SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
jacob frey
Minneapolis Mass Shooting Exposes Trump-GOP Lies on Crime and Gun Violence, Critics Say
"Trump will send the military into DC to pick up litter and arrest homeless people, but won't do a damn thing to end the gun violence epidemic killing our kids," said one healthcare advocate.
Aug 27, 2025
Another horrific mass shooting that left multiple children dead and injured has once again ignited a wave of fury at Republican lawmakers who refuse to take action to stop gun violence.
Two children—ages 8 and 10—were killed when a shooter fired through the windows of a church at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning. Another 17 people, including 14 more children, were also injured in the attack before the shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Minneapolis police say the shooter carried out the attack, which is now being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism, using three weapons: a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, not even eight months into 2025, there have already been 286 mass shootings—defined as cases in which four or more people are shot or killed—in the United States just this year, averaging more than one per day.
Gun violence is the number-one killer of children in the US, causing more deaths each year than car accidents, poisonings, and cancer. The victims of the shooting in Minneapolis join the more than 800 children killed and more than 2,200 injured by firearms this year.
Like dozens of mass shootings before it, Wednesday's deadly attack has stoked calls in Minnesota and around the country from Democratic lawmakers and gun control advocates for stricter gun laws, which have been repeatedly shot down by Republicans in Congress.
"We need better laws on the books nationally," said Minnesota's Democratic senator, Amy Klobuchar. "When you have so much access to guns right now and so many guns out there on the streets, you're going to continue to see these kinds of mass shootings."
"Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now," said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. "These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church."
"They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence, and their parents should have the same kind of assurance," Frey said. "These are the sort of basic assurances that every family should have every step of the day, regardless of where they are in our country."
Congress has not passed a significant piece of gun legislation since 2022, when it passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in the wake of the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
That law, which was supported by just 15 Republicans, introduced some modest reforms—including extended background checks for firearm purchasers under 21, funding for state red flag laws, and the closure of gun purchasing loopholes.
However, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) only agreed to negotiate the bill if Democrats abandoned more ambitious reforms, such as bans on high-capacity magazines and universal background checks.
Since its passage, even this watered-down piece of legislation has been fought aggressively by Republican lawmakers backed by the gun industry's lobbying arm, the National Rifle Association, who have attempted to have it repealed.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to present an action plan to reverse any law that the Department of Justice determines has "impinged on the Second Amendment rights of our citizens."
Through executive orders, Trump has rolled back efforts under the Biden administration to regulate ghost guns and enhance background checks.
The administration has also choked off more than $800 million in grants to local gun violence prevention groups and pushed for "concealed carry reciprocity" legislation, which would require all states to honor concealed carry permits issued by other states.
Instead of stricter gun control measures, Trump has personally advocated for schools to arm teachers and focus on improving mental healthcare—even as he's rolled back rules ensuring Americans have access to that care.
"Until we have more elected officials willing to place gun safety over allegiance to the gun lobby, more and more families will face unbearable suffering from random acts of violence," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) on Wednesday. "Congress could—and should—pass stricter gun safety laws, but continues to cave to the gun lobby."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) added: "The United States continues to be the only country where school shootings are a regular occurrence. We must stop this epidemic of gun violence and finally put the lives of our kids first."
Other advocates noted the contrast between Trump's response to the imaginary "crime wave" in Washington, DC, where he has initiated a militarized takeover, and his lack of interest in fighting America's endless wave of gun violence.
"Guns are the leading cause of death for kids in the US," said Melanie D'Arrigo, the executive director of the Campaign for New York Health. "Trump will send the military into DC to pick up litter and arrest homeless people, but won't do a damn thing to end the gun violence epidemic killing our kids."
Charles Idelson, a former communications director for National Nurses United, said: "If Trump wants to pretend he is 'fighting crimes,' stop protecting the pro-gun violence cabal."
Update: This report, which originally referred to the shooter as a "gunman" has been corrected to accurately reflect new information about the gender identity of the shooter, who has been identified as Robin Westman, a transgender woman.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Stain on Our Party': Ilhan Omar Condemns Minnesota Dems for Tossing Fateh's Mayor Endorsement
The Minnesota congresswoman said the decision demonstrated "the influence of big money in our politics."
Aug 22, 2025
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) issued a fearsome rebuke to her state's Democratic Party Thursday, calling its decision to rescind its endorsement of democratic socialist state Rep. Omar Fateh for mayor of Minneapolis "inexcusable."
