A new documentary called The Fall of Minneapolis details what really happened the day George Floyd died and how false narratives about his death led to the destruction of the city. Megyn called it a “must watch” in large part because of what it exposes about crime surges and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-based policies that have emerged across the United States as a result.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald to discuss how policing and crime in America have forever changed since Floyd’s death.
Crime Is Up, Policing Is Down
The documentary points out that the Minneapolis Police Department saw more than 300 officers leave the force between May 2020 (when Floyd died) and October 2021. And that wasn’t the only city affected. As Megyn pointed out, police departments across the country have reported a surge in resignations and early retirements in recent years.
Those who are still on the force have contended with the budget cuts associated with the “Defund the Police” movement and changes in policing and prosecuting that have led to an increase in crime. “The year of the George Floyd race riots, homicides went up 29 percent, which was the largest increase in history in this country,” Mac Donald noted. “Last year, violent victimizations were up 75 percent, which is the most in 30 years. That’s according to the National Criminal Victimization Survey.“
In her view, Floyd’s death “unleashed anarchy upon American cities” – including rises in lootings, shoplifting, and assaults – yet the country “continues turning its eyes away from the inner city dysfunction that is leading to this and to the absolute demoralization of the cops.”
‘Soft on crime’ prosecutors are also to blame. “The travesty that is our criminal justice system today in city after city is these progressive prosecutors declaring entire categories of crime off limits, like shoplifting, or fair beating, or – most preposterously and dangerously – resisting arrest,” Mac Donald explained. “It is all about avoiding disparate impact on Black criminals… It’s why prosecutors aren’t prosecuting; it is why judges are letting people back on the street.”
The Murder of Jillian Ludwig
Megyn noted that the “tentacles” of the BLM movement that took off after Floyd’s death “are getting people killed every day.” As she explained, that is true in “largely in black communities, where crime is running rampant” and “no one seems to care,” but also across the U.S.
Earlier this month, 18-year-old Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig was killed in broad daylight by a stray bullet while walking on a track in a Nashville park near campus. Police said the gunfire came from a public housing unit across the street from the park and that the suspect, 29-year-old Shaquille Taylor, was allegedly shooting at a car when a bullet struck Ludwig.
Taylor had been criminally charged multiple times in the past. Earlier this year, charges against him were dismissed after court-appointed doctors testified he was not fit to stand trial in a case where he was suspected of shooting at a woman driving with two children. He was later released. “They sent him right back out onto the streets without a care for safety,” Megyn said. “This is in one of those jurisdictions with a [George] Soros-funded [district attorney] with zero appetite for prosecuting crime – in particular, crime committed by young men who happen to be Black.”
Mac Donald believes the case isn’t getting more attention because of the demographics of Ludwig and Taylor. “It’s the usual black on white crime – that is the reality of interracial violence today,” she explained. “Blacks commit 87 percent of all interracial violence between blacks and whites… and yet we are engaged in this massive suicidal falsehood which says that whites are the problem.”
The Culture Problem
In Mac Donald’s view, the U.S. doesn’t have a justice problem. It has a culture problem. “The fact of the matter is, you cannot enforce the law in a colorblind, constitutional manner without having a disparate impact on Black criminals,” Mac Donald said. “Because the crime rates are so high, because we have more Blacks in prison, does not mean we’re a racist criminal justice system. It means that the inner city culture is in a very, very bad state right now.”
As she explained, young men “are not being socialized” properly, which is leading them to engage in “barbaric” behaviors, like drive-by shootings that are “taking dozens of young Black children’s lives.” Unlike Floyd, who became a household name, she noted that these victims “have never once been commemorated by Al Sharpton, or Benjamin Crump… or a Black Lives Matter activist.”
That is impacting society as a whole. “Now we have our activists pulling down any standard that has a disparate impact on Blacks,” Mac Donald concluded. “And that is a recipe not just for the loss of Black lives, but for the loss of an entire civilization.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Mac Donald by tuning in to episode 670 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.