A Minnesota Democrat who advocated for the dismantling of the Minneapolis Police Department has revealed she was the victim of a violent carjacking in which she was horrifically beaten in front of her children.
Shivanthi Sathanandan, the Vice Chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party, was one of many left-wing activists who called for the “dismantling” of the Minneapolis Police Department after the death of George Floyd.
In a 2020 post, Sathanandan claimed that the MPD had “systematically failed” the Black community in Minneapolis, and encouraged it to be dismantled and for a “new infrastructure” to take its place.
“As allies, what can we do right now? LISTEN and LEARN from our Black siblings. And then AMPLIFY this message right now, in this moment. MPD has systematically failed the Black Community, they have failed ALL OF US,” Sathanandan wrote. “It’s time to build a new infrastructure that works for ALL communities. If you are still disagreeing with that BASIC FACT, I’m not sure what to say to you.”
Sathanandan praised the “radical leadership” of Democrat city councillors who pushed to defund the police department, and pushed for “systemic change.” Since 2020, the police force in the city has reduced by around 40%, with 350 officers quitting or retiring. As a result, various crimes, including carjackings and assaults, have experienced massive increases.
On Wednesday, over three years after her previous statements, Sathanandan revealed in a post on Facebook that she had fallen victim to a violent carjacking.
“Four very young men, all carrying guns, beat me violently down to the ground in front of our kids. The young men held our neighbors up at gunpoint when they ran over and tried to help me. All in broad daylight,” she said, including an image of her bloodied face. Sathanandan claimed she suffered a broken leg, “deep lacerations” on her head, along with bruising and cuts all over the rest of her body.
In stark contrast to her previous statements, Sathanandan called for the men who were “running wild creating chaos” across Minneapolis to be prosecuted. But rather than blaming the rollback of policing in the city, she insisted the problem was “illegal guns” on Minnesota streets.
Ken Martin, the chair of the Minnesota DFL, said in a statement that he was “heartbroken” at the news of Sathanandan’s attack.
“It is my sincere hope that the people who assaulted Shivanthi are quickly brought to justice and face punishment commensurate with the severity of their crimes. My heart goes out to Shivanthi and her family and I hope their recovery from such a horrifying experience is as swift as possible.”
Minneapolis is not the first Democrat stronghold to experience a surge in crime following “defund the police” efforts.
As previously reported by the Publica, at the end of August, Seattle Councilwoman Lisa Hebold announced that the city was hiring six people to fill a new unarmed “crisis responders” team. The responders are intended to be mental health professionals deployed on certain emergency calls instead of police.
According to Hebold, the team will “[focus] on taking a holistic approach to law enforcement encounters with persons experiencing behavioral health issues.”
Statistics released by the Seattle Police Department earlier this year report that crime is at an all-time high in the city. According to Seattle Police Department’s Year-End Crime Report, homicides saw a 24% increase after Democrats cut police funding by nearly 17% in 2021.
