Atlas Shrugged in Minneapolis – The City Has Died [OPINION]

The city of Minneapolis had sickness and it has killed it. A police officer killed a man. Thousands of people reacted by looting businesses and the police fled.

Ayn Rand, the controversial philosopher, commentator, and novelist, wrote the important novel Atlas Shrugged back in the 1950s. Her book, now a movie, focused on the crumbling of the United States of America. She had fled her home in Russia as the Communists were taking over. She understood the rot that is required for a society to fall.

The blame belongs to the leadership of the police and the government officials who fostered an environment that made a police officer believe he could kill a person in broad daylight while he knew he was being filmed. The leadership of the police department somehow communicated to the other officers they shouldn't interfere to save the civilian from that fellow officer.

Thousands of people took this death as an opportunity to riot and loot. They looted the private property of people completely unrelated to the death of George Floyd. The business owners received zero protection from the police department.

As I write this, the Minneapolis Police Department has abandoned the station in the neighborhood of the riot and members of that department fled for their own safety. The innocent people have been abandoned by the police and left to the violence of the raging mob. The mob has stormed the police station and it is now theirs until they burn it down.

There is no reason to stay in Minneapolis if you want a productive life. The government has failed and the mob has control. It will never be the same.

It has the same future as the Wisconsin town described in the first third of Atlas Shrugged.

Chris McCarthy is the host of The Chris McCarthy Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Contact him at chris.mccarthy@townsquaremedia.com and follow him on Twitter @Chris_topher_Mc. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.