Minneapolis. The progressive mecca where America’s summer of racial discontent began, with the death of George Floyd, 113 days ago. Or, over a period of 8 minutes and 46 seconds, depending on who’s counting what.

Now, after months of demonizing the police, trying their best to defund and dismantle the department, and violent crime on the rise, the clueless Democrat-controlled Minneapolis City Council is desperately asking: “Where are the police?”

Should we tell them?

During a two-hour meeting on Monday, which was slated as a “study session” on police reform, “council members told police Chief Medaria Arradondo that their constituents are seeing and hearing street racing which sometimes results in crashes, brazen daylight carjackings, robberies, assaults, and shootings,” as reported by MPR News.

So how bad has it become, according to MPR?

“The number of reported violent crimes, like assaults, robberies and homicides are up compared to 2019, according to MPD crime data. More people have been killed in the city in the first nine months of 2020 than were slain in all of last year. Property crimes, like burglaries and auto thefts, are also up. Incidents of arson have increased 55 percent over the total at this point in 2019.”

Newly-elected council member Jamal Osman, who said he’s being inundated with complaints from residents that calls for police aren’t being answered, was befuddled. I know, right?

“Residents are asking, ‘Where are the police’? That is the only public safety option they have at the moment. MPD. They rely on MPD. And they are saying they are nowhere to be seen.”

Again, should we tell them?

This is the same city council that just months ago led an effort to not only defund but to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department.

City Council President Lisa Bender, who led the charge to defund the department, suggested that officers were being “defiant.”

Bender said her constituents tell her “officers on the street have admitted that they’re purposely not arresting people who are committing crimes,” adding, “This is not new, but it is very concerning in this context.”

Chief Arradondo told Bender her claim was ‘troubling to hear,” and that he would raise her concerns with commanders and heads of each precinct.

As reported by Fox 9 in Minneapolis, Arradondo told the council criminals now feel “emboldened,” while neighbors feel “abandoned.”

Arradondo said about 100 cops have left his agency in 2020, more than double the 40-45 normal separations in a given year. The number is certain to rise, given the number of police officers making disability claims after George Floyd’s deadly arrest and the riots that followed.

Streaming at https://t.co/lp9wkYR5hE

Minneapolis City Council questions Chief Arradondo, gets update about internal changes being made within the Minneapolis Police Dept.

Chief acknowledges criminals are feeling "emboldened" and neighbors feel "abandoned." pic.twitter.com/KFDoWLddph

— FOX 9 (@FOX9) September 15, 2020

At least one city council member appreciated the dripping irony.

Councilmember Phillipe Cunningham, who represents the 4th Ward, where a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed on Monday afternoon, said two of his constituents were also recently wounded by stray bullets while sitting in their home.

“What I am sort of flabbergasted by right now is colleagues, who a very short time ago were calling for abolition, are now suggesting we should be putting more resources and funding into MPD.”

Ah, we don’t have to tell them; council member Cunningham just did.

Lest you think he was a total voice of reason, Cunningham, like most of his Democrat colleagues, also supports the creation of a new community safety agency to replace the police department. And his solution to the surging violence? “Violence interrupters.”

“If we have these systems in place we are getting ahead of the violence. That’s why I have advocated so strongly for the violence interrupters, because if they are interrupting the violence before the guns are being fired, then the MPD doesn’t have to respond to that violence.”

One wonders — this one, anyway — what would be the average lifespan of a (presumably unarmed) “violence interrupter” in a crime-ridden neighborhood in Minneapolis? New York City? Chicago? Baltimore? East L.A.? Any number of other crime-plagued areas across America?

No idea. But I do know this: Good luck buying a life insurance policy if you’re that guy. And don’t take that job if you have a wife and kids at home who love you. Just sayin’.

As for the Minneapolis City Council, and other city councils just like it across the country, #ProTip: Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.