Cops Are Canceled: Minneapolis City Council Unanimously Votes to Dismantle the Police

Townhall Media/Julio Rosas
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Antifa posts fliers with their demands in its “autonomous,” “cop free” zone in Seattle, Washington, following the death of George Floyd while he was in Minneapolis police custody. (Townhall Media/Julio Rosas)
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On Tuesday, RedState’s Bonchie covered the Minneapolis City Council president’s lack of a post-popo plan.

From Bonchie:

Lisa Bender, the president of the Minneapolis City Council, really wants to destroy her local police department. What she doesn’t know is essentially anything that comes after that.

Well, it looks like the world may find out.

On Friday, the Council unanimously passed a resolution to cancel the cops.

As reported by Reuters, police will be replaced by a “community-led public safety system.”

Just days prior, in a veto-proof move, a majority voted to disband the PD.

Friday saw the following explanation, courtesy of the five council members who penned the resolution:

“The murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, by Minneapolis police officers is a tragedy that shows that no amount of reforms will prevent lethal violence and abuse by some members of the Police Department against members of our community, especially Black people and people of color.”

As per the Star Tribune, on Thursday, more than a dozen of the city’s law enforcement officers published an open letter condemning the deadly actions of former LEO Derek Chauvin and endorsing police reform.

And Mayor Jacob Frey has espoused “massive structural reform to revise a structurally racist system.”

So what kind of “reform” will taxpayers get? And who will now serve and protect? If they hire the same people to do the same thing under a different name, that makes no difference. If they begin a new thing and with all new people, how will that be superior to the old thing?

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Personally, I’ve long believed in the need for law enforcement reform. But, in my view, the best way to accomplish improvement is to look at what we have and make adjustments. Fix problems. Address errors. Change policies. Pass laws. Revise hiring and training practices.

Is starting from scratch just an opportunity to make wholly new mistakes?

We may find out in time.

The resolution notes the beginning of a year-long engagement with “every willing community member in Minneapolis” to create the new model.

And, as stated by Reuters, “The council commissioned a new work group to deliver recommendations by July 24 on how to engage with community stakeholders to transform the public safety system.”

Will they go through with it? It seems to me meaningful changes will take much longer than the length of America’s new cycle. The media will soon be onto something new, and the pressure on anyone to do anything substantial will be off.

As for reasonable and rightful revision, here’s what I’ve been hoping doesn’t occur: In lieu of making positive changes in the field of law enforcement, governmental and political entities will respond either with empty, symbolic gestures — such as donating money to ideological organizations — or by promising a completely unrealistic revolution.

Then the media will move to another obsession, and that’ll be the end of that.

Back to the Minneapolis City Council, it doesn’t exactly look poised to push for law and order. As I previously observed, member Tammy Morales doesn’t want to hear that “looting doesn’t solve anything”:

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Now, it appears, it’s up to her and her colleagues to solve everything.

Get out your popcorn; between a policeless policing of Minneapolis and the trajectory of Chad in Seattle, the show’s bound to get good; at least until the media changes the channel.

-ALEX

 

See 3 more pieces from me:

Lady Antebellum Changes Their Name, Apologizes for Making Anyone Feel ‘Unsafe’

In Response to a 22-Year-Old’s Complaint, Merriam-Webster Revises Its Definition of ‘Racism’

Black Lives Matter Protestors Deface Statue of Abraham Lincoln

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