US police budgets under threat
A Sprotests against the killing of George Floyd and police brutality gained traction worldwide, a majority of council members in Minneapolis said they backed the disbanding of the city’s police department after a civil rights investigation into Mr Floyd’s death was launched by the state.
What progress has been made so far?
Nine of the council’s 12 members appeared with activists at a rally in a city park on Sunday afternoon vowing to end policing as the city currently knows it, with one council member promising they would “dismantle” the department and another pledging“to end policing as we know it and recreate systems that actually keep us safe”.
The state of Minnesota launched a civil rights investigation of the department last week, and on Friday came agreement in which the city agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints.
Could the city really disband the police department?
Disbanding entire departments has happened before. In 2012, the city of Camden in New Jersey 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.
Los Angeles officials said on Wednesday that they will look to cut up to $150 million from the city’s police budget as part of a broader effort to reinvest more money into the black community. This move was part of wider cuts to the tune of $250 million that Mayor Eric Garcetti will funnel into health, education and employment.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday that he would be moving funds away from the NYPD and into social services.
Officials in Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, San Francisco and other cities are showing support for defunding police forces in the wake of protests.
Are the police really the problem?
Last week after a 75-year-old man was pushed to the Ground in Buffalo, New York by the police and left bleeding. Officers tried to claim that he was injured when he “tripped and fell”. Video evidence flushed out the lie.
In Philadelphia last week, police said a man had pushed an officer from his bike; a video instead showed an officer striking the man with a baton.
In Sacramento in April, a police officer punched a 14-year-old boy multiple times while arresting him; the officer’s report didn’t mention the punches.
The Minneapolis police’s account of George Floyd’s death initially left out that Derek Chauvin’s knee was pressed on his neck for almost nine minutes.
What about wider reform becoming enshrined in law?
It has been announced that House and Senate Democrats will unveil legislation next week. The Justice in Policing Act of 2020 would prohibit the use of choke-holds, lower legal standards to pursue criminal and civil penalties for police misconduct, and ban certain warrants.