Minnesota has been a sh**hole for a long time; the tradition continues

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From Minnesota’s John Hinderaker, Powerline: Five Dead, Democrats to Blame

John Thompson was a Democratic member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. In August 2020, while a candidate, he led a BLM “protest” at the home of Bob Kroll, who then was the head of the police union in the City of Minneapolis. We wrote about that here and elsewhere. Thompson, a disgusting individual, led a crowd in obscene chants and threatened violence against those associated with the Minneapolis Police Department. He also brought effigies of Kroll and his wife, Liz Collin, an award-winning anchor on a local television news program. He repeatedly beat the effigy of Ms. Collin with a stick. Hard to believe, but it’s true:

Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, wasn’t concerned. Walz said, “His fierce advocacy and commitment to his community is exactly what’s needed in the State Legislature right now.”

Because she didn’t sign on with the anti-police hysteria of the moment, Liz Collin was forced out of her job at WCCO TV. She has gone on to a second career with Alpha News.

So it is a little ironic that Liz broke today’s big story in Minnesota: former Representative John Thompson’s son Derrick was speeding on Highway 35W North, Friday night in Minneapolis. Observed (and perhaps pursued, this isn’t clear) by a state patrol car, he exited onto Lake Street and ran a red light at the bottom of the ramp at absurdly high speed. [Over 100 mph — Ed] Reportedly, he was driving a $75,000 Cadillac Escalade.

Running the light, he plowed into a car in which five young Somali women were driving. They were together, preparing for a friend’s wedding. This is what young Thompson did:

All five occupants of the vehicle he crushed are dead. True to character, after plowing into the Somalis’ car, he fled the scene, trying to avoid arrest.

You might wonder whether someone so depraved was committing his first offense. No, he wasn’t:

According to media reports, Derrick Thompson was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2020 for a 2018 crash in California that left a woman in a coma. He was fleeing police when he hit a pedestrian and then fled on foot, the reports say.

So these weren’t the first lives Derrick Thompson has destroyed, nor the first time he has fled an accident scene on foot. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, but it was in California (“It’s Chinatown, Jake.”). California’s left-wing system freed him way ahead of time to destroy five more lives.

Every single thing about this incident is an indictment of the Democratic Party, not least the fact that Minneapolis is a lawless city as a result of the Democrats’ unremitting attacks on law enforcement. It is Democrats, as they say, all the way down.

The response from Minnesota’s Democrats is touching:

So who is Latonya Reeves? She is, among other things, the Vice Chair of the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission, an officer of AFSCME, and–the kicker–a member of the Minneapolis Community Commission on Police Oversight. Reeves is one of the people who provide “oversight” to the Minneapolis Police Department, while it tries to fight crime and she and other bureaucrats like her get in the way. Five dead young women, all Somalis, aren’t going to change her, and their, anti-police attitudes.