Ilhan Omar on dismantling Minneapolis police department: 'No one is saying crimes will not be investigated'

CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday asked Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) what she envisions would take the place of the current Minneapolis Police Department should it eventually be dismantled, as she and others — including members of the Minneapolis city council — have argued. The congresswoman didn't have a specific answer other than that the Minneapolis community needs to collectively decide what public safety will look like, but she was clear about one thing: It won't be nothing.

"No one is saying that the community is not going to be kept safe," she said. "No one is saying crimes will not be investigated. No one is saying that we are not going to have proper response when community members are in danger. What we are saying is the current infrastructure that exists as policing in our city should not exist anymore."

If real reform is going to happen, she said, it will require putting something new in its place. Omar pointed out that not only has the department struggled with police brutality and violence, as in the case of the killing of George Floyd, it also hasn't been very effective, clearing only a little more than half of murder cases. Tim O'Donnell

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