Minneapolis Columnist Joe Soucheray: the State of the City -- God Help Us All.

 The eyes of the nation were on Minneapolis as recently as Feb. 4, 2018, when Philadelphia beat New England 41-33 in the Super Bowl. The game was played in the spanking new U.S. Bank Stadium, Super Bowl 52, or as the NFL so officiously likes to see it in print, LII.

A year later, the 2019 NCAA Final Four was played in the same building. Virginia beat Texas Tech 85-77 in the title game.

If the city was a joint, it was jumping. The streets were crowded. The cafe society was a triumph. Public transportation was humming. There was tremendous optimism and joie de vivre. Lights, cameras, action!

It all went in the tank quickly, didn’t it? On the eve of the trial of Derek Chauvin, accused of killing George Floyd, the city is a boarded-up fortress. Businesses that haven’t gone out of business — a pandemic hasn’t helped — have been told that they are on their own. The ineffective city leadership actually told business owners to check on their insurance coverages; you’re on your own to survive.

Law enforcement, including the National Guard, is on high alert. The Chauvin trial, wrongly, has been anticipated almost theatrically, but the theater is fated to be destructive and damning. Who knows how many people will arrive in town to throw bricks at windows. Why, the way the trial has been billed in the media, calligraphed invitations might as well have been sent to every malcontent from Philadelphia to Portland.

The trial could very well be the end of Minneapolis as a functioning city. It’s barely hanging on now.

Minneapolis cannot even summon the political will to reopen the intersection of 38th and Chicago, closed to traffic since the death of Floyd, almost a year ago. The intersection is controlled by unelected and self-appointed sheriffs, like some gang of highwaymen deep in a medieval forest.

Minneapolis is run by 13 unqualified activists on the city council and a mayor whose position is fundamentally weakened by the structure of the city’s charter. And that council, in less than a year’s time, has brought about ruin and increased crime as a result of their vocal contempt of their own police force. They have tried to “defund” the police. They have tried to diminish the number of sworn officers. They have even questioned the need for so much law enforcement present for the trial.

Yes, the trial, and the attendant protests, could be the end of Minneapolis. There is no political strength in place to save it. The council even exudes a vibe that suggests they are more concerned about the safety and convenience of protesters than their own citizenry.

The council cannot open an intersection because of their apparent fealty to those who occupy it. What are they going to do if rioters decide that they are going to take over six or seven square blocks of downtown, maybe the Nicollet Mall? This city let a police station burn. This is a city that called for help too late back in May 2020.

And now these same characters are in place to govern a city during a trial that will have worldwide attention and bring to town legions of the aggrieved. It isn’t even so much that they are in over their heads. That’s a given. It’s more to the point that they simply haven’t been interested in supporting the law enforcement that keeps a city safe and functioning.

Minneapolis will have to go to the top for intervention, the very top. God help Minneapolis in the months to come, God help them.

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God help us.

Please...