A black criminal named George Floyd died under the knee (of other causes) of white Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on May 25. Within hours, violent protests erupted, becoming destructive and deadly riots that spread nationwide. Two weeks after Floyd’s death, the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to essentially dismantle the police department and in July voted to reduce its funding.

Now council members are wondering why the city is plagued with spiking crime.

“Residents are asking, ‘Where are the police?’” complained council member Jamal Osman.

Well, they’re resigning and avoiding certain patrols. Approximately 100 officers have left the department, either permanently or temporarily, since the beginning of the year, which is more than double the normal rate of attrition.

Obviously, the council votes mattered, as do the ugly pronouncements of people like City Council President Lisa Bender: “Our commitment is to end our city’s toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department. It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe.”

It’s also clear that having no policing is not keeping anyone safe.

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

Indeed, irony abounds. Not only are minority neighborhoods the most plagued by the spike in crime, but minority cops are being hurt.

One Minneapolis program that lost funding was aimed at recruiting minority cops. And the spectacle of council members demanding answers from Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who is black, was something to behold. He’s not the only black police chief under fire from the anti-police and racist Left. Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best resigned after her city cut funding. Rochester Police Chief Le'Ron Singletary resigned before being fired by the city mayor. Dallas Police Chief U. Reneé Hall is resigning at the end of the year. That’s just to name a few.

But at least affluent white leftists can feel good about “making a difference.”

Meanwhile, the economic toll of nationwide riots is astounding. Some $1 billion in insurance claims has already been filed, with damages almost certain to exceed a record $2 billion. That’s to say nothing of unclaimed damage or the businesses that will never return to inner-city neighborhoods. Nor is it to quantify — as if anyone could — the countless injuries and dozens of lives lost in riots ostensibly meant to show that black lives matter.

There is, of course, no justice for George in the mayhem (“93% peaceful” though it may be), but then again, that’s not the rioters’ objective. They want to dismantle the “systemically racist” institutions in America.

Maybe all of this is why President Donald Trump and Senate candidate Jason Lewis seem to have a fighting chance to win Minnesota, and why law and order has been a key theme for the GOP. Democrats run Minnesota at every level, just as they run every major U.S. city overrun by riots and run-of-the-mill violence. So, who is the problem?

The choice this November: Donald Trump or the mob.