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This letter is in response to Jeremy Corey-Gruenes’s column last week, which references a previous column of mine.

It was refreshing to see Corey-Gruenes align with the average conservative stance that it’s possible to support good police officers while simultaneously condemning problems. “It’s not an either/or situation,” we agree. If only Corey-Grunes’s radical party agreed with him as well. Ilhan Omar described the police department as “rotten to the root.” The Minneapolis City Council stated their police system is “not reformable.” Activists from the Democrat-embraced, Marxist-led Black Lives Matter movement commonly use slogans such as “(expletive) the police” and “ACAB,” standing for “all cops are (expletive).” No, the Democrat Party is not supporting our good officers. They are endangering them.

Back in step with his party, Corey-Gruenes is quick to pass off Minneapolis’s problems entirely onto the police. This does appear to be justified in the incident of Floyd’s death, I agree and wish for appropriate justice to be served. Yet, he disregards who controls the police. The MPD reports to the Minneapolis mayor and city council, not to Bob Kroll.  Have Minneapolis officials appointed staunch conservatives as police chiefs? It doesn’t appear so. If there is a systematic problem within the MPD, why ignore its leaders?

Officer Chauvin could have been prosecuted for a 2006 shooting under the current Democrat Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, but wasn’t. Is Freeman one of the system’s “powerful people” who “condone police brutality?”

We can’t pretend it was the police union who directed police to stand down while the city burned for days. It wasn’t Bob Kroll who waited to call in the National Guard while neighborhoods were decimated, and it wasn’t Bob Kroll who ordered the surrender of the 3rd Precinct to a violent mob.       

Peaceful protesting is great, but rioting, looting and burning is not. Corey-Gruenes pretends the latter didn’t happen, but the devastation left behind is heartbreaking. Minority neighborhoods were destroyed, leaving the poorest there with no options. Black business owners have been filmed in tears as they look through the ashes of their life’s work. Nationally, this has sparked into a movement that has violently ended the lives of many. This is not OK.

The Minneapolis City Council now wants to disband the MPD, which would particularly endanger their poorest and most physically vulnerable citizens. Interestingly, Corey-Gruenes seems to admit supporting their plan. (Please pay attention, Freeborn County, I don’t think most of us share this value.) When should we be concerned about criminal brutality? How many people per year would criminals kill without police?

To make better decisions moving forward, we must first be honest about what has happened. A blue city in a blue state stood back and allowed a leftist movement to wreak utter havoc, harming good people. Minnesota’s leaders handled this horribly. Floyd’s death could have unified the nation, but instead was devastatingly used to divide humanity further. We can’t continue to vote the same as always and expect different results. 

Angie Hoffman

Albert Lea