Police in Minneapolis have discovered a new way to fight the wave of black violence and mayhem that is now an every day fact of life in their city: Blame the white victims for drinking too much.

Why not: Nothing else has worked.

First, Minneapolis police tried ignoring the problem. But dozens of victims, videos, witnesses, police reports and 911 calls made that impossible.

Then they tried denying it: A spokesman for Minneapolis police department told me that race has nothing to do with anything involving crime and anyone who thinks differently is a bad person.

That lasted about as long as it took to go the Minneapolis Police Department web site and see all the special programs for “protected” minorities.

Then they tried the well-worn bluster of the “we are not going to take it anymore” approach. But the only ones caught up in that fake outrage were two Minneapolis cops who were attacked last year in Green Bay by a black mob. After local police refused to make an arrest, the visiting Minneapolis law enforcement officers called the Green Bay cops a “clown show,” and also offered a few choice racial epithets for the group of 10 black people who attacked them.

Referring to the alternative sexual lifestyle of the Minneapolis chief of police probably did not help either. They got fired.

Petitions did not work. Last year a few weeks after classes began at the University of Minnesota -- located in a high-crime, target-rich, neighborhood near downtown -- 20,000 students signed a petition saying the campus was dangerous.

Black people assaulting students in and around campus just kept keeping on.

And here is how we know: Campus crime is easier to track than city crime because campus cops have to obey federal reporting laws -- and the Clery Act requires schools to list the full description of the suspects. And make that available at the school web site.

Even a cursory examination of the University’s crime alerts reveals this: Crime and violence against students in and around campus is a black thing. Though local officials and media are loath to acknowledge it.

Finally in December, a coalition of six black groups on campus said they had enough: Not with the black on white crime. But with the reporting that showed how often black people are involved in violence against students.

They said the crime reporting was racially biased and increased their “collective alarm.”

This year, it started all over again: the “repeated and brazen” crimes.

This time, campus police say they are ready: “University police hope a crackdown on student drinking this fall will deter some of the more serious crimes -- sexual assaults, armed robberies, even an attempted kidnapping -- that happened last year,” reported Shamus McLaughlin at the local blog Bring Me The News.

They say the students are not alert enough to fight the crimes or describe the assailants.

So now four cops patrol the campus to stop underage drinking.

“A lot of victims were under the influence of alcohol, which made them easy targets for criminals. Not in all cases. But it’s a factor.” These gems came from the top cop on campus, Greg Hestness, and were reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Police at the University of South Carolina had the same problem two years ago in the Five Points entertainment district near the campus. Only worse.  A lot worse. The black chief of police in Columbia said the racial violence -- often as many as 8 attackers on one student and many caught on video -- was nothing more than kids getting into arguments.

They tried the same solution: Crack down on student drinking. That did not go over too well with students or business owners. From White Girl Bleed a Lot: The return of racial violence to America and how the media ignore it:

Former bar owner Scott Linaberry was among those who thought the official attention was misplaced:

“Why does the city permit the harassment of white college kids in the bar, under the guise of underage drinking (they have to interrupt about 50 people to find one underage, but they’d have everyone believe they bat 1,000) but not black thugs on the street via a posted curfew ordinance who have no intention of ever being a customer of Five points. Civil Rights for ALL??”

So how did the crackdown on drinking work out in South Carolina? The headline from the spring tells the story: “'The beat goes on' with shootings in Five Points.” (link corrected)