MAGA Senate Candidate Flamed for Hilarious Mistake on “Crime” Map
Royce White, a Republican-backed candidate for Senate in Minnesota posted a map on X, formerly Twitter, claiming it showed all of the crime around Minneapolis in the hope that the mass of green, red, and yellow dots would demonstrate the widespread lawlessness that had befallen the Midwestern city.
“Refund the Police!” he urged voters.
But as Christopher Ingraham, a reporter for the Minnesota Reformer, quickly pointed out, the image White had selected was actually of drinking fountains at public parks around the metropolitan area. The once menacing colors represented the fountains’ statuses: “closed for repairs,” “off,” “on.”
“Sorry, Royce. You tweeted my map of Minneapolis drinking fountains. There’s no escaping this,” wrote one user, who continued to mock White by posting another “crime” map that actually showed which McDonalds in the area had broken McFlurry machines.
“Take the L man. You are going nowhere. It’s good advice,” wrote another user.
White wittily responded, “Shut your mouth you blue wave cuck.”
White has since replaced the image in the post with a different unlabeled map, but the original is still visible in the edit history. The new map does actually show the reports of shots fired in Minneapolis—which are currently down almost 17 percent from this time last year, and have decreased over 36 percent from three years ago.
It’s unclear how a map from the Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board could’ve ended up with White under such confused circumstances, but it goes to show the breathlessness with which Republicans push the narrative that the U.S. has a violent crime problem, and that Democrats are to blame, when real statistics suggest that the opposite is true.
Violent crime in the United States has dropped by more than 15 percent since the beginning of the year, according to the FBI’s quarterly crime report, which was released on Monday. Using information collected from 13,719 law enforcement agencies across the country, the federal bureau was able to determine that national murder rates have dropped by 26.4 percent, continuing from last year’s decline, and rape has also decreased by 25.7 percent. Reported crimes such as robbery, aggravated assault, and property crime have also seen decreases of more than 12 percent.
Minneapolis’s crime statistics are a bit more stagnant overall, according to the city’s crime dashboard. So far in 2024, there have been 29 nonnegligent homicides, up three from this time last year. But that number is still lower than where it was three years ago. The number of larceny and robbery reports are also up this year, but still lower than where they were three years ago.
None of these statistics actually matter to Republicans like White though, who are desperate to spark reactionary votes in November. They could stand to do a little more research, if they could bear to face reality for even a moment.
Last week, a nonprofit filed a complaint against the former professional basketball player turned wannabe MAGA politician, alleging that he’d illegally spent tens of thousands of dollars raised as part of his failed 2022 congressional campaign on luxury dinners, vacations, and visits to strip clubs. He was endorsed by the Minnesota Republican Party last month.
