Several members of the Minneapolis City Council want to disband their city’s police force and are investigating how this goal might be realized.
“Several of us on the council are working on finding out, what it would take to disband the MPD,” says Steve Fletcher, a member of the 13-person assembly that serves as the legislative branch of Minneapolis government. The decision to abolish the police force comes after George Floyd died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, May 26. Floyd’s death triggered a wave of destructive riots throughout the city.
I don’t know yet, though several of us on the council are working on finding out, what it would take to disband the MPD and start fresh with a community-oriented, non-violent public safety and outreach capacity.
— Steve Fletcher – Minneapolis Ward 3 (@MplsWard3) June 2, 2020
Many rioters have also said they would like to see the police department dissolved.
Fletcher suggests that if the Council is successful in abolishing the police, a new unarmed “public safety” group will take its place. He says the council wants to “totally reimagine what public safety means… “We can invest in cultural competency and mental health training,” he adds.
He also blames the president of the Minneapolis Police Union, Bob Kroll, and law enforcement more broadly for the recent nights of violence.
After watching MPD officers escalate and provoke anger all week, he asserts that if they’d only been allowed to use more violence, they could have put a stop to demonstrations. This is nonsense. MPD officers chose him as their leader.
— Steve Fletcher – Minneapolis Ward 3 (@MplsWard3) June 2, 2020
This is not the first time a member of the Minneapolis city council has spoken out as Minnesota’s biggest city burns.
Minnesota Attorney General Kieth Ellison’s son, Jeremiah Ellison declared his allegiance to ANTIFA, May 31, after President Donald Trump announced that the far left group will be designated as a terror organization.
I hereby declare, officially, my support for ANTIFA
Unless someone can prove to me ANTIFA is behind the burning of black and immigrant owned businesses in my ward, I’ll keep focusing on stopping the white power terrorist THE ARE ACTUALLY ATTACKING US! https://t.co/m6jxtDYmTi
— Jeremiah Ellison (@jeremiah4north) May 31, 2020
The Council is generally understood to have a strong leftward bent. Two of its members, Phillipe Cunningham and Andrea Jenkins are transgender.
Rioting in Minneapolis has claimed claimed the lives of at least two individuals and destroyed over 300 businesses, per the Star Tribune.
Kyle Hooten
Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
