Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey appeared to suggest that American taxpayers should pay for his reckless decisions.
After rioters were permitted to destroy the city of Minneapolis, its leadership now wants U.S. taxpayers to pay for repairs.
There is no doubt that Mayor Frey and Minneapolis leadership are responsible for the destruction, critics say.
After all, Mayer Frey is still defending his decision to abandon the Third Precinct, which was burned and destroyed by rioters.
CBS Minnesota reports:
Last Wednesday night, as the Target near the 3rd Precinct was being looted, Frey got an urgent call from Police Chief Madaria Arradondo.
“He said Mayor if this continues I do not think there is any way that our police department is going to handle this crisis on our own. Mayor, I am asking you to ask for the National Guard,” Frey said.
[…]
Now, Frey defends abandoning the 3rd Precinct.
“If we decided to continue to hold the 3rd Precinct there very likely would have been hand-to-hand combat, likely serious injury and maybe death, and in the decision between a building and life-or-death we decided to evacuate,” Frey said.
Frey confirmed officers were pulled out of the precinct earlier in the day with the hope that would diffuse protests and free up officers for other hotspots.
“Going forward, we have a lot of work to do,” Frey said. “Before anything we need to do everything possible in getting justice for George Floyd.”
Frey's "leadership" is what lead to widespread destruction within the city.
But now, they want federal taxpayers to help pay for the repairs?!
We don't think so!
Law abiding citizens who support law and order should not be responsible to pay for a city where chaos was permitted to reign!
More details on this gutsy demand by Mayor Frey below:
The lowball estimate of repairs is $55 million.
The actual cost will likely be much higher.
Instead of taking responsibility for their decisions that damaged their city, Minneapolis "leaders" want federal taxpayers to pay for the rebuilding of their city.
The Blaze confirms the demand:
The delayed action of Minnesota leaders to quell growing unrest in the shadow of George Floyd's tragic death resulted in mass rioting across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
Now, the leaders want federal taxpayers to partially foot the bill for damage caused by violent protesters.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, more than 200 buildings across the Minneapolis-area have been destroyed or damaged in the riots, which will require at least $55 million in repairs. However, that number will likely be much higher — up into the "hundreds of millions," Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said this week.
"We will do everything we can as we shift to recovery mode," Frey said. "We're recovering from crises sandwiched on top of each other, from COVID-19 to the police killing and then the looting which took place afterward."
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and city leaders will seek federal assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to "offset" the cost of damage repairs, the Star Tribune reported. Walz's administration is reportedly discussing the matter with Minnesota's congressional delegation, including with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D).
The request comes despite Frey openly admitting that city leaders allowed violent protesters to destroy the Minneapolis Police Department's third precinct building.
Democrats cannot expect American taxpayers to continuously bailout every poor decision that they make.
This MUST stop.
They must take responsibility for their actions and foot the bill!
Fortunately, it appears unlikely that the request will be approved.
But until it's officially denied, you never know what may happen.
The Western Journal reports that the historical precedent is against what Mayor Frey is demanding:
Gov. Tim Walz said he and Frey have talked to federal representatives about getting money from Washington.
“[W]e have expressed some of our desires to explore what we can do there,” he said, according to the Star-Tribune.
If past practices hold, the city is not likely to be supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Baltimore sought FEMA funding after the riots that followed the 2015 death of a man in police custody named Freddie Gray. No funding ever materialized, the Star-Tribune reported.
Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum, who represents parts of Minneapolis, said FEMA funding would ultimately need to be approved by President Donald Trump, who has criticized Frey’s tactics in handling the riots that broke out in Minneapolis.
Although the city could seek funding through the federal budget process, that would require the Democratic-led House, Republican-led Senate and Trump to all give the city what it wants.
“To be realistic, the odds of that happening are, at best, very difficult,” McCollum said, according to the Star-Tribune.
McCollum said the only way the city might get federal help is if it can convince Trump to declare a federal emergency, and city officials can show the city had been victimized by forces beyond its control.
“If it is demonstrated outside provocateurs committed acts of destruction then there is a clear rationale for an emergency declaration by President Trump,” she said.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who also represents the city, said Congress must allocate funds to fix damage caused by rioting she has called a manifestation of a dysfunctional society.
“We have a moral responsibility to help communities heal economically,” she said in a statement on her website. “Minneapolis’s economy has been ravaged. Families are struggling to find places to buy food, local shop owners fear they’ll never been open their doors again, and many workers find themselves without a job to return to.”
Omar’s statement made it clear that she doesn’t consider the damage to be the fault of the rioters.
If American taxpayers are expected to pay for Minneapolis' failed leadership, then you can expect voter backlash at the ballot box.
Our leaders need to learn that actions have consequences.
Red states cannot continue to bailout blue states for their reckless decisions and lack of strong leadership.
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