The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension released their annual report on Tuesday, showing that Minnesota had a record number of murders in 2020.
According to Bring Me The News, the report “shows there were 186 murders in Minnesota in 2020, a 58.1% increase compared to 2019, and 2020 marked the most murders in the report’s history, exceeding the previous record of 183 murders in 1995.”
Of the 186 murders, 82 were from Minneapolis and 32 were from St. Paul. The number of murders looks on track to be even higher in 2021, as Minneapolis alone has already seen 50 murders so far.
The homicide data shows more homicide victims under the age of 18 than there have been in the last five years. The three largest racial groups who committed homicides are as follows: 125 of the homicide offenders identified as African American, the race of 68 were unknown, and 51 were white.
Violent crimes also rose significantly in 2020, going up over 16% since 2019, along with robberies, aggravated assault, and vehicle thefts. Rapes went down in 2020, with rates hitting the lowest they’ve been in five years. The only other crime that dropped in 2020 was commercial sex trafficking.
Other crimes that rose significantly included arson, which increased at one of the highest rates of 53.7%, and “bias crimes.” According to the report, bias crimes were mostly reported against African Americans. The other large group that reported bias crimes were bias crimes against white people. The number of police officers assaulted increased the most, as officers were assaulted at a rate 62% higher than in 2019.
However, arrest records appeared to have gone down in 2020, with only 66,111 white offenders being arrested, 29,438 African Americans, and under 10,000 arrested of other races. This leaves the total number arrested at around 100,000 offenders, compared to over 150,000 in 2019.
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Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun | Star News Network and The College Fix. She graduated with a degree in Communications from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. Send news tips to [email protected].
