Minneapolis City Council is now considering getting rid of its police department entirely, after four officers were charged in the killing of George Floyd, an African-American man they were trying to arrest.
Though the officers involved were fired immediately and charged with murder within days – with the state attorney general upgrading the charges this week – protests that broke out in Minnesota over Floyd’s death last Monday escalated into riots and looting, then spread across the US and even worldwide.
Now the 13 Minneapolis councilors – twelve Democrats and one Green – are starting to warm up to the proposals pushed by activists such as Black Lives Matter, Reclaim the Block and Black Visions Collective, a local paper has reported.
Councilman Steve Fletcher led the charge on Tuesday, declaring the MPD “irredeemably beyond reform” and proposing it should be abolished and replaced with “a public safety capacity that doesn’t fear our residents… That doesn’t murder black men.”
“We can totally reimagine what public safety means,” Fletcher tweeted. “We can invest in cultural competency and mental health training, de-escalation and conflict resolution.” Traditional policing should be left in the past, and replaced with “a compassionate, non-violent future,” he argued.
We can totally reimagine what public safety means, what skills we’re recruiting for, what tools we do and don’t need. We can invest in cultural competency and mental health training, de-escalation and conflict resolution.
— Steve Fletcher – Minneapolis Ward 3 (@MplsWard3) June 2, 2020
The entire council is discussing the option of disbanding the MPD “to some degree,” Fletcher told City Pages, adding that the idea “came from residents – led by black and brown people – in the first place.”
At least two of his colleagues openly endorsed the idea on Twitter. Alondra Cano declared the MPD “not reformable” and added, “Change is coming.” Phillipe Cunningham, who took part in President Barack Obama’s virtual town hall about policing on Wednesday, retweeted Fletcher’s thread.
The demand to abolish or “defund” the police has been frequently invoked by activists protesting across the US over the past week. It has been endorsed by mainstream media journalists, as well as liberal-leaning celebrities and even a former spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
John Legend, Common, Lizzo, the Weeknd and Talib Kweli have signed an open letter calling for the defunding of police to spend more on education and healthcare https://t.co/9g6Oa2hgOOpic.twitter.com/Um2tiI2WpF
