Nine Minneapolis city council members on Sunday said they were planning to take intermediate steps toward ending” the police department. There are 13 council members altogether, which suggests that should the nine elected officials persist in their plan, they could overcome the anticipated mayor’s veto.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey on Sunday told a mob of angry African Americans that had gathered outside his home that he would not abolish the Police (Minneapolis’ Brave Jewish Mayor Speaks Truth to Black Power, Will Not Abolish Police).
Council President Lisa Bender tweeted last Thursday: “Yes. We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a transformative new model of public safety.”
In the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Bender was the only elected official in Minneapolis to endorse the Bernie Sanders campaign. She served as Sanders’ surrogate to local media on caucus night when Sanders won Minnesota, and was elected to be a delegate at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. She then supported Hillary Clinton in the general elections.
Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, son of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, tweeted, also on Thursday: “We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. 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.”
Councilmember Steve Fletcher said “the department is ungovernable. Chief Arradondo is a leader that we’ve all had very high hopes in and that I imagined could play a role in envisioning the next version of public safety. But he has clearly not been able to make the culture change happen that we were hoping for and investing in.”
Meanwhile, five Minneapolis police officers have decided to resign from the department on their own.
Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund spoke on 60 Minutes Sunday, and it became clear from her accounting of the George Floyed trauma why, as far as African Americans are concerned, nothing short of a complete dismantling and reconstructing of law enforcement in the US would do, saying: “There are moments in this country when there are photographs that are snapshots of the soul of this country. They almost hold up a mirror to this country. And when we see this picture of the nonchalance with which America will put its knee on the neck of black people and make itself deaf to our suffering, deaf to our cries, deaf to our desperation — that’s the snapshot. That’s America.”
Police reform has been in discussion in the United States since the Great Depression. Some police departments in the early 2000s and 2010s began to emphasize de-escalation as a method of conflict resolution and obtaining voluntary compliance and cooperation from citizens. There are also emphases on community policing to build relationships and community trust in law enforcement; the evidence-based policing approach of using of data to assist with decision-making; and the importance of civilian oversight of police work. Arguments have been made against the priorities of state and city governments in committing too many police resources to combat victimless crimes such as drugs and prostitution, instead of tackling more serious offenses. In the 1990s, the NYPD changed its hiring policy to include more city residents and more minorities, at the expense of cops from Long Island and Westchester county.
Finally, on Friday, the Minnesota Orchestra announced that it “will no longer engage Minneapolis Police Department officers to provide security at orchestra concerts until the MPD implements fundamental changes.” Violist Sam Bergman tweeted: “We’re dead serious about reducing our reliance on and reproduction of white privilege. We’re years behind where we need to be, but it has to start somewhere, and we’re starting.”
Nigerian-American former linebacker Emmanuel Acho, who played for the Cleveland Browns and the Philadelphia Eagles, last week posted a heartfelt “uncomfortable conversation” with white America, in order to educate and inform on racism, system racism, social injustice, rioting & the hurt African Americans are feeling today. So far, in my view, Acho’s has been the most sober and optimistic contribution to what appears to be a reverberating sea-change in American history.