Disclaimer: This artcile may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
Minneapolis voters rejected a measure on the ballot that would remove the police department from the city charter with a Department of Public Safety. This move was supported by Rep. Ilan Omar.
945 precincts reported, and 57% of voters were against the amendment. That comes out to 77,000 people against it.
The vote means that the Department of Public Safety will not be created and the Minneapolis Police Department will remain on the city charter.
The Minneapolis Police Dept. is seeking $27 million in funding to address the staggering amount of police officer departures as violent crime surges in the cities.
Minneapolis was the site of George Floyd’s death, in 2020.
“We all agree that we can’t sustain as we are now with the way policing has been,” Brian Herron, a church pastor on the city’s North Side said.
The pastor was against getting rid of the police department, though.
“We don’t have time to reimagine. We got bodies dropping in the streets. We got innocent folk being killed.”
Sheila Nezhad, who was a candidate for Minneapolis mayor, supported the measure.
“For every new change, someone had to be the first,” she said. “This is our opportunity to lead.”
Democrats were split on the issue. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Governor Tim Walz opposed the measures, but State Attorney General Keith Ellison and Rep. Omar were in favor of it.
“I find it fascinating that folks are saying, ‘No, this is the wrong time to do things that directly address the things that are bad right now,’” JaNaé Bates, a minister who helped lead the charge to replace the police department, said.
“I am disappointed that people appear to be coming from a place of fear,” Minneapolis resident Erica Mauter, who supported the measure, said to Fox News Tuesday night. “When we’re uncertain about the future or when change feels tenuous, we want to go back to what made us feel comfortable and to what we already know. We have to challenge ourselves to have some imagination about different paths to a safer Minneapolis.”
Some cities did defund their police, through.
We are showing the country how reinvestments from the police budget can actually make many people’s lives so much better and safer,” said Gregorio Casar, a council member in Austin, Texas.
They are reallocating funds for police for housing budgets.
This will build momentum for changes to police budgets across the country.”
Cities like Denver, Colorado, and Oakland, California also removed police from schools.
New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and a dozen other cities have all also reduced police spending.
However, if anyone has ever stepped foot in any of these cities, they will notice the shift. Crime is rampant and people are moving out in droves.
