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On Friday, the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to approve $6.4 million in funding for its police department in order to recruit new officers.
This comes after months of some members of the council denigrating the department after George Floyd's death."The department says it only has 638 officers available to work —
roughly 200 fewer than usual. An unprecedented number of officers quit or went on extended medical leave after Floyd's death and the unrest that followed, which included the burning of a police precinct,"
ABC News reported.
"An unprecedented number of officers quit or went on an extended medical leave — many for PTSD claims — after Floyd's death, rioting that led to the burning of a police precinct, and calls to end the city's Police Department," the
Star Tribune pointed out. "In the months since then,
some residents have begged city leaders to hire additional officers, saying they're waiting longer for responses to emergency calls amid a dramatic uptick in violent crime. Others have encouraged elected officials to dismantle the department, saying police haven't proven effective at reducing crime."
In June 2020,
speaking with CNN's Alisyn Camerota, the president of the Minneapolis City Council, which had stated it intended to "dismantle" the city's police department, was asked what a citizen should do if an intruder broke into their house in the middle of the night and there were no police to call. In response,
she suggested that the opportunity to call police "comes from a place of privilege," adding that those citizens should "step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm."
Comment: Turns out defunding the police isn't really that popular or effective a policy. Who would have guessed?