by Rose Williams
Minneapolis is “run by gangs,” an owner of a Minneapolis restaurant and bar remarked in a recent interview, saying he has stopped trying to contact the city about it.
“I don’t talk to the city. I don’t talk to the politicians. I’ve given up. There’s no point,” Ken Sherman, owner of Seven Steakhouse, told WCCO last week.
Seven is a rooftop restaurant, bar, and nightclub located on Seventh and Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis. Sherman, who has owned the business since 2017, now operates his own security team nightly, according to a story in the August/September 2021 issue of Twin Cities Business.
Sherman said the police presence downtown is basically nonexistent. He can be on the rooftop on a Saturday night from 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. and “never see a police car and absolutely never see a policeman walking down the street,” according to his interview with WCCO.
“The only police we see are off-duty cops hired by other bars or restaurants,” Sherman noted.
He said the problem began when the Minneapolis City Council denounced all cops and claimed the Minneapolis Police Department was “systemically racist, and they should be abolished.”
“They destroyed the morale of the MPD,” Sherman said.
“There certainly are members of the police force who are racist; there are members of the realtors association who are racist; there are members of every organization that are racist,” he remarked.
Sherman told Twin Cities Business that prior to George Floyd being killed in Minneapolis, Seven would hire off-duty cops to intimidate criminals and anyone who might think they could get away with violence. Now, following the uproar toward the MPD, “an off-duty cop is worthless,” Sherman noted.
“The bad guys know [the cops] won’t do anything,” he said, which is why Seven operates its own security team of about 15 guys on an average night.
Sherman said he disapproves of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and the city council’s inaction toward peacekeeping in the city.
“All it has done is hurt the black community, made our jobs difficult, and sent our customers to the suburbs,” he told Twin Cities Business.
Minneapolis has experienced one of the highest homicide increases in the nation this year. Violent crime in the city is nonstop — two children have been killed by stray bullets and four more have suffered injuries.
Minneapolis activist Lisa Clemons told parents earlier this month to have their children sleep on the floor to avoid getting shot.
A few weekends ago, Minneapolis traffic control agents were intentionally avoiding north Minneapolis due to the high amount of shootings and gun violence in the area.
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Rose Williams is an assistant editor for Alpha News.
Photo “police on the scene” by North Minneapolis Crime Watch & Information.
