Tim Walz’s Fatal Pro-Crime Record

• Governor Walz oversaw a violent crime spike during his term in office

• He deliberately prevented police from intervening in violent riots, allowing rioters to burn Minneapolis

• He clamped down on innocent civilians using oppressive COVID-era policies

The story

Amid Democrats' current honeymoon with Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), his track record on controlling crime in Minnesota does little to bolster Democrats’ reputation as a party committed to law and order. On the contrary, Walz failed across the board to protect innocent Minnesotans, yet excelled at cracking down on them.

Walz recently proclaimed that Donald Trump presided over a rise in violent crime while in office. However, During Trump’s presidency, violent crime rates declined during his first three years. Only in 2020 did violent crime spike nationally — in no small part because of mass riots that erupted in cities like Minneapolis, which Walz presided over and encouraged.

Since Tim Walz became governor in 2019, Minnesota has seen a dramatic rise in murders. During his first year in office, instead of reducing homicides, the numbers increased under his watch. By 2020, the situation took a dramatic turn for the worse; the state witnessed 185 murders during a summer marked by the George Floyd riots. The trend continued with 201 murders in 2021, followed by 182 in 2022, and 172 last year.

To add some perspective, from 2015 to 2018 — before Walz took office — Minnesota averaged 113 murders annually. Since Walz became governor, that average surged 50 percent. The numbers paint a stark picture of a state failing to control a striking rise in violent crime under Walz’s watch.

But the situation takes an even darker turn. Not only did Walz fail to reduce overall crime rates, but he deliberately stopped police from intervening during the 2020 riots and allowed Minneapolis to burn.

Encouraging rioting and terror

After George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in 2020, mass protests quickly formed, which exploded into riots. Governor Walz dragged his feet, waiting three full days to dispatch Minnesota’s National Guard — which was reportedly further hampered by confusion at the bureaucratic level.

By the time the Guard finally arrived, a police precinct was in ashes, and countless businesses were destroyed. As riots raged, police were not permitted to wear protective tactical gear despite officers being injured by cement chunks and bottles hurled at them. Walz declined help from President Trump, who offered to send troops to help quell the disorder.

After the riots, Minneapolis looked more like bombed-out Baghdad than a first-world city. Damages totaled over $500 million, and nearly two dozen shootings occurred amid the disorder.

In the aftermath of the chaos, Minneapolis police sergeant Anna Hedberg testified before the Minnesota state Senate, lambasting Walz for abandoning the police. Hedberg recalled a phone conversation between Walz and the city’s third police precinct: "I heard the Governor say, 'Give it up.'”

Sgt. Hedberg’s bombshell testimony sheds light on how Governor Walz chose to allow Minneapolis to burn down, rather than sending police trained to handle these situations to do their jobs and contain the riots.

Officer Rich Walker, Sr. also testified about how demoralized police were after Walz’s abandonment. “I believe I speak for every Minneapolis cop when I tell you that I’ve never been more publicly humiliated.”

After Gov. Walz abandoned Minneapolis police officers, they threatened to leave the force or retire en masse. City payroll records reveal that between 2020 and 2022, 273 officers left the Minneapolis Police Department. Because of Walz’s failed leadership, the largest police force in Minnesota began bleeding staff.

Cracking down on local businesses, not rioters

After the riots, Walz instituted an 8 p.m. curfew which involved roaming groups of police officers shooting families with paintball guns for standing on their porches. Ordinary families with small children were patrolled to keep them inside their homes, while violent rioters were welcomed to terrorize Minneapolis and burn down an estimated 1,500 buildings.

Further, his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic expose a leader determined to crack down on ordinary citizens. While Big Box retailers, liquor stores, and strip clubs remained open, he imposed strict lockdowns on mom-and-pop stores. According to Gov. Walz, strip clubs are essential services, but small businesses are not.

One small business owner, Lisa Hanson, defied the governor’s lockdown order and reopened her coffee and wine bistro, which she had owned for eight years. Hanson, a mother of eight and a grandmother to 18, was sentenced to 90 days in jail for the crime of opening her business.

Tim Walz’s COVID hotline incentivized neighbors to snitch on each other for walking the dog or going to church. His administration enforced strict limits on private indoor gatherings, capping them at 10 people, while outdoor gatherings were arbitrarily restricted to 25.

In July 2020, Walz implemented even stricter measures, declaring a statewide mask mandate which extended to most indoor spaces and some outdoor areas. Meanwhile, the governor retained the authority to fine and jail dissidents.

Why it matters

Much of the media attention is rightly focused on Gov. Tim Walz’s failures during the George Floyd riots, but his scandals stretch far beyond waiting too long to send National Guard troops.

Time and again, Walz used his extraordinary executive power to punish average Minnesotans while giving criminals the green light to riot, loot, and commit arson. At a time when the Democrat Party is trying to rebrand itself as “tough on crime,” Walz’s record paints the exact opposite picture.

Despite Gov. Walz's disastrous record on crime, he remains a coin flip away from being elevated to the second highest office in the land.