We can’t back out of defunding the police now.
We have to keep defunding them harder and harder. We are right on the brink of a utopia.
In the city where George Floyd was murdered a year ago [Tuesday], the calls to defund and dismantle the police have been drowned out by new calls to throw even more resources at the beleaguered department.
Driving the news: A surge in violence in the first half of 2021 has altered the conversation about policing in the city where the national protests against racism and police brutality began.
And last summer’s pledge by a veto-proof majority of City Council members to dismantle the MPD was thwarted by a citizen commission, leaving that matter to be voted on in November by a city shaken by violence.
Minneapolis has reported 32 homicides so far this year, up from 15 at this point last year and just eight for the same period of 2019.
That’s a 400% increase from 2019.
The situation is clearly not more cops – it’s fewer.
They didn’t defund the police fast enough.
In the past month, three children, ages 10 and under, have been caught in the crossfire of gun violence. Last week, 6-year-old Aniya Allen, the granddaughter of an anti-gang activist, died from a shot to the head and two other children remain hospitalized.
Why it matters: Efforts at major policing changes in Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota have been blocked, sidetracked and watered down over the past year, and the recent crime surge could further slow momentum.
Where it stands: After Floyd’s murder, Mayor Jacob Frey — who has resisted efforts to dismantle the police — banned most no-knock raids and prohibited officers from shooting at moving vehicles, among other changes.
The Minnesota Legislature banned most chokeholds and “warrior training” — programs that make officers more likely to use deadly force — last summer.
Efforts by the City Council to get rid of MPD and replace it with “a holistic, public health-oriented approach” were thwarted by the judge-appointed City Charter Commission.
That group blocked a ballot initiative to cut the number of police officers mandated by the City Charter.
And Frey’s most sought-after reform — changing arbitration rules to make it easier to fire bad cops — has not made headway in the Legislature and is unlikely to pass this year.
This is truly a disaster.
We have to get rid of these cops if we ever want the blacks to be free.
The murder rate exploding as a result of weakening the police is just a sign that it’s working. It’s like when you get sores all over your body after getting the coronavirus vaccine.
Widespread murder is just the cleansing of the wounds caused to the black community by the police.
Backing down now is the worst thing we can do, and people out there claiming “we have to keep the police because the blacks are murdering everyone” are obvious racists.
You don’t stop giving vaccines just because of horrible side effects and widespread death. You don’t stop defunding the police because of children getting murdered.
This is the most basic science: blacks commit crimes because white people are mean to them.
The answer is not more cops – it’s fewer microaggressions by whites.
I can’t believe that on the heels of Walmart calling all of those blacks “niggers,” we are seriously considering re-funding the police in the city where George Floyd was brutally murdered to death because of the color of his skin.