Minneapolis council majority backs disbanding police force

[question everything]

MINNEAPOLIS — A majority of the members of the Minneapolis City Council said Sunday they support disbanding the city's police department, an aggressive stance that comes just as the state has launched a civil rights investigation after George Floyd's death.

Nine of the council's 12 members appeared with activists at a rally in a city park Sunday afternoon and vowed to end policing as the city currently knows it. Council member Jeremiah Ellison promised that the council would "dismantle" the department.

(snip)

Disbanding an entire department has happened before. In 2012, with crime rampant in Camden, New Jersey, the city disbanded its police department and replaced it with a new force that covered Camden County. Compton, California, took the same step in 2000, shifting its policing to Los Angeles County.

(snip)

The move to defund or abolish the Minneapolis department is far from assured, with the civil rights investigation likely to unfold over the next several months.

On Saturday, activists for defunding the department staged a protest outside Mayor Jacob Frey's home. Frey came out to talk with them.

"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."

He left to booing.

https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-council-majority-backs-disbanding-police-force/571089262/

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And then, what?

[mzmolly]

1. A bit more on what might come next:

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/city-council-announces-intention-to-disband-minneapolis-police-department

This weekend, an op-ed from Ward 3 councilor Steve Fletcher proposed some situations in which alternatives to police officers will be used, such as by dispatching mental health professionals to mental health crisis calls, and fire department EMTs to opioid overdose calls. Traffic offenses meanwhile could be handled by an increase in camera coverage, or the city's street parking teams.

Details are limited given it's at the start of a wider dismantling process, including with regards as to who would provide the primary law enforcement. It's possible that the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office could play a role, given Minneapolis is in its jurisdiction.

[jorgevlorgan]

2. that last sentence.

Most large cities are covered by sherriffs and the local police. Resulting in over excessive policing.

[mzmolly]

3. What?

The idea is to rely on the Sheriff vs MPD in situations that require law enforcement. You might read the article, if you haven't done so.

[jorgevlorgan]

4. the sherriff has always been available.

Even if they were not the primary law enforcement agency. They didnt go anywhere. The city, like LA and many others has had excessive policing starting with deliberate over funding and militarization of the MPD. But having lived in a city without it's own department u der the jurisdiction of the sherriffs as the primary law enforcement agency, I highly discourage this.

[mzmolly]

5. What city

are you noting as it relates? And what do you encourage, instead?