MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Voters spoke loud and clear to Minneapolis City Council on election day, saying they’re not interested in replacing the police with a “reimagined” version dubbed a “public safety department.”
The measure was submitted by an advocacy group called “Yes 4 Minneapolis Committee” and, if passed, will bring a “comprehensive public health approach” to public safety. Rather than police departments, the measure says, the city charter would call for “public safety departments.”
City Council had pushed the measure onto the ballot as a part of their movement to defund the police in the wake of the death of George Floyd while in police custody. The measure was passed for approval to be added to the November 2 ballot with a vote of 11-2 by the policy and government oversight committee.
During Tuesday’s election, 56% voted “no” on the measure.
Since the rioting following Floyd’s death and the subsequent attempts of City Council to rid the city of police, citizens have been speaking out against the notion, saying that they need police to combat the ever growing violence in the area.
As Red Voice Media reported last month, the city has seen 530 shootings this year alone so far, an increase of 114% over 2019.
The group Yes 4 Minneapolis Committee had presented the measure initially to “reinvent” policing. The website for Yes 4 Minneapolis Committee states, “Our movement demands our city leaders move away from violent policing to create a department that addresses community safety holistically and with a public health approach. Our movement believes that the community should decide what safety looks like. To do so, we must amend the city charter that was written in 1961 and forces us to build on a broken system.”
The committee is made up of coalitions of different groups, including the ACLU of Minnesota, “racial justice” groups, and the Sex Workers Outreach Project of Minneapolis, which is a “social justice” group that is “dedicated to the fundamental human rights of people involved in the sex trade and their communities, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education and advocacy.”
