by Kyle Hooten
Rep. Ilhan Omar said the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is low on officers because cops are “unwilling to work.”
MPD just began 2021 with about 200 fewer officers than it had at the start of 2020 after losing 105 cops during a year filled with riots and anti-police sentiment. During a usual year, the department would expect to lose just over 40 officers. The city now has just 638 active officers.
Many of those who are not available to work are currently out on PTSD claims, Chief Medaria Arradondo and Financial Director Robin McPherson recently explained to the Minneapolis City Council.
However, Omar and her district director, Kendal Killian, apparently don’t see validity in these claims.
“The police are just refusing to come to work,” the congresswoman claimed in a recent Twitter post.
Correction: Minneapolis has about 200 fewer police officers UNWILLING to work.
It might be wise to note, Minneapolis hasn’t passed a single policy that changes the make up of the police department. The police are just refusing to come to work. https://t.co/x3lTsmmaWf
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 5, 2021
Killian also made a similar statement, alleging that the high attrition rate of MPD officers is because officers would “rather snowmobile than do their jobs.”
A year ago the Minneapolis Police payroll had 877 officers. This week only 638 will show up to work. It may surprise Senator Gazelka to learn that the dropoff is not due to reduced funding. It's because those cops walked off the job. They'd rather snowmobile than do their jobs.
— Kendal Killian (@KendalKillian) February 4, 2021
This is not the first time the high-ranking Omar staffer has berated Minneapolis police officers. In June, he called them “insecure babies … cowards” and criticized their alleged embrace of “rural cultural identity.”
Meanwhile, Minneapolis police themselves tell a very different story.
One officer recently penned an op-ed for the Star Tribune in which she explicitly stated: “I did not retire because I wanted to retire, despite many thinking 37 years was enough. I didn’t feel as if I was done just yet. I still had a mission to complete and that is what makes leaving difficult.”
The officer, Kim Voss, went on to explain that a total lack of support from city leadership in the face of a murderous mob pushed many cops to their breaking point.
“It’s hard to get up every day and be happy to go to your job feeling like damaged goods,” she said. “I received over 4,000 voicemails of vitriolic hate, and I didn’t have a phone left or a desk to put a phone on. My office had been firebombed.”
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Kyle Hooten is a former member of the Trump Presidential Administration where he served in the Department of Commerce as a speechwriter for the Secretary.
Image “Rep. Ilhan Omar” by Rep. Ilhan Omar.
