in 2019.
- The value of property stolen in 2020 topped $216 million, a 54.5 percent increase over 2019.
Fox News reported:
Minnesota Republicans argued that the report released Tuesday shows Democrats have been taking too lenient of an approach to crime and the data further supports the need for more law enforcement. But Minneapolis officials have been supporting a measure that would allow voters in November to decide whether to “replace” the police department and are, meanwhile, fighting a judge’s ruling siding with northern Minneapolis residents wanting more cops hired to abide by the city charter.
According to the Disaster Center website, crime has mostly increased over the decades as Minnesota has welcomed more and more immigrants from around the world.
Minnesota recorded 42 in 1960; 75 in 1970; 106 in 1980; 117 in 1990; 151 in 2000; and 96 in 2010.
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