The Minneapolis City Council have announced that they will disband the Police Department, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and start again with a new system of public safety. Holy ****. Don’t even know what to think about that, to be honest.
Wow. You had me sprinting for google there and I'm not sure at first glance I've grasped it! Trial and error? Doing it rather than talking about it? I'll have to read some more.
The thing they seem to miss is that police officers have come from the community and whoever replaces them also will do so. The issue is an institutional one and creating another ‘community led’ institution doesn't mean it solves the issues. Instead of the police unions owning and abusing their power then another will take its place. The right to bear Arms should be the first change in America. The constitution itself should be challenged. A community led approach will be interesting to watch. Sending social workers to domestic abuse calls and increased camera systems for traffic offences seems to fragment the whole concept of ‘policing’ a city. Im not sure any of this is thought through and seems to be a fast tracked vote to appease a rally. I believe the whole police institution has to be rebuilt bottom up. I also believe community involvement in its design and objectives is clear. Switching from one to the other seems crazy. As a start who would represent the ‘community’ in leading this. Either way organisations such as the universities are withdrawing police funding so maybe the force would Have been dismantled naturally anyway. its interesting that in the UK the two institutions that have been incrementally and consistently starved of funding by the gov with incremental privatisation taking place are the two we as a nation are now so reliant upon. the NHS and The Police. Some would say we have been on this pathway for a long time if you replace with ‘privately led’
Sure, acting creates a new reality, although the proof of their words will be in the city officials actions. Icer said it really well above. A couple of links below related to community policing (only 6% of police from Minneapolis are from the City itself), and defunding the police. https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/01/what-happened-to-crime-in-camden/549542/ https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/07/the-price-of-defunding-the-police/533232/
