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As I’ve watched the protests in Minneapolis, it seems obvious to me that America is at risk of falling face-first into another disastrous anti-law-enforcement crisis.
Here’s a cold dish of truth: There are some people in this world who enjoy hurting other people and taking other people’s stuff. These people aren’t sick. They’re not confused. They’re not mixed up. It’s not that their mothers or fathers didn’t love them enough. They’re just antisocial. I don’t know why God made some people that way. If I get to Heaven, I’m going to ask.
Every society deals with these people differently, but in America, we’ve chosen to hire brave men and women to enforce our laws by confronting antisocial people when they commit crimes. We rarely hear about these courageous officers and the millions of positive interactions they have each day. We only hear about the handful of cops who — by negligence or by choice — harm other people while enforcing the law.
The defund-the-police movement seized upon a few bad examples of law enforcement to sell the lie that cops are worse than criminals. These activists believed that our country would be better off if we fired all police officers and replaced them with social workers.
Community members confront federal agents after an immigration raid that resulted in detentions and followed the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minn., Jan. 13, 2026. (Tim Evans/Reuters)
Prior to the death of George Floyd, the defund-the-police movement was a fringe idea that was only popular among Marxist academics and soy-latte drinking, NPR-tote bag carrying Karens. Fair-minded Americans knew it would be insane to replace cops with social workers. Murderers, thieves, drug dealers and carjackers don’t need hugs; they need jail cells.
But the Karen wing of the Democratic Party saw Floyd’s death as an opportunity to promote the defund-the-police movement. This presented Democratic officials, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, with a choice. Door #1: They could ignore the Karens and restore law and order. Door #2: They could defund, disparage and demoralize every officer in the state to appease the Karens.
Walz, Frey and many others chose Door #2. They let rioters seek revenge on law enforcement, stood by as police precincts burned, and sat in silence as activists defamed the countless good cops who kept their cities safe.
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These decisions created one of the worst crime waves in American history. Commercial burglaries increased by 43%, carjackings increased by 93%, and murders rose by 44% in the wake of the George Floyd riots.
The defund-the-police project backfired faster than anyone could have imagined, and Democratic mayors scrambled to undo the damage. But maintaining a strong police force is not a light switch you can flick on and off as the woke mob demands. After years of demoralizing police officers and denigrating them as bigots racists, and murderers, a lot of cops didn’t want their jobs back.
Nationwide, police departments are still operating with an average of 6% fewer officers than they did in 2020. In Minneapolis, the police force is still 36% smaller than it was before Mr. Floyd’s death, despite a prolonged effort to hire more officers.
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If anyone can recognize the deep-dish stupidity of the defund-the-police movement, it should be Walz and Frey. But today, it looks like they are ready to lead their Democratic friends down the same anti-law-enforcement path — with a slight twist.
Instead of arguing that cops are a bigger problem than criminals, Walz and Frey have joined the Karen wing of the Democratic Party to say that enforcing immigration laws is racist and vetting migrants is a form of White supremacy. Once again, these activists see the chaos in Minneapolis as an opportunity to use the George Floyd playbook to get Congress to defund ICE and the Border Patrol.
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Prior to the death of George Floyd, the defund-the-police movement was a fringe idea that was only popular among Marxist academics and soy-latte drinking, NPR-tote bag carrying Karens.
But rioters do not get to dictate which laws the federal government enforces, which illegal immigrants it deports, or which types of fraud it investigates. The federal government, empowered by voters, has the right to make those decisions under the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, and it is illegal for states to obstruct legitimate federal law enforcement.
I understand that Walz, Frey and their Democratic colleagues must follow their hearts. I’m just asking them to take their brains with them.
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It was weapons-grade stupid to defund the police in 2020. It is just as dumb to defund ICE today. From terrorists entering the country to cartels smuggling people and drugs into our communities, President Joe Biden’s open-border policies were a disaster for the security and prosperity of the United States. President Trump may have made it look easy to secure the border, but it wasn’t. ICE and Border Patrol worked hard from day one to restore order at the border.
No one wants to see violence in our streets, but we have got to learn the lessons of 2020 and recognize that good law enforcement is the solution, not the problem.
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Republican John Kennedy represents Louisiana in the U.S. Senate.
