LEGAL
Minneapolis looks to end current police force
The City Council is seeking “to end policing as we
know it and recreate systems that actually keep us safe.”
By
ASSOCIATED PRESS
06/07/2020
09:09 PM EDT
MINNEAPOLIS
— A majority of the members of the Minneapolis City Council said Sunday they
support disbanding the city’s police department, an aggressive stance that
comes just as the state has launched a civil rights investigation after George
Floyd’s death.
Nine of the
council’s 12 members appeared with activists at a rally in a city park Sunday
afternoon and vowed to end policing as the city currently knows it. Council
member Jeremiah Ellison promised that the council would “dismantle” the
department.
“It is
clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe,” Lisa
Bender, the council president, said. “Our efforts at incremental reform have
failed, period.”
Bender went
on to say she and the eight other council members that joined the rally are
committed to ending the city’s relationship with the police force and “to end
policing as we know it and recreate systems that actually keep us safe.”
Floyd, a
handcuffed black man, died May 25 after a white officer pressed his knee into
Floyd’s neck, ignoring his “I can’t breathe” cries and holding it there even
after Floyd stopped moving. His death sparked protests — some violent, many
peaceful — that spread nationwide.
Community
activists have criticized the Minneapolis department for years for what they
say is a racist and brutal culture that resists change. The state of Minnesota
launched a civil rights investigation of the department last week, and the
first concrete changes came Friday in a stipulated agreement in which the city
agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints.
A more
complete remaking of the department is likely to unfold in coming months.
Disbanding
an entire department has happened before. In 2012, with crime rampant in
Camden, N.J., the city disbanded its police department and replaced it with a
new force that covered Camden County. Compton, Calif., took the same step in
2000, shifting its policing to Los Angeles County.
It was a
step that then-Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department was
considering for Ferguson, Missouri, after the death of Michael Brown. The city
eventually reached an agreement short of that but one that required massive
reforms overseen by a court-appointed mediator.
The move to
defund or abolish the Minneapolis department is far from assured, with the
civil rights investigation likely to unfold over the next several months.
On
Saturday, activists for defunding the department staged a protest outside Mayor
Jacob Frey’s home. Frey came out to talk with them.
“I have
been coming to grips with my own responsibility, my own failure in this,” Frey
said. When pressed on whether he supported their demands, Frey said: “I do not
support the full abolition of the police department.”
He left to
booing.
At another
march Saturday during which leaders called for defunding the department,
Verbena Dempster said she supported the idea.
“I think,
honestly, we’re too far past” the chance for reform, Dempster told Minnesota
Public Radio. “We just have to take down the whole system.”
What does 'defund the police' mean? The rallying
cry sweeping the US – explained
Activists have long advocated taking money from police
and reinvesting it in services. The idea is now seeing a wave of support
Sam Levin in Los Angeles
@SamTLevin
Published onSat 6 Jun 2020 06.00 BST
The call to
“defund the police” has become a rallying cry at protests across America this
week, and some lawmakers appear to be listening.
Activists
who have long fought to cut law enforcement budgets say they are seeing an
unprecedented wave of support for their ideas, with some elected officials for
the first time proposing budget reductions and divestments from police. Here’s
what we know about the movement, and how cities and states are responding.
What does
it mean to ‘defund the police’?
For years,
community groups have advocated for defunding law enforcement – taking money
away from police and prisons – and reinvesting those funds in services. The
basic principle is that government budgets and “public safety” spending should
prioritize housing, employment, community health, education and other vital
programs, instead of police officers. Advocates argue that defunding is the
best way forward since attempts to reform police practices over the last five
years have failed, as evidenced by the brutal killing of George Floyd. Groups
have a range of demands, with some seeking modest reductions and others viewing
full defunding as a step toward abolishing contemporary police services.
How much
does America currently spend on police?
In the past
four decades, the cost of policing in the US has tripled and is now $115bn,
according to a recent analysis. That steady increase comes as crime has been
consistently declining. In most cities, spending on police is significantly
greater than spending on services and other departments ($1.8bn on police in
Los Angeles, for example, which is more than half the city’s general fund). The
Covid-19 economic crisis has led cities and states to make drastic budget cuts
to education, youth programs, arts and culture, parks, libraries, housing
services and more. But police budgets have grown or gone largely untouched –
until pressure from protests this week.
How are
lawmakers addressing the calls to defund?
Almost
overnight and in direct response to protests, some mayors and other elected
leaders have reversed their position on police funding. The mayor of LA said he
would look to cut as much as $150m from the police, just two days after he
pushed forward a city budget that was increasing it by 7%. A New York
councilman has called for a $1bn divestment from the NYPD. In Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington DC, San Francisco and other cities, local policymakers
have expressed support for some form of defunding or opposing police budget
increases. Most radically, in Minneapolis, councilmembers have discussed
potentially disbanding the embattled police department altogether. Colleges,
public school systems, museums and other institutions are also divesting from
police.
How do
proposed cuts align with activists’ demands?
The change
in direction is monumental, but the size of the proposed cuts is not, activists
have said. In LA, Black Lives Matter has been pushing for a “people’s budget”
that allocates just 5.7% of the general fund to law enforcement, instead of the
51% of the mayor’s plan. More broadly, longstanding abolitionist groups, such
as Critical Resistance and MPD 150, argue that the cities should not be looking
for minor savings and cuts, but should be fundamentally reducing the scale and
size of the police force and dismantle the traditional law enforcement system.
That can start with finding “non-police solutions to the problems poor people
face”, such as counselors responding to mental health calls and addiction
experts responding to drug abuse.
Abolition
groups argue that policing and prison are at their core racist and harmful and
make communities less safe. They also point out that the vast majority of
police work has nothing to do with responding to or preventing violence, and
that police have a terrible track record of solving murders or handling rape
and domestic violence.
While there
is no contemporary example of defunding in the US, there are studies suggesting
that less policing could mean less crime. In 2014 and 2015, New York officers
staged a “slowdown” to protest the mayor, arguing that if they did less police
work, the city would be less safe. But the opposite turned out to be true. When
the officers took a break from “broken windows policing”, meaning targeting
low-level offenses, there was a drop in crime. Researchers posited that
aggressive policing on the streets for petty matters can ultimately cause
social disruption and lead to more crime. Policing that punishes poverty, such
as hefty traffic tickets and debts, can also create conditions where crime is
more likely. When New York ended “stop and frisk”, crime did not rise.
How are
police unions responding to defunding calls?
America’s
powerful police unions have long resisted even minor reforms and accountability
measures, and are predictably arguing, without evidence, that budget cuts at
any scale will make cities less safe. They’ve cited looting and property damage
amid protests this week to suggest that cities don’t have enough officers.
Defunding advocates, however, have pointed out that the highly militarized
response to peaceful demonstrations and the aggressive and at times violent
ways officers are handling protesters has only provided further evidence that
police cause harm (when there is no public safety threat in the first place).
Are there
examples of police defunding that US cities can follow?
America’s
legacy of racism and severe gun violence epidemic make it difficult to compare
to other countries. But some have pointed out that compared to peer nations,
the US spends significantly less on social services and more on public safety
programs, and has astronomically higher incarceration rates. These investments
in police and prison, however, don’t translate to a safer country. In fact,
police in America kill more people in days than many countries do in years.
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