Minneapolis City Council Votes Unanimously to ABOLISH Police Department
Democrat-led officials pass resolution to replace police with 'community-led' system
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The Democrat-led Minneapolis City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Friday to abolish the city's police department and replace it with a "community-led public safety system."
The move comes days after a veto-proof majority of the council voted to disband the police department.
The push to abolish the department came after the country erupted in protest over the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest.
As the Minneapolis vote was cast, the New York City Council pushed to slash $1billion from the NYPD’s budget.
The huge cut to the NYC's police department's $6billion annual budget could see a reduction in the size of the force from 36,000 to 33,000 officers while removing programs like school safety and homeless outreach from the police.
In Minneapolis, the council voted for the community-led replacement as members claim that the police department is past reform.
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“The murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, by Minneapolis police officers is a tragedy that shows that no amount of reforms will prevent lethal violence and abuse by some members of the Police Department against members of our community, especially Black people and people of color,” five of the council members wrote in a resolution.
“Minneapolis voters would decide in November whether to eliminate the City Charter’s requirement for police staffing and replace it with a new department ‘to provide for community safety and violence prevention,’ under a proposal floated Friday by five City Council members,” The Star Tribune reported.
“The announcement comes at a time when council members are facing pressure to explain their plan to ‘begin the process of ending’ the Minneapolis Police Department.”
The resolution states that members would “commence a year-long process of community engagement, research, and structural change to create a transformative new model for cultivating safety in our city,” and will focus on using “healers,” according to The Daily Wire.
The resolution continues:
Be It Further Resolved that the City Council will engage with every willing community member in Minneapolis, centering the voices of Black people, American Indian people, people of color, immigrants, victims of harm, and other stakeholders who have been historically marginalized or under-served by our present system.
Together, we will identify what safety looks like for everyone.
Be It Further Resolved that the process will center the role of healing and reconciliation.
The process will require healers, elders, youth, artists, and organizers to lead deep community engagement on race and public safety.
We will work with local and national leaders on transformative justice in partnerships informed by the needs of every block in our city.
The announcement comes after the Minneapolis City Council, led by Council President Lisa Bender, voted on Sunday to disband the police department.
"Our commitment is to end our city’s toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department,” Bender said.
"It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe.
"Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.”
Bender followed the statement with a series of interviews on CNN where she repeatedly struggled to answer basic questions from the left-wing network.
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During one interview, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked: “Do you understand that the word, dismantle, or police-free also makes some people nervous, for instance?
"What if in the middle of night, my home is broken into? Who do I call?”
"Yes, I mean, hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors,” Bender responded.
"And I know — and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege.
"Because for those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done.”
Later in the day, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Bender about what would happen if there was a killer running loose and an armed police officer was needed.
Bender struggled to respond before conceding, “we don’t have all the answers.”
