Majority of Minneapolis council supports the dissolution of its police force

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Most members of Minneapolis’ City Council back the idea of disbanding the city’s police department as nine of them joined rallies over the killing of George Floyd.
• The city mayor does not support the proposal while recognizing his responsibilities and failures as well.
• The move is not yet assured, considering civil rights investigation is yet to commence in the coming months. 

On Sunday, most City Council members of Minneapolis expressed their backing to dissolve the city’s police department. The latest move was following the state’s launching of a civil rights inquiry over the killing of  George Floyd.

During a rally on Sunday afternoon at the city park, 9 out of 12 council members joined the protesters and swore to put an end to current policies as needed. Jeremiah Ellison, a council member,  assured the public that they would dissolve the police department.

“It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe,” Lisa Bender, the council president, said. “Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.”

Bender confirmed that she, along with eight other council members who participated in the demonstrations that joined the rally, is to end the city’s connection with the police force and start reforming the systems that can keep the citizens safe.

Activists have called out the Minneapolis police department for many years for what they described as a racialist and ruthless values that don’t welcome change. The state of Minnesota started a civil rights inquiry about the agency last week.

On Friday, the first substantial change was seen with a written agreement that specifies the city arranged to veto chokeholds and neck restraints, with a more comprehensive overhaul in the department unfolding the upcoming months.

Dissolving a whole department is not something new. During widespread violence and crime in Camden, New Jersey, in 2012, the city broke up its police department and installed a new force for the Camden County.

A similar move happened in 2000 on Compton, California, which let the Los Angeles County police its city.

The proposal to close down the Minneapolis department is yet to be assured, though, as the civil rights probe will only begin in the next several months.

Demonstrators for disbanding the department flocked outside Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s house.

“I have been coming to grips with my own responsibility, my own failure in this,” Frey said. When pressed on whether he supported their demands, Frey said: “I do not support the full abolition of the police department.”

On another rally on Saturday, protest leader Verbena Dempster expressed support on the idea, telling Minnesota Public Radio the best way to reform is changing the whole system.

Source: AOL