Minneapolis continues to contend with unprecedented gun violence amid policing debate

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At least 275 people have been victims of gunfire in Minneapolis so far this year, eclipsing the entire annual totals of all but two of the past 10 years, according to Police Department records. Gun violence tends to spike in the city every year during the hot summer months, but this year’s surge in shootings dating back to the unrest after the death of George Floyd is worse than usual.

MPD records show that 269 people were shot in Minneapolis in all of 2019 — a grim milestone that the city reached on July 20 this year. The shooting tally is also nearly 60% higher than the five-year average for this time of the year, records show.

The city’s 37 homicides have also nearly doubled from this time last year. Victims were mostly concentrated in the Fourth and Third precincts. They included a 14-year-old girl who was grazed by a wayward bullet while she lay in bed and a taxi driver who was killed when he confronted two men breaking into his cab.

The recent upswing in violence has factored into a fierce debate over the future of policing in Minneapolis, as elsewhere, sparked by Floyd’s death and the ensuing riots: Some law enforcement groups and their supporters have cited the spiking gun violence as reminiscent of the “Murderapolis” era of the mid-90s, while activists argue that the recent bloodshed is proof that the existing public safety system isn’t working.

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Some criminologists say the causes are unchanged — inadequate housing, systemic racism, poverty and other forms of neglect, coupled with a seemingly bottomless supply of illegal firearms. Adding to that combustible mixture is the pandemic and the unrest following Floyd’s death, they say. Additionally, authorities say that violent crime tends to escalate around this time of the year, not only because warmer weather is drawing more people outside, but because the summer months have so many death anniversaries of slain high-profile gang members.

https://www.startribune.com/record-mpls-gun-violence-comes-amid-policing-debate/571900122/