Report: MPD Says Mob Attacks Not 'Hate Crimes' Because Victims Not Targeted For 'Class Or Race'

Minneapolis police say the brutal beating videos do not qualify as hate crimes because the victims were not targeted for their race/class but because they were impaired or compromised. pic.twitter.com/ImJpIvgjW3

— Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) September 17, 2019

Minneapolis police report 20 people have been arrested, 18 of them charged, in connection with two brutal mob-style robberies caught on tape in viral videos.

The suspects range in age from 15 to 27 and were charged with various counts of robbery relating to two vicious robberies in August in which mobs surrounded young men and beat them unconscious. Some suspects were charged with first-degree felony robbery, which carries up to 20 years in prison.

[...] The videos appear to show groups of black men beating white males but Minneapolis police told Fox News the attacks do not qualify as hate crimes because the attackers didn’t target their victims for class or race. Rather, they were targeted because they were “impaired” or “compromised.”

[...] [The public safety committee chair, Alondra Cano] said a beefed-up police department might have been able to prevent or quickly solve the violent robberies seen on video.

“It was really concerning to me to see those videos and that’s not what I want people to feel Minneapolis is like or about,” Cano said. “We probably could have been able to connect some of these robberies together at an earlier time if we had more support and officers for our investigations unit.”

Cano told Fox News the city is investing in and diversifying its force to better represent the community along with investing in juvenile crime prevention programs.