According to the Star Tribune, crime in the city has exploded since the death of George Floyd. “The violence comes amid a sharp rise in shootings in the 22 days since Floyd’s death. From May 26 to Tuesday, 66 people have been shot, or about 45 percent of the total shooting victims for the year, according to data from police.”
Despite the alarming rise in such violent incidents involving black people, Minneapolis officials recently began a concerted effort to “dismantle” the Minneapolis Police Department.
“The first week after [George] Floyd’s death saw a record 22 gunshot victims, while the following two weeks had 16 and 19 victims, respectively — all among the top five most violent weeks in the city since 2016. Overall, 149 people have been struck by gunfire so far in 2020 — the highest tally in at least the past five years.”
This week, at a media briefing on police reform, President Trump pointed out that almost two-thirds of murders last year in Baltimore City remained unsolved. He also cited dismal figures for Chicago. “Forty-seven percent of all murders in Chicago and 68 percent of all murders in Baltimore went without arrests last year.”
The Baltimore Sun reported that 300 deaths will be registered for the fifth year in a row in Baltimore. The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) confirmed the president’s statement. “Baltimore City police confirmed the president’s statistic Tuesday”. It is now considered one of the most dangerous cities in the US.
Despite this, the City Council has voted to defund the police department to the tune of $22 million.
In a video from 2015, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors confessed to being a “trained organiser” and a “trained Marxist” suggesting that the movement has an ideological focus based on racial tension. That may explain why BLM activists are not interested in skyrocketing black-on-black crime in Minneapolis, Baltimore or Chicago. Cullors, one of the Black Lives Matter movement’s co-founders, also advocated for the abolition of prisons.
In an interview for The Real News Network, Cullors said: “Myself and Alicia, in particular, are trained organisers. We are trained Marxists. We are super versed on ideological theories, and I think what we really try to do is build a movement that can be utilized by many, many black folk.”
Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, has meanwhile asked the United Nations to investigate policing in the United States for “police brutality” against blacks.
“The way you saw my brother tortured and murdered on camera is the way black people are treated by police in America,” Philonise Floyd said. An “emergency meeting” of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), based in Geneva, was held on the issue. African states called for an international commission of inquiry in a draft resolution into abuses against blacks in the United States.
“You in the United Nations are your brothers’ and sisters’ keepers in America, and you have the power to help us get justice for my brother George Floyd,” Philonise Floyd said. “I am asking you to help him. I am asking you to help me. I am asking you to help us — black people in America.”
The New York Times reported that the emergency meeting was the fifth such meeting convened in its 16-year history. President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the UNHRC in 2018.
National File reported that in 2016, organisations in the Black Lives Matter movement received $33 million in grants from the Open Society Foundations, founded by philanthropist George Soros in 1993, and the Center for American Progress, founded by former White House chief of staff and Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta in 2003.
The Washington Times reported that, in 2016, the Black Lives Matter coalition raised over $100 million from a series of wealthy liberal foundations including The Ford Foundation, in addition to $33 million in grants from the Open Society Foundations, with additional grants from the Center for American Progress.
