Judge orders Minneapolis to hire more cops after traumatized residents sue city over lack of protection

A judge has officially ordered Minneapolis to hire more police officers after the city council was sued by residents who are alarmed over the rise in crime across the city and the corresponding drop in law enforcement instigated by radical leftists.

“Minneapolis is in a crisis,” the eight plaintiffs in connection to the conservative Upper Midwest Law Center noted in their complaint. They cited the rise in shootings, murders, and the violent George Floyd protests that have taken place in Minneapolis according to FOX 9.

On Thursday, Hennepin County District Judge Jamie L. Anderson granted a Writ of Mandamus sought by Minneapolis residents that will provide a mandate to employ more police officers.

The city is expected to have approximately 669 officers employed by next June. But according to Anderson, that’s not enough to do the trick. She’s ordering at least 730 to be on the payroll by June 30, 2022. That’s commensurate with .2 percent of the population recorded by the 2020 Census. The city council and Mayor Jacob Frey have been ordered to “immediately take any and all necessary action to ensure that they fund a police force.”

(Video Credit: Fox News)

Officers in big cities such as Minneapolis have been leaving in large numbers due to the “Defund the Police” movement propagated by liberals and the overwhelming anti-police climate they are being subjected to. Many departments are no longer protecting their officers so they run the risk of lawsuits or prosecution every time they attempt to do their job. Leftist policies have the potential to get officers killed as they are restricted from carrying out their duties per their training as well. Many no longer feel it is worth the financial or personal risk.

In her decision, Anderson cited that Minneapolis residents were able to prove that the city’s rising crime rate was caused by a “lack of police officers” and has “led to personal injury to them,”  KSTP reported. The filing states that “one of the petitioners was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had their house shot at twice,” according to KSTP. Anderson also stated that the residents had no other recourse left to them to solve the lack of law enforcement after they wrote a letter to the interim city attorney and were informed the city doesn’t have to have all of the police positions filled at once.

“It is undisputed that: the crime rate in Minneapolis has increased since the killing of Floyd, one or more Petitioners have suffered injuries from that increase in crime, Ms. Lundberg has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the Court previously found that that the Petitioners have the standing to bring this mandamus action,” Anderson wrote in her ruling on Thursday.

(Video Credit: FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul)

The plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit are residents of Minneapolis’ Hawthorne and Jordan neighborhoods. The group includes Cathy Spann, Sondra Samuels, Don Samuels, Audua Pugh, Jonathan Lundberg, Aimee Lundberg, Georgianna Yantos, and Juliee Oden.

“We have made the emotional appeal,” Don Samuels, one of the plaintiffs and a former City Councilmember, stated. “We have demonstrated the statistical uptick and now this is the legal action we are exercising because it seems as if the city council cannot hear us and doesn’t feel what we feel.”

“Every night in the Jordan neighborhood, on any given block from Emerson to Lowry, you hear gunshots every night,” Spann said during the announcement of the lawsuit. “What do we do? Who do we call if the city council says we’re going to dismantle and defund your police department?” she demanded.

The City Attorney’s Office is reportedly having its legal counsel review the order.

No surprise was found on Twitter after the development:

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