Minneapolis voters will decide whether to disband their police this fall. Residents in other cities see the consequences of that policy and are having second thoughts.
Summary
Defunding the police is still in question in cities around the country.
- A Minneapolis ballot proposal is set for this November election which asks residents to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a “Department of Public Safety” that would not automatically include police officers.
- Activists in Seattle are pushing their city council to further reduce police funding and “dismantle the Seattle Municipal Court.”
- Michigan lawmakers, on the other hand, earmarked nearly $4 million for State Police to equip officers with body cameras.
- Recently, negotiations between Republicans and Democrats on federal police reform legislation collapsed, with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker saying “Republicans rejected all attempts at compromise.”
- The Daily Beast chronicled the consequences of reducing police funding in the overwhelmingly white city of Burlington, Vermont, where supporters of the initiative now have second thoughts.
- CBS News listed the cities that spend the most per resident on policing, with Baltimore taking the top spot.
- Insider reported on pushback from police unions on claims from Republicans that the failed federal reform effort included language to “defund the police.”
- Fox News interviewed Austin City Council member Mackenzie Kelly who criticized the city for cuts to its police department, saying it now encourages residents to call 311 to report non-active crimes like theft or burglary.
- Gov. Kathy Hochul, the recently sworn-in replacement for disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo took heat from the New York Post’s editorial board for appointing two people with a history of “defund the police” rhetoric to her administration.
- The Federalist detailed the support Democratic candidate for Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe is receiving from NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, which has called for defunding the police, a policy well outside its typical abortion-related focus.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
