As of right now, Minneapolis officials are looking to listen to the cries of their protestors. The streets have been painted with the words “defund the police” and it looks as thought the city may be doing just that.
In a recent interview with City Council President Lisa Bender on CNN, Lisa expressed that the police department is not going to be reformed but ‘dismantled’. The City Council President was asked “What if, in the middle of the night, my home is broken into, who do I call?”
Lisa’s response was very indirect, and she neglected to provide an answer. Instead she stated that having the ability to contact the police comes from a place of “privilege for those of us for whom the system is working”.
The City Council President did not specify on whether that was associated to social status or how exactly it fits into dialing the police. She did state that for some “contacting the police may mean that more harm is done.”
Bender was then asked “as a Democrat, are you worried that you have just handed President Trump a slogan or talking point” Lisa responded by saying “I think we have been afraid, of a lot of things, of those political dynamics, of what would happen in our city”
Bender did proceed to respond to the question, but again, avoided the main point of the question. Moving into the future, I believe that we should all be optimistic in the decision that the city is making an attempt to ‘try something new’ in order to prevent police brutality cases.
The City Council President did make mention of 3 names to use as a talking point of her ‘police dismantle’ and how the families of those individuals have expressed that they do not want to see this happening.
I do not believe that those 3 names alone are enough to count as reasonable to dismantle an entire police force. However, that is their call to make.
The question that seems to be overlooked; why does the city not invest into better training for their police officers? A properly trained police officer would not have made a mistake like that, nor would they allow another officer to do that while they stand there and watch.
