Minneapolis' City Council president is defending the move to disband the city’s police department following the brutal killing of Geor...
Minneapolis' City Council president is defending the move to disband the city’s police department following the brutal killing of George Floyd, saying that police can do more harm than good in some cases and expecting their help 'comes from a place of privilege'.
On Monday, City Council president Lisa Bender defended the revolutionary move to disband the police force, saying Floyd’s death was a 'wake-up call' that the police 'is not keeping every member of our community safe.'
'What if, in the middle of the night, my home is broken into. Who do I call?' CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked.
'Yes, I mean I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors, and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege,' Bender replied.
'Because for those of us for whom the system is working, I think we need to step back and imagine what it would feel like to already live in that reality where calling the police may mean more harm is done,' she added.
Minneapolis' City Council president Lisa Bender defended the council's move to disband the city’s police department following the brutal killing of George Floyd in an interview with CNN Monday morning
'What if, in the middle of the night, my home is broken into. Who do I call?' CNN ’s Alisyn Camerota asked. 'Yes, I mean I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors, and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege,' Bender replied
Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender on the intent to defund and dismantle the city’s police department: “[We] have looked up ways we can shift the response away from our armed police officers... the groundwork is laid already.” cnn.it/2BNuYIt
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Bender noted the city council isn't starting from an empty slate, they've worked to reform the police system for years.
'We are not starting from scratch we have invested in community-based safety strategies…we’ve done an analysis of all the reasons people call 911 and have looked at ways we can shift the response away from police officers into a more appropriate response for mental health calls. So the groundwork is laid already in Minneapolis for us to work from that,' she said.
When asked if she feared dismantling the police system is giving Donald Trump a good talking point for the upcoming election, she said it's a system that needs to be addressed.
'It starts with telling the truth. I think we’ve been afraid of those political dynamics, of what would happen in our city to have our police force hearing those type of words and that fear is what we have to work through,' she said.
On Monday morning Bender tweeted that re-imagining public safety will 'be a lot of work' but Minneapolis 'knows how to make pragmatic and meaningful systems change'
Last week she tweeted the council's intent to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department following failed reform efforts
'That’s the fear that we see from George Floyd’s family or the family of Jamar Clark or Justine Damond who were also killed by Minneapolis police who have told us they never want to see this again,' she said, adding, 'so we have to try something new'.
'Now the hard work begins for us to rebuild systems that really work to keep everyone in our community safe,' Bender said.
On Sunday nine members of the Minneapolis City Council announced they intend to defund and dismantle the city’s police department.
'We committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe,' Bender said.
With nine votes the city council would have a veto-proof supermajority of the council’s 13 members to dismantle the police force, Bender said.
However, 38-year-old mayor Jacob Frey objected to dismantling the police department. He does not have the power to veto the move after a three-quarters majority of councilors back it.
Mayor Frey was booed by protesters Saturday when he refused to commit to defunding and abolishing the city's police force and forced out of the demonstration.
Mayor Jacob Frey, 38 (pictured), was booed by protesters at the weekend after refusing to back the demand to defund police - and councilors now have a supermajority which means he cannot block the move
Mayor Frey was booed by protesters Saturday night when he refused to commit to defunding and abolishing the city's police force and forced out of the demonstration in Minneapolis (above)
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Mayor of Minneapolis addresses the Minneapolis City Council's intent to move toward dismantling the city’s police department and police reform. “We need to be able to have the culture shift.”@MayorFrey@GStephanopoulos gma.abc/2ME1UFd
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And Mayor Frey appeared on Good Morning America to say he would not support the plan to disband the department and that he wanted to know exactly what the council had in mind.
'Am I for entirely abolishing the police department? No, I'm not,' he said.
'I'm looking forward to working with council and talking with them and deciphering particularly what they mean when they say ending and abolishing,' he added..
He said he would rather see reform to police unions that would make it easier to fire racist cops and keep them out of the force.
'There are so many areas where mayors and police chiefs have been hamstrung because we have difficulty both terminating and disciplining officers and getting it to stick.
'We're going after the police union... we need the ability to discipline officers to begin with,' he said.
By law, Minneapolis must maintain a police force of at least 723 police officers. It currently has some 800.
To completely get rid of the department, the city charter would have to be amended - which would require a public vote or the full approval of all 13 council members, including the mayor.
Demonstrators across the globe have raised a rallying cry against racism and police brutality following the police killing of George Floyd on May 25. A man calls for the resignation of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey during a demonstration on June 6 in Minneapolis above
Demonstrators calling to defund the Minneapolis Police Department pause on Hennepin Avenue on June 6 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who was killed on May 25 when he was approached by four cops and a white officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into the back of Floyd's neck for an excruciating eight minutes and 46 seconds, killing him
Minneapolis has been the heart of Black Lives Matter protests unfolding across the country.
Demonstrators across the globe have raised a rallying cry against racism and police brutality following the police killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who was killed on May 25 when he was approached by four cops and a white officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee into the back of Floyd's neck for an excruciating eight minutes and 46 seconds, killing him.
Across the country Black Lives Matter activists pushing to 'defund the police' have proposed plans to replace officers with social workers, mental health advocates and homeless charities.
Activists are asking to replace police with mental health responders to attend mental health crises, street outreach teams, more shelters and affordable housing to help the homeless and stop the homeless from being criminalized, community members to attend domestic violence calls and to help establish long-term safety for the individuals.
Other demands include specialized physical and emotional support for victims of sexual violence, investing in sex trafficking prevention measures, the legalization of marijuana to stop the incarceration for possession of the 'harmless' drug, and better handling of drug offenses to stop 'criminalizing of communities of color', the decriminalization of sex work and restorative justice meaning meetings between victims and offenders to deal with property crimes such as theft and burglary.
Disbanding an entire police department has happened in 2012 in Camden, New Jersey where the police department was replaced with a new force that covered Camden County and in Compton, California in 2000, shifting its policing to Los Angeles County.
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