The criticism against Gov. Tim Walz’s handling of the Minneapolis riot is well-earned
Kamala Harris, Tim Walz are a criminal’s ‘dream team’: Randy Sutton
The Wounded Blue founder Randy Sutton joins ‘Fox News Live’ to discuss Vice President Kamala Harris’ crime record.
Ever since Tim Walz was chosen as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, his record as governor of Minnesota has come under a deluge of public scrutiny, and rightfully so. No part of his tenure as governor, however, is as egregious as his reckless disregard for the rule of law when Minneapolis burned during the 2020 riots.
Right on cue, however, countless media "fact-checkers" dutifully swooped in to try to save Walz from the obviously rightful criticism of his disastrous handling of the situation. But they simply cannot hide from the truth.
Tim Walz let Minneapolis burn and in doing so, he ended up putting police in Minnesota and around the country right into a domestic war zone.
Rioters demonstrate outside a burning fast-food restaurant, May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis, after the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Many have pointed to the image of the Third Precinct in Minneapolis burning as the emblem of Tim Walz’s time as governor. It fits.
I WATCHED AS GOV. TIM WALZ LET MY HOME STATE OF MINNESOTA BURN
Minneapolis police officers tried to defend the Third Precinct for days until they could no longer hold. They waited for the Minnesota National Guard to show up, and those reinforcements never came.
Some will try to make the case that Minneapolis’ Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey deserved most of the blame for what happened during those nights in May 2020. What they either forget or choose to ignore is that the activation of the National Guard was Walz’s responsibility – and his responsibility alone – as governor.
According to a 2020 report in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, hardly a bastion of pro-police sentiment, Frey called Walz days before the precinct burned to ask for help, and he got none.
'LET MINNEAPOLIS BURN': RETIRED POLICE LIEUTENANT RIPS GOV WALZ FOR SURRENDERING CITY TO RIOTERS
After getting a call from his chief of police early in the evening of May 27, the second night of rioting, Frey said he called Walz and asked for National Guard support. "We expressed the seriousness of the situation. The urgency was clear," Frey told the newspaper. The mayor added that the governor "did not say yes" but only that "he would consider it."
The mayor’s office followed up with a written request again the next morning, even noting that first responders had been injured the night before. That night, Minneapolis’ Third Precinct station would go up in flames.
Instead of following his duty to maintain law and order and protect the law-abiding residents of Minneapolis, instead of standing with the law enforcement officers whose lives were in imminent danger, Walz just let it burn.
WALZ BACKED 'ALTERNATIVES TO POLICING' PACKAGE AT HEIGHT OF DEFUND MOVEMENT
Then, the violence spread.
From Seattle to Portland to Atlanta to Washington, D.C., the example set by Tim Walz’s radical dereliction of duty and disdain for the rule of law became a template for emboldened criminals and weak politicians around the country.
Meanwhile, many of those police departments across the country were trying to protect and serve their neighbors and fellow citizens from this nightly chaos while dealing with the budget and manpower constraints imposed upon them by the so-called "defund the police" movement – something that Walz also publicly supported at the time. They were outnumbered and surrounded on all sides.
Even without nightly riots, first responders have it hard enough. They show up every day knowing that they might not make it home that night. They choose to do this job because of the knowledge that the law will not enforce itself, that there will always be people willing to break it, and that – without someone to stand in the way – innocent Americans will get hurt as a result.
That’s why the Pipe Hitter Foundation exists; we defend the men and women who defend America. We stand up police, other first responders and military personnel by providing legal assistance, fighting for the public policies they deserve, and keeping the public informed about what they’re going through. We have their backs so they can have ours.
The criticism against Walz’s handling of the Minneapolis riot is well-earned. Walz’s wife has even bragged about leaving her windows open so she could relish the smell of burning tires. But while she was enjoying her aromatherapy session, police and other first responders were in a domestic war zone, risking their lives every moment of every night thanks to her husband.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
Failure to enforce the law is an invitation to break it; any law enforcement officer with any real time on the job will tell you that because it is a fixed and unchangeable rule of human nature. It always has been. That reality was on full display throughout the summer of 2020, and it all started with Tim Walz’s reckless, failed "leadership."
The law enforcement community will not forget that, and neither should anyone else.
Rob O'Donnell is a board member at The Pipe Hitter Foundation, a retired NYPD detective, as well as host of "The Rob O’Donnell Show."
