8 out of 10 people shot in Minneapolis in 2021 have been black

As violent crime has soared in Minneapolis in 2020 and still further in 2021, a point we have made persistently is that the victims are disproportionately from the city’s black community. A couple of weeks ago, I noted that of the 49 lives to that point this year, at least 70 percent have been black, including two children under the age of ten.

Others are now beginning to notice this. Last week, PBS ran an article titled: ‘8 Out of 10 Gun Shot Victims in Minneapolis Have Been Black‘:

In Minneapolis, an unequal share of people who have been hurt or killed are Black. City data requested by Twin Cities PBS shows that at least 371 people have been shot this year – dozens more than what was reported at this time last year. Eighty-three percent of those victims are Black, and a third of them are under 25. 

These numbers might explain the fact that an MPR poll conducted last August found that while 41 percent of white Minneapolis residents wanted to reduce the size of the city’s police force, just 35 percent of its black residents thought the same. And, while 44 percent of white residents were opposed, 50 percent of blacks were. As they are disproportionately likely to be victims of violent crime, so black Minneapolitans are less keen on canning the police.

As far as I can tell, only one of the 309 African-Americans shot in Minneapolis in 2021 — 0.32 percent of the total — was shot by law enforcement. That was Winston Boogie Smith Jr., who the authorities claim was firing at them during an attempted arrest. An investigation is ongoing. Even so, Lisa Bender, the President of Minneapolis City Council, continues to urge a focus on “police violence” (the same day Aniya Allen was shot) and spread the lie that “the police kill people in our city with some frequency.” The City Council seems to inhabit a different reality from that faced by the city’s black residents.