Police abolition in city gets OK
Minneapolis proposal still faces hurdles after council’s vote
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis City Council on Friday unanimously advanced a proposal to change the city charter to allow the Police Department to be dismantled, following widespread criticism of law enforcement over the killing of George Floyd.
The 12-0 vote is just the first step in a process that faces significant bureaucratic obstacles to make the November ballot. It came amid a spate of recent shootings in Minnesota’s largest city that have heightened many citizens’ concerns about talk of dismantling the department.
The proposed amendment, which would replace the police department with a new Department of Community Safety and Violence
Prevention that has yet to be fully defined, next goes to a policy committee and to the city’s Charter Commission for a formal review, at which point citizens and city officials can also weigh in.
Activists have long accused the department of being unable to change a racist and brutal culture, and earlier this month, a majority of the council proclaimed support for dismantling the department.
Jeremiah Ellison, a member of the council, said the charter is one of three major barriers to “transformative public safety,” along with the city’s police union and the Minnesota Legislature.
Ten years from now, Council member Steve Fletcher predicted, everybody will be looking to emulate the Minneapolis model.
But the board of the city’s police union, the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, said in a statement that it’s “irresponsible and a disservice to all Minneapolis residents to move forward without more clarity about what comes next. … Politicians are good at making promises, but not at following through on them, and voters should be wary of any promises delivered by the City Council about how they will figure it out when and if the charter amendment passes.”
And a leading activist group, the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar, said the amendment would leave power in the hands of the council and mayor’s office. The coalition instead supports putting the department under community control via a new elected civilian council with the power to hire, fire and prosecute officers.