Majority of Minneapolis City Council pledges to dismantle police department
During a rally on Sunday afternoon, nine members of the Minneapolis City Council announced they intend to dismantle the city's police department, diverting funds to a new public safety system.
In a statement, the council members said that "decades of police reform efforts have proved that the Minneapolis Police Department cannot be reformed, and will never be accountable for its actions," which is why they will "begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department." The Minneapolis City Council has 12 members, and this initiative has a veto-proof supermajority.
The announcement comes nearly two weeks after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. The council members did not give any details on how they will dismantle the department, but did say they will work on developing a new public safety model with members of the community.
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On Saturday night, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said that the city's police department must make several changes, but he does not support completely eliminating it.
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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