In what supporters called "a rejection of politics as usual," Fateh was elected last month by delegates at the Minneapolis convention for the Democrats, known in Minnesota as the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, to receive the party's endorsement for mayor over the well-funded two-term incumbent Jacob Frey.
The convention was marred by chaos after a malfunction in the electronic voting system. The final tally of the 577 counted votes had Fateh with 43.8% of the vote and Frey with 31.5%. On the second ballot, which was conducted through a show of hands due to the system failure, Fateh was elected overwhelmingly after Frey told his delegates to leave the convention.
A party investigation initiated after a complaint from Frey found that the malfunction resulted in 176 ballots in the first round of voting being uncounted, which denied the entry of a third candidate, DeWayne Davis, onto the second ballot.
However, these irregularities did not affect the second vote, which is what resulted in Fateh receiving the endorsement.
Nevertheless, DFL announced Thursday that it had "vacated" Fateh's nomination, citing what it said were "substantial failures in the convention's voting process."
As a result, access to party voter rolls, which usually only go to the candidate endorsed by the DFL, will now be given to everyone, which could considerably hurt Fateh's chances of unseating Frey.
Joined by over a dozen other DFL state and local officials, Ilhan Omar issued a statement condemning the party's decision.
"Last month, thousands of caucus-goers and delegates across Minneapolis gathered to participate in the Minneapolis DFL Convention," Omar said. "Now, a month later, a small group of DFL board members, a majority living outside Minneapolis, met privately to overturn the will of Minneapolis delegates who volunteered, organized, and participated in a monthslong DFL process."
"It is inexcusable to overturn the results weeks after the convention because board members did not like the outcome," Omar continued. "Not only does this decision set an extremely dangerous precedent, but it will undermine the DFL endorsing process going forward and fail to center the will of delegates."
"Fateh is getting screwed," said Zach Lindstrom, the mayor of the St. Paul suburb of Mounds View, who served as the sergeant-at-arms during the convention.
"It was clear, crystal clear, Fateh had the vast majority of support in the room; his supporters filled two entire sections. Frey's didn't even fill one," he continued. "I saw with my own eyes someone who clearly had the room, and for him to get rugged is just another reason the party approval is at an all-time low and hemorrhaging support."
Fateh, who won his state Senate seat in 2020, has found success with a campaign that followed in the footsteps of insurgent New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
His message has likewise focused on affordability, including pushing for the city to introduce rent controls and investments in affordable housing paid for by increased taxes on wealthy residents. He has also called for the city to raise its minimum wage to $20 an hour.
Fateh has also said that the city's overwhelmed police department should divert many calls to "non-police responders" better trained to handle issues related to mental health, homelessness, and drug use.
Fateh ran as a harsh critic of the Democratic establishment that he says is personified by Frey.
In past elections, Frey has received substantial support from the real estate and restaurant industries. While information about his fundraising in 2025 is incomplete, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported earlier this month that, despite having fewer individual donors, Frey had amassed a war chest of over $539,000, eight times the size of Fateh's.
One group that fiercely contested Fateh's nomination was the We Love Minneapolis PAC, which has been accused of illegally coordinating expenditures with the Frey campaign in violation of campaign finance laws. Fateh has accused the PAC and others supporting Frey of being organs of "wealthy donors."
After the DFL stripped his endorsement, Fateh said in a video that "28 party insiders voted to take away our endorsement behind closed doors," and asserted that the insiders included "non-Minneapolis residents, Mayor Frey supporters, and even donors."
"This is exactly what Minneapolis voters are sick of," Fateh continued. "The insider games, the backroom decisions, and feeling like our voice doesn't matter in our own city."
Ilhan Omar says the DFL's decision demonstrated the "clear tension between the progressive Democrats who are challenging the status quo and moderate Democrats."
"Throughout this mayoral campaign, we have seen the influence of big money in our politics," she continued. "We know organized people beat organized money. Fateh's campaign organized and won the endorsement. This decision will be a stain on our party for years to come and damage our ability to organize for Democratic wins this year, next year, and beyond."
Keep ReadingShow Less
DOJ Slammed for Ending Efforts to Tackle Racist Policing
One critic called the move "an unprecedented abandonment of the Department of Justice's responsibility to enforce civil rights laws and protect communities from unlawful police abuse."
May 22, 2025
Racial justice advocates decried Wednesday's announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice that it will end law enforcement reform and accountability efforts, including the Biden administration's agreements with the cities of Minneapolis and Louisville—a move that came just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis cop.
