Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has been working with local officials to crack down on the rise of “bias-motivated” crimes.
The Star Tribune has published a number of articles highlighting the effort, and reports that Ellison’s office is in the process of creating a working group that would improve law enforcement’s ability to prevent hate crimes.
In late June, Ellison met with leaders in Fergus Falls to discuss the increase in hate crimes in rural Minnesota.
“What’s clear is these people are organizing,” Ellison said of white-supremacist groups, according to The Star Tribune. “They’re here in Minnesota and they are violent and they’re willing to stab and hurt people while hiding behind the First Amendment.”
The Star Tribune editorial board published a July 5 article praising Ellison for his outreach efforts.
“Ellison is doing listening sessions and collecting ideas for how his office can be more helpful to victims of harassment and other types of race or religion-based hate crimes,” the editorial board said. “Ellison’s outreach efforts wisely reflect the need for statewide involvement in combating racism throughout the state and supporting local officials like Mayor Schierer who are trying to combat it.”
Ellison has been promoting the effort on Twitter for the past several weeks.
“We’ve seen a big rise in hate crimes in the last few years and people are understandably afraid,” he wrote in a June 17 tweet. “But it’s not inevitable; we don’t have to accept it. I’m working with a range of folks on a system-wide look at how best to report, respond to and prevent them.”
We’ve seen a big rise in hate crimes in the last few years & ppl are understandably afraid. But it’s not inevitable; we don’t have to accept it. I’m working with a range of folks on a system-wide look at how best to report, respond to & prevent them. https://t.co/Px7eGdcMNr
— Attorney General Keith Ellison (@AGEllison) June 17, 2019
Meanwhile, conservatives have been reporting on the recent violent crimes at the hands of Antifa, an organization Ellison once openly supported.
“I just found the book that [will] strike fear in the heart of Donald Trump,” Ellison wrote in a January 2018 tweet, posing with a copy of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.” That book was written by Dartmouth College instructor Mark Bray, who pledged to donate half of the proceeds to an Antifa legal defense fund, Campus Reform reported.
Ellison later deleted the tweet, but was photographed at the 2018 Minnesota State Fair with Luis Enrique Marquez, a leader of Portland’s Antifa coalition.
In March 2019, Enrique Marquez was recorded participating in an Antifa protest and shouting obscenities at journalist Andy Ngo.
"F—k you, Andy! F—k you, you piece of sh—" shouts Luis Enrique Marquez, a leader in the Portland antifa movement. Police had to keep Patriot Prayer and antifa separated at the "Womxn's March." pic.twitter.com/69YomymfeW
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) March 4, 2019
As was widely reported, Ngo was brutally assaulted and robbed during a Portland Antifa riot on June 29.
In the ER. pic.twitter.com/spe5N4nzVl
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) June 29, 2019
“If there is a prominent Democrat who has criticized Antifa, I am not aware of it,” John Hinderaker, president of the Center of the American Experiment, recently wrote at Powerline. “That would be a good question for the next presidential debate. Worse, some Democrats have actually endorsed the fascist group, like Keith Ellison, the Attorney General of Minnesota. Why is the chief law enforcement officer of a state promoting an organization who principal tactics include aggravated assault, arson and malicious destruction of property.”
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Antifa” by cantfightthetendies. CC BY 2.0.
