Posted on 06/07/2020 2:31:50 PM PDT by Ennis85
On Sunday afternoon, a veto-proof majority of Minneapolis City Council members will announce their commitment to disbanding the city’s embattled police department, which has endured relentless criticism in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, on May 25.
“We’re here because we hear you. We are here today because George Floyd was killed by the Minneapolis Police. We are here because here in Minneapolis and in cities across the United States it is clear that our existing system of policing and public safety is not keeping our communities safe,” Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender said Sunday. “Our efforts at incremental reform have failed. Period.”
The City Council’s decision follows those of several other high-profile partners, including Minneapolis Public Schools, and the University of Minnesota, and Minneapolis Parks and Recreation, to sever longstanding ties with the MPD.
The announcement today also arrives after several members of the Council have expressed a complete loss of confidence in the Minneapolis Police Department.
“We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department,” tweeted Council Member Jeremiah Ellison on June 4, pledging to “dramatically rethink” the city’s approach to emergency response. In a TIME op-ed published the next day, Council Member Steve Fletcher cited the MPD’s lengthy track record of misconduct and “decades-long history of violence and discrimination”—all of which are subjects of an ongoing Minnesota Department of Human Rights investigation—as compelling justifications for the department’s disbandment. “We can resolve confusion over a $20 grocery transaction without drawing a weapon or pulling out handcuffs,” Fletcher wrote.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said last night that he opposed disbanding the police department at a protest organized and led by Black Visions Collective against police violence in the city. That answer earned him a thundering chorus of boos and chants of “Shame!” and “Go home, Jacob, go home!” The New York Times called the scene a “humiliation on a scale almost unimaginable outside of cinema or nightmare.”
“The last Democratic mayor, Betsy Hodges, handled the murder of Jamar [Clark] poorly. We told her she was going to lose her job. And she did,” Miski Noor, a Black Visions Collective organizer, said on Frey’s refusal to disband the Minneapolis Police Department.
Since taking office in January 2018, Frey has overseen reforms to the MPD’s body camera policy that impose harsher discipline on officers who fail to comply, and barred officers from participating in so-called “Bulletproof Warrior” training, which encourages law enforcement to use deadly force if they feel their lives are in jeopardy. The officer who shot and killed Philando Castile during a 2016 traffic stop had attended a seminar two years earlier.
More recently, however, Frey has faced criticism from community groups for supporting increases to the MPD’s budget, and for the city’s failure to invest significantly in community-based public safety programs during his tenure.
For years, activists have argued that MPD has failed to actually keep the city safe, and City Councilmembers echoed that sentiment today during their announcement. MPD’s record for solving serious crimes in the city is consistently low. For example, in 2019, Minneapolis police only cleared 56 percent of cases in which a person was killed. For rapes, the police department’s solve rate is abysmally low. In 2018, their clearance rate for rape was just 22 percent. In other words, four out of every five rapes go unsolved in Minneapolis. Further casting doubt on the department’s commitment to solving sexual assaults, MPD announced last year the discovery of 1,700 untested rape kits spanning 30 years, which officials said had been misplaced.
The Council’s move is consistent with rapidly-shifting public opinion regarding the urgency of overhauling the American model of law enforcement. Since Floyd’s killing and the protests that ensued, officials in Los Angeles and New York City have called for making deep cuts to swollen police budgets and reallocating those funds for education, affordable housing, and other social services. Law enforcement officers are not equipped to be experts in responding to mental health crises, often leading to tragic results—nationally, about half of police killings involve someone living with mental illness or disability. As a result, public health experts have long advocated for dispatching medical professionals and/or social workers, not armed police, to respond to calls related to substance use and mental health. Polling from Data for Progress indicates that more than two-thirds of voters—68 percent—support the creation of such programs, versions of which are already in place in other cities such as, Eugene, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Denver, Colorado.
“Our commitment is to do what is necessary to keep every single member of our community safe and to tell the truth that the Minneapolis Police are not doing that,” Bender said Sunday. “Our commitment is to end our city’s toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department, to end policing as we know it, and to recreate systems of public safety that actually keep us safe.”
Mogadishuapolis
I say take two steps and let City Council detonate.
Certainly a possible outcome.
No one is asking any klobuchar nor anyone in Minneapolis or Minnesota government. They are not culpable, they are establishment leftists therefore they are not answerable to us. Yet our congress and senate will grant them any funding asked for from federal revenue to pay for their antiamerican activities.
I love this idea, what could possibly go wrong. I am calling my son and family and telling them to get the hell out of MN, Arizona is not perfect but at least we have some sensible politician’s.
better idea
disband the city, except for the UoM district
level the buildings
use the land for a moose preserve
Well, since the education system isn’t one these people have become illiterate retards.
Of course this effort by the Mlps city council will have no affect on insurance rates. Not just businesses, but all property owners.
If rhey are going to disband then police better use their sick time up. All if them. Especially the special details.
I find it hard to believe NYC. and LA. are going to allow a little punk ass city like Minneapolis show them up on how to do policing, come on NYC. and LA. to step up to the plate.
I know this is going to sound strange, but, they need bike lanes and a lot of them so that residents will be able to keep bikes indoors at night and ride them during the day to work and to the grocery store in surrounding jurisdictions that have police departments. Cars tend to be a big chunk of the budget for the working poor.
Property crime (including vehicle thefts) will likely increase, property values will fall, the question for me is why the Democrats are so determined to play Nero? Who do they want to end up with all the land, once they have run their tax base out? Who is the big money behind this wanting fire sale prices on people’s homes?
Print the addresses for all the members of the City Council. If you suffer a loss due to lack of police, burn them out. Torch their houses, their relative’s houses, their businesses, their cars.
Gun stores will support this...
Does this mean open season on Antifa?
White guilt dominates a minority black population, amazing.
According to the most recent ACS, the racial composition of Minneapolis was: White: 63.79% Black or African American: 19.36% Asian: 6.13%
Article earlier today said Latinos 180,000
Please. Please. Please. Do that.
““Our commitment is to do what is necessary to keep every single member of our community safe and to tell the truth that the Minneapolis Police are not doing that,” Bender said”
A truly stupid statement by a stupid person. They want to disband an organization because of imperfection. Well the city council allowed the police to make that mistake. Therefore the Minneapolis City Council should be disbanded.
We’ve seen the Jim Jones mass suicide, now here comes Minneapolis with a “Hold muh beer...”
Nobody. That’s the problem with disbanding PD’s...
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