As crime surges, Minneapolis cuts millions from police

Despite skyrocketing crime rates in the city, Minneapolis’ Democrat city council voted to cut millions of dollars from the Police department’s budget for 2021.

Dean Smith

December 10, 2020

1–2 minutes

blog, defund police, Minneapolis

Credit: Matti Blume (MB-one)/Wikipedia/Creative Commons 4.0

Despite skyrocketing crime rates in the city, Minneapolis’ Democrat city council voted to cut millions of dollars from the Police department’s budget for 2021.

The Daily Wire explains:

The Democrat-controlled Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to cut millions of dollars in funding from the Minneapolis Police Department’s budget next year after failing to abolish the police department altogether earlier this year following the death of George Floyd.

The Minneapolis City Council voted to “shift nearly $8 million from next year’s police budget to other city services as part of an effort to ‘transform’ public safety in the city,” The Washington Post reported. “The controversial plan was approved unanimously as part of the city’s 2021 budget.”

READ: Democrat-Controlled Minneapolis City Council Votes To Cut Millions From Police Amid Record Crime Rates

The Daily Wire added a quote from the Associated Press to highlight the skyrocketing crime rates in that city:

The Associated Press reported:
Police have recorded 532 gunshot victims this year as of last Thursday, more than double the same period a year ago. Carjackings have also spiked to 375 so far this year, up 331% from the same period last year. Violent crimes have topped 5,100, compared with just over 4,000 for the same period in 2019.

Meanwhile, three of the members of the city council who voted to cut police funding hypocritically had private security paid for by taxpayers.

The New York Post provides the details:

Security for me but not for thee.

Three members of the Minneapolis City Council who voted to eliminate the local police force are being protected by a private security detail that costs taxpayers $4,500 a day.

News of the arrangement broke Friday, the same day the council voted 12-0 to abolish the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

READ: Minneapolis council members who voted to abolish cops get private security

READ: ‘Absurd, Crazy, Ridiculous’: Black Leaders Slam Minneapolis City Council’s Plan To Defund The Police

READ: 81% of Black Americans Want To Maintain or Increase Police Presence in Their Neighborhood

