Defund police? Just look at Minneapolis

Local and national proponents of defunding and abolishing law enforcement would be wise to take a look at the current scene in Minneapolis. It isn’t pretty.

As Newsweek reported, the Minneapolis City Council voted to dismantle the city’s police department and divert its funding to other social service areas in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May.

This was part of a move to re-evaluate the city’s “toxic relationship” with the police and to “re-create systems of public safety that actually keep us safe.”

About five months later, those plans haven’t materialized and crime is rising.

To make matters worse, the police department is also dealing with a low staff as officers are taking leaves of absence citing post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from covering the protests which erupted in the city after Floyd’s death.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo noted that violent crime in the city increased 20% compared to last year and around 40% from two years ago, reported KSTPTV. naturally. Residents are not happy, pandemics, “If you want we’re to dealing talk about with a pandemic of violence,” Cathy Spann, a community activist told the Washington Post. “We’re under siege. You wake up and go to bed in fear, because you don’t know what’s going to happen next. … And our city has failed to protect us.” Cities have an obligation to protect their citizens. They do this by maintaining police departments. And if you want a glimpse of what happens when there are fewer police to protect the community — Minneapolis is a perfect example.

You can’t call for defunding the police and want an end to violent crimes in the same breath.

Minneapolis is learning the hard way how vital the police are to the welfare of the community.

A week ago Friday, the city council voted to allocate nearly $500,000 to temporarily hire officers from neighboring law enforcement agencies to help patrol city streets from Nov. 15 until the end of the year, according to the Post.

The debacle in Minneapolis should serve as a cautionary tale to all those who want to cancel the cops.

You can’t call for defunding the police and want an end to violent crimes in the same breath. Minneapolis is learning the hard way how vital the police are to the welfare of the community.