The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Civil Rights Division said it is dropping lawsuits against the Minneapolis and Louisville police departments and ending pending consent decrees—court-enforceable agreements under which law enforcement agencies commit to reform—with the two cities. The deals, which have been submitted to judges for approval, have been held up in federal court as the Trump administration has sought to block their implementation.
The Civil Rights Division said it "will also be closing its investigations into, and retracting the Biden administration's findings of constitutional violations on the part of," the Louisiana State Police and police departments in Phoenix; Memphis; Oklahoma City; Trenton, New Jersey; and Mount Vernon, New York.
To “disappear” DOJ findings like this is the most disturbing and disgraceful part. A key advantage of DOJ pattern & practice investigations is that DOJ has the resources to absorb the cost of generating the findings that indiv civ rights groups suing police depts find onerous & often prohibitive.
[image or embed]
— Sherrilyn Ifill ( @sifill.bsky.social) May 21, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who represents the families of George Floyd—murdered by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020—and Breoanna Taylor, who was killed earlier that year by Louisville police, called the DOJ announcement a "slap in the face."
"Just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder—a moment that galvanized a global movement for justice—the U.S. Department of Justice has chosen to turn its back on the very communities it pledged to protect," Crump said in a statement Wednesday.
"By walking away from consent decrees in Minneapolis and Louisville, and closing its investigation into the Memphis Police Department while retracting findings of serious constitutional violations, the DOJ is not just rolling back reform, it is attempting to erase truth and contradicting the very principles for which justice stands," he asserted.
"These consent decrees and investigations were not symbolic gestures, they were lifelines for communities crying out for change, rooted in years of organizing, suffering, and advocacy," Crump continued, adding that the DOJ's moves "will only deepen the divide between law enforcement and the people they are sworn to protect and serve."
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) lamented the DOJ move and accused the Trump administration of acting "like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd's lives didn't mean a damn thing."
Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said his city would proceed with reforms despite the DOJ's announcement, while questioning the move's timing.
"The Trump administration is a mess. It is predictable that they would move for a dismissal the very same week that George Floyd was murdered five years ago," he said. "What this shows is that all [President] Donald Trump really cares about is political theater."
The DOJ claimed the Biden administration falsely accused the Minneapolis and Louisville police departments of "widespread patterns of unconstitutional policing practices by wrongly equating statistical disparities with intentional discrimination and heavily relying on flawed methodologies and incomplete data."
"These sweeping consent decrees would have imposed years of micromanagement of local police departments by federal courts and expensive independent monitors, and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of compliance costs, without a legally or factually adequate basis for doing so," the agency argued.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon—the conspiracy theorist who heads the Civil Rights Division despite, or perhaps because of, her troubled history of working against voting, reproductive, LGBTQ+, and other civil rights—said in a statement Wednesday that her agency is ending the Biden administration's "failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees."
"Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda," Dhillon added.
"DOJ's actions today amount to a public declaration that law enforcement agencies are above the law."
Legal Defense Fund director of strategic initiatives Jin Hee Lee called the DOJ announcement "an unprecedented abandonment of the Department of Justice's responsibility to enforce civil rights laws and protect communities from unlawful police abuse."
Lee said the DOJ investigations that led to the consent decrees "revealed a litany of systemic harms to community members, whom officers are sworn to protect—from wanton violence and sexual misconduct to unlawful stops, searches, and arrests, and racially discriminatory policing."
"By abandoning its obligation to pursue legal remedies that would stem this unlawful conduct, DOJ necessarily condones it," Lee added. "DOJ's actions today amount to a public declaration that law enforcement agencies are above the law."
NAACP president Derrick Johnson said on social media, "It's no surprise that Trump's Department of Coverups and Vengeance isn't seeking justice."
"It's been five years, and police reform legislation still hasn't passed in Congress, and police departments still haven't been held accountable," Johnson added, referring to Floyd's murder. "Five years."
Furthermore, speculation is growing over the prospect of Trump pardoning Chauvin. Addressing the possibility, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walzsaid earlier this week that "if Chauvin's federal conviction is pardoned, he will still have to serve the remainder of his 22-and-a-half-year state prison sentence for murder and manslaughter."
Opponents vowed to fight the Trump administration's civil rights pushback.
"Let me be clear: We will not give up," Crump said. "This movement will not be swayed or deterred by fickle politics. It is anchored in the irrefutable truth that Black lives matter, and that justice should not depend on who is in power."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular