‘Blood On Their Hands’: Minneapolis Business Owner Tears Into City Council That Called For Defunding Police

Conservative News DailyFebruary 16, 2021

On Tuesday, a Minneapolis business owner, responding to the news that the Minneapolis City Council was spending over $6 million to hire recruits for the city’s police force after having called in the past for defunding the police, stated, “They saw an opportunity to take down a system and they’ve got a lot of blood on their hands right now because of it. We had over 550 people shot in our city in 2020. We had over 80 murders and the far majority of those people, those victims, were people of color.”

The exchange prompting the remark came on Fox & Friends. Host Peter Doocy asked business owner Jay Ettinger, “After the George Floyd unrest there were, the town council there in Minneapolis, said, ‘You know what? The police are doing a bad job. We’ve got to reimagine it; we’ve got to defund the police.’ And that became a movement all across the country. There were people who said taking money from the police does not make sense, and now fast forward to today and now your town council is saying, ‘You know what, we need more police.’ What happened?”

“If you gave this script to a Hollywood director, what’s happened to our city in the last nine months, to be frank, the last three years, they would laugh at the premise, it’s so absurd,” Ettinger answered. “We had nine city council members stand on a stage with big letters in front of the stage, saying, calling to defund the police. If you were to interview those councilmembers, there were nine of the 13 who stood up there, you’d probably get five or six different answers from them what that actually means. So there’s no consistency, no cohesiveness in their group and in their attempts to what they’re trying to do.”

“Ultimately, if you were to poll the people in Minneapolis, who would think, ‘Ok this is a good idea, let’s defund the police,’ what would that public opinion poll look like?” Doocy asked.

“You know, I think in Minneapolis, probably 20-25% might support that idea, as crazy as it sounds,” Ettinger posited. “I think if you took one step outside of Minneapolis, I think 95% to 99% think it’s absurd. The terminology was dangerous. When George Floyd died on May 25, obviously our community directly was greatly impacted as well as the whole country, but when that happened, and I woke up on May 26 and watched the video, I was heartbroken; I was angry; I was disgusted; I had all sorts of emotions. But one of the things that I came out of that a day or two later after I was able to kind of digest what happened was, I saw an opportunity for us all to come together because it didn’t matter whether you’re white or black, Republican or Democrat, old or young, everybody was heartbroken by what they saw, and upset by what they saw.”

“The difference is, I can’t tell you what’s in our city council’s heart,” he continued. “It wouldn’t be fair for me to say what’s in their hearts, but what I can tell you is they saw a whole different kind of opportunity. They saw an opportunity to take down a system and they’ve got a lot of blood on their hands right now because of it. We had over 550 people shot in our city in 2020. We had over 80 murders and the far majority of those people, those victims, were people of color. And so I don’t know exactly who they think they’re helping because this defund the police movement has hurt the black community in our city more than any other and the black leadership in our city is not being heard. Our faith leaders, our educators, our coaches, they’re just not being heard by the city council.”

Doocy commented, “And the pickle that the city is in now, where they’re going, ‘We need to come up with six million more dollars to hire more police,’ this is completely inflicted upon the city of Minneapolis by the city of Minneapolis council. And you say, ‘Come November, it’s time to get rid as many as possible.’”

Ettinger concluded, “This is the most important election in this city’s history and if we get it right, we can turn this around really quickly. We’re three years removed from having the Super Bowl here, and two years removed from having a Final Four. And what this city looks like today compared to two and three years ago is startling. And so this election we’ve got to get it right. And we have to vote for the greater good. We have to vote for what’s best for everybody in our community. … Everything is falling on deaf ears right now with this city council.”

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.