Racist black supremacist mobs wrecked Minneapolis after the fatal overdose death of George Floyd, a vicious career criminal, in police custody, which became the pretext for a nationwide moral panic over the non-existent problem of police shootings backed by woke corporations.

While criminals breathe freer than ever, the city’s small businesses may cost $1 billion to rebuild.

Target, Walgreens, Cup Foods and other major corporations whose Minneapolis stores were burned, vandalized and looted last year have rebuilt, refurbished and reopened their locations. Some restaurant and retail chains have opted to permanently leave town, but it’s the city’s small business community that has struggled the most, in part because they lack state and federal government aid

More than 1,500 businesses in the Twin Cities were damaged or destroyed between May 24 and June 16 of last year during the unrest following Floyd’s murder, according to a state House of Representatives daily session report published in February.

The city of Minneapolis has estimated it will cost $350 million to fully restore its buildings to what they were. Other officials pointed out many of those buildings were built decades ago and said it will cost much more to ensure they comply with current city and state laws governing new construction.

City officials could waive those laws. They’re choosing not to.

“We don’t have an accurate number, but it’s certainly more than $1 billion,” Democratic state senator Patricia Torres Ray told CNN Business. “Rebuilding Minneapolis is a very expensive proposal.”

Since the New York Times is happy to have them described as the 1619 riots, maybe it can chip in?

Or maybe the huge war chest that BLM is toting around can be used to pay for some of those costs. The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation claims it took in only $90 million last year. The Ford Foundation has been a funding partner for the black supremacist hate group networks and it has a net of over $13 billion. If any organization can fund the rebuilding of Minneapolis, the Ford Foundation can afford it.

But CNN’s proposal is to have the taxpayers do it or to have the government print more money while boosting inflation and sending the price of products shooting through the roof.

Democrats in the House have supported a bill to provide a total of $300 million to Twin City businesses damaged during the riots, but Ray and several local business leaders said GOP state senators have refused to support the measure 

“The Republicans in the Minnesota senate have argued that the damage that was done by rioters in the community is not something we have the obligation to rebuild,” Ray said. “This community has been impacted by the civil unrest and it’s no different than what happened during the tragic events of any other time.”

Yes it is. 

Democrats supported the riots. 

I am sympathetic to helping small businesses rebuild, but when Democrats falsely describe race riots that they supported and championed as mere civil unrest, while refusing to condemn or disavow the hate groups behind the riots, there’s no barrier to a repetition of the same thing.

If Democrats won’t disavow BLM and commit to supporting law enforcement, then rebuilding is as useless as putting up sand castles on the shore.

Minneapolis business leaders say much of the remaining damage is concentrated in areas of the city where a disproportionate number of people of color live and own businesses, including a two-mile stretch of Lake Street in South Minneapolis south of downtown.

The area suffered an estimated $500 million in damages, according to Allison Sharkey, executive director of the Lake Street Council, a non-profit business association that’s served the region since 1968.

Ask Black Lives Matter for the money. They’re good for it. It’s for racial justice after all.

One of those business owners was restaurateur Ruhel Islam, 43, owner of the local Curry in a Hurry, a Bangladeshi and Indian restaurant that opened in October, five months after Islam’s former restaurant, Gandhi Mahal, was burned down.

The devout Muslim and married father of four became a local hero a year ago when he told reporters he didn’t care if his restaurant was destroyed because he too was angered by Floyd’s death.

Then Americans shouldn’t care if Islam ever reopens.

This is a microcosm of the insanity of asking American taxpayers to rebuild businesses that supported their own destruction.