Roommates, in the wake of the tragic killing of George Floyd, the city of Minneapolis is looking forward to creating change. So much so, a majority of the city’s council members have showed support for getting rid of its police department.
According to NPR, nine out of the 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council have pledged their support for “dismantling” the city’s police department, and moving toward a community-based public safety model.
“We will be taking intermediate steps toward ending the MPD through the budget process and other policy and budget decisions over the coming weeks and months,” council member Andrea Jenkins and council president Lisa Bender announced.
The city council says there are still many details that need to be worked out regarding what the city of Minneapolis would look like, and how it would function without police.
Just before the city council took their stance, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was booed after telling a crowd of protestors that he didn’t support dismantling like city’s police department. Apparently, Fey attended a march calling for the city to defund the police department, and said change has to happen, but not in that way.
“I am absolutely for a massive shift, a structural shift in hw the police department functions, I’ll say it again,” he said. “And as for abolishing the entire police department–no I’m not, and I’ll be honest about that, too.”
City Council member Jeremiah Ellison showed his support for the change in a tweet saying:
“And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together. We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response. It’s really past due.”
What are your thoughts, Roomies?
