by Evan Stambaugh
The Minneapolis neighborhood where the University of Minnesota is located has seen a notable crime drop after increasing its police presence.
According to The Minnesota Daily, the total number of “property and violent crimes” in the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood has fallen from a peak of 129 in May to 80 in August — a 38 percent decrease.
As previously reported by both The Daily and The College Fix, Marcy-Holmes residents became particularly concerned about the level of crime following a June 19 shooting that injured three U of M students.
In response, the University of Minnesota announced an increased police presence, the installment of more neighborhood security cameras, and the installment of more emergency blue-light kiosks throughout campus.
“A camera never blinks and it’s recording whatever it’s pointing at,” Garrett Parten of the Minneapolis Police Department told The Daily. “So even if a crime does occur, it does greatly enable us to solve crime because suspect description, suspect activity is all caught on camera.”
But the shooting did not keep one student activist from speaking out against the increased police presence.
“What I would like to see is the [university] work with the city of Minneapolis to try to get them to implement more programs that address the cause of this violence,” Andy Oien, a student and member of Students for a Democratic Society, told The Daily. “We’d prefer to see the U trying to go after the root causes of all this crime and violence.”
Left-wing U of M student activists have routinely called on Police Chief Matt Clark to resign, or have supported unsuccessful efforts to disarm and defund the campus police, according to The College Fix.
In February, one student claimed campus police had racially profiled him, but it turns out he fabricated the story. Campus police did stop him, according to video footage, but it was an innocuous interaction, with the student even asking the officers for a ride back home.
Just two months later, a student government leader urged her peers to “disrupt” the campus police department by annoying “the shit out of them.”
University President Joan Gabel faced criticism last year when she rushed to cut ties with the Minneapolis Police Department following the release of “the appalling video capturing the actions of MPD officers against George Floyd.” Her announcement came just two days after Floyd’s death.
The University of Minnesota consists of approximately 49,000 students and 3,800 staff, while the neighborhood of Marcy-Holmes is home to around 10,000 residents.
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Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer. He currently writes for Big League Politics and had previously been a sports blogger. He has a bachelor’s degree in theology and is working to obtain his master’s in philosophy. In 2016 he was a volunteer, intern, and field assistant for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign.
Photo “on campus” by University of Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
