The Minneapolis City Council has confirmed that the police department will be disbanded and later replaced with a new system of public safety in a historic move following the death of George Floyd.
Speaking at a rally on Sunday, nine members of the council declared their intent to “dismantle” and “abolish” the embattled police agency responsible for Floyd’sdeath.
“We are committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe,” Council President Lisa Bender told CNN.
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According to Bender, nine votes will be needed to a veto-proof supermajority of the council’s 13 members.
While the protests following the death of Floyd continue to spread across the globe, Bender disclosed that the pledge on Sunday was to acknowledge an ailing system.
“We need to listen, especially to our black leaders, to our communities of color for whom policing is not working and to really let the solutions lie in our community, ” she said.
The effort to disband the police has been touted as historic and shows the impact of goal-oriented protests.
Despite their efforts, Tony Williams, a member of MPD150, a Minneapolis group whose literature on building a “police-free future” has been widely shared during the protests, believes the council members will face some opposition from law enforcement officials and the police union, The Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, Mayor Jacob Frey, who is up for re-election next year maintains that transforming the police department is better than getting rid of it.
Speaking to the Star Tribune, Frey said: “People continue to require service in many forms from our public safety offices, whether in times of domestic violence or assistance distance of the direst conditions.”
One member of the council, Linea Palmisano, who attended the rally but didn’t pledge to disband the police department said she is opposed to making “a promise at all cost,” but did not oppose the idea.
“I’m not here to sign a pledge, I am here to talk about alternatives to policing”.
