Minneapolis mayor booed by protesters after refusing to defund and abolish police

[still_one]

Minneapolis mayor booed by protesters after refusing to defund and abolish police

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was met with a chorus of boos after telling a group of demonstrators he did not support abolishing the city police department.

While protests on Saturday were mostly peaceful, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was met with a chorus of boos after telling a group of demonstrators he did not support abolishing the city police department.
Multiple videos on social media show the confrontation, which took place when protesters marched to Frey's home and called for him to come out, according to CNN affiliate WCCO-TV. Protesters asked Frey directly if he supported defunding the Minneapolis Police Department.
When Frey replied that he did not, the crowd booed him as he walked away. They also chanted "Go home, Jacob, go home" and "shame," according to video posted to Twitter.

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Frey said the mayor is "unwavering in his commitment to working with Chief (Medaria) Arradondo toward deep structural reforms and uprooting systemic racism. He does not support abolishing the police department."

Frey told WCCO that he supports "massive structural reform" to revise a racist system and addressing "inherent inequities."

The confrontation between Frey and the protesters comes as the thousands of people across the nation are calling for police reform and protesting the deaths of unarmed African Americans, sometimes by law enforcement. The most recent deaths include George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia.
The incident also comes one day after Frey signed a temporary restraining order with the state to enforce immediate policing reforms like banning the use of chokeholds and requiring the police chief to authorize use of all crowd control weapons, WCCO reported.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/07/us/minneapolis-mayor-police-abolition/index.html

A YouGov poll says only 16% support defunding the police


CNN discussing what defunding the police means:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd/index.html

A YouGov poll finds only 16% would want to defund the police

https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/yougov-poll-finds-only-16-americans-want-to-defund-the-police-65-oppose/

[RandySF]

1. I heard erlier it was a request to defund it, not abolish it.

[still_one]

2. This is what CNN reported. What does "defunding the police mean"?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd/index.html

[cayugafalls]

3. Defunding police means to redistribute the money spent on police budgets

to other areas, like education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc...

[still_one]

4. ............................................

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/what-is-defund-police-trnd/index.html

A YouGov poll finds only 16% would want to defund the police

https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/yougov-poll-finds-only-16-americans-want-to-defund-the-police-65-oppose/

[LisaM]

5. I think a lot of people would be on board with that.

But it's not something that happens instantly. And what about the real needs? Stopping speeders, attending to domestic violence calls, showing up at accident scenes, directing crowds at events, just to name a few (I know that's kind of a lame list, just what popped into my head).

[cayugafalls]

7. You would still have a police department. Just not with ALL the money they

currently have at their disposal. The money would be spent on the communities that they are policing.

So you would get community services via the funds that were allocated originally to the police. It would also mean, less pay for police and lead to the police department reaching out to the community where they police for officers instead of recruiting out of district and paying high salaries.

[still_one]

8. A YouGov poll indicates only 16% are on board with that

A YouGov poll finds only 16% would want to defund the police

https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/yougov-poll-finds-only-16-americans-want-to-defund-the-police-65-oppose/

[maximusveritas]

13. Yes, this is a terrible idea for us to adopt. Guaranteed election loser, not to mention bad policy

Defunding = more crime in the minds of most voters and is true in most cases unless done very responsibly. As soon as it is done, Republicans will blame any spike in crime on the defunding and we are dead in the water.
They will successfully frame us as being against law/order/safety and on the side of criminals instead of having the discussion be about criminal and social justice reform where we come out way ahead.

[NJCher]

6. de-funding the police

means that tax money is diverted from the police to other social services that can more appropriately handle societal problems.

Over the years, police budgets and police unions have slurped up tax dollars and power. It is because we, as a society, do not provide the infrastructure to deal with problems like homelessness and gang violence. So it is all dumped on the police.

The police are the least likely to be able to handle these types of problems, thus defunding means we put together programs that do employ people who can handle the problem. Social workers, for example, often have Masters degrees. They are more suited to solve problems with homelessness or gang violence.

We would get more for our money--police officers, often earning $110,000 a year WITHOUT overtime, are a prime example. Social workers don't even come close to that.

There is a book to check out--it's called The End of Policing. Author is Vitale. It traces the recent history of how we expect the police to solve societal problems when they are the least equipped to do so. Vitale advocates the hiring of more social workers.

Here's another example. DeBlasio wanted the police to be involved in telling people about social distancing. Well, that was a disaster, judging from the calls to local NPR talk radio. All the police did was tick people off and they also came right out and said we don't want to do this. Furthermore, they arrested mostly blacks and Latinos. DeBlasio insisted on having them involved, however. Regardless, the city started hiring people they called "ambassadors." The ambassadors are trained in interpersonal communication and know how to tell people to maintain social distancing. They can do this without making people angry.

So: cut police budgets, build up new programs to solve the problems.

[agingdem]

9. when I listen to the protester demand Frey defund the police

I don't think she really knew what she was asking...tensions are high and the "defund the police" chant was a call to disband the police department not redistribute funding...

[madville]

10. Good luck keeping a tax base and businesses in any jurisdiction

Without a law enforcement presence of some kind. Abolishing the police is also an old Libertarian pipe dream, the theory being if nothing is illegal then they would have no laws to enforce and thus not be needed.

Many calls are domestic violence related, in a world with no police: 911 - "Sorry ma'am, we don't have officers to respond to calls anymore, we wish you luck with your drunk husband who has been beating on you tonight, we will make a report on it you can pick up in 2-3 business days and take to the county prosecutor if you want to pursue a court case against him yourself".

They need better framing of the message, maybe they want to abolish the Minneapolis Police Department itself and have the county sheriffs department provide all service in the entire county? Except for mostly criminals, cooky libertarians, and far left/right anarchists, most people want a law enforcement presence of some kind in their community, it would be chaos without it and people would have to resort to vigilantism or band together and fund their own private security force (like many rich neighborhoods already do).

[Humanist_Activist]

11. Oh please, the Minneapolis Police force literally have a white supremacist as president...

of its union.

They all need to be fired and replaced by something better, this is an issue with the Department itself and the city's contract with the union. Also the police already aren't going to do much for those in DV cases. Seriously look up how badly police forces handle domestic violence and sexual assault calls. They might as well not exist for those issues as is. They are mostly only good for protecting the property of the wealthy and corporations.

[bluestarone]

12. I say as long as a white racist leads their union it should be defunded. THEN

When leadership change takes place, they can take steps to refund!