Let's make this clear about the election results. This has nothing to do with trivializing the death of George Floyd or forgetting about what happened to him. But the results do send a message about something else.
On Jan. 6, events in Washington started out like an ordinary demonstration or protest. Then suddenly it became violent and was transformed into an angry vengeful mob. The aftermath left the U.S. Capitol in complete disarray.
Now what does this look and sound like? Does it look like and sound like what happened in the Twin Cities after the death of George Floyd? Does it look and sound like what happened in Hugo later in 2020 at the house of then-Minneapolis Police Officers Federation President Bob Kroll in 2020? Does it look and sound like what happened in Brooklyn Center after the death of Daunte Wright last spring? Does it look and sound like what happened when Minneapolis City Council Member Andrea Jenkins was trapped in her car by a mob last summer?
You can see what the real issue was this week. It was the concern that vigilantism and mob justice have come to be seen as somehow justified in these situations and is how some people intend to get what they want. That should never be.
The election results are a statement against extremism. In 2017, groups and movements like "Our Revolution" were working to get leftist candidates elected to the Minneapolis City Council to promote the policies of former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, starting by securing DFL endorsements or withholding endorsements from moderate incumbents.
The problem is that the majority of these candidates, once elected, began pushing a hard-left rigid ideological agenda to deal with issues like police brutality. The irony is that Sanders has stated publicly he does not support abolishing police departments.
The results were about healing and moving away from the extremes. It was not about disrespecting Floyd or what happened to him. George Floyd mattered, and that Bob Kroll left the police force and Derek Chauvin is now in prison are both evidence that justice was served without the need for confrontational malarkey — evidence that to say "intimidation and violence are the only ways to make true change happen" is false.
That is what the election results were all about.
William Cory Labovitch is a political activist in South St. Paul.
