Minnesota and Wisconsin have been in a tight duel since May 24, Day Zero of the George Floyd Era, to generate the most iSteve-worthy content. From the Wisconsin State-Journal:

Shell casings pile up in Madison as city, activists try to contain spike in gun violence
Dean Mosiman | Wisconsin State Journal 7 hrs ago

The numbers are alarming and the answers hard to find as local law enforcement officials and others face a summertime surge of gun violence in the city of Madison.

Madison is a small city of a quarter of a million people, dominated by whites with 3 digit IQs who work at the U. of Wisconsin or as state government bureaucrats. Its city population is only 6.8% black. Madison has more Asians than blacks, which is rare in the Midwest.

Since June 30, the city has seen two fatal shootings, at least 16 incidents of shots fired, nine residences and eight vehicles struck by gunfire, and nearly 160 shell casings recovered, police said. That doesn’t include incidents in neighboring communities.

Madison police and community activists are struggling to contain the “unprecedented” level of gun violence in recent weeks at a time when attention and resources are focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn, along with ongoing protests for social justice and racial equity.

No one is sure what sparked the uptick in gun violence, but city officials and activists suspect it’s a combination of hot weather and people living with chronic poverty, stress and trauma now compounded by a pandemic that has increased job loss, financial insecurity, frustration and despair.

“It’s happening spontaneously,” said Anthony Cooper, executive director of the Focused Interruption Coalition (FIC), a community-based organization that responds to gun violence incidents and uses peer support to prevent further conflict and retaliation. “There are a lot of people who are hurting. People are carrying weapons now for their own protection or how they’re looking at life now.”

Interim Police Chief Vic Wahl said, “I don’t think anybody has a definitive answer or we’d be closer to solving these things. Nationally, a lot of cities are seeing significant spikes in gun violence. We are not alone in this.”

It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

… The police have responded to 99 shots fired incidents — including a record 29 in June — and recovered 267 casings in the first six months of the year, with incidents continuing in July. For perspective, police responded to 144 shots fired incidents, and recovered 473 shell casings in all of 2019, Wahl said. There have been six homicides so far this year, compared with four in all of 2019.

At PowerLine, John Hinderaker blogs:

POSTED ON JULY 11, 2020 BY JOHN HINDERAKER IN CRIME, LEFTISM, MINNESOTA
WE’RE NUMBER ONE!

In recent years, when I have worried that Minneapolis might be the worst-governed city in America, I have taken comfort from the thought that however bad Minneapolis might be, Portland is even worse. Portland, whose Antifa chapter seems to have free rein in the streets and is constantly wreaking havoc. Portland, whose city government–I thought–was even more left-wing than Minneapolis’s.

Other contenders include Seattle and Madison. There is something about these far northern liberal cities with only modestly large black populations.

[Comment at Unz.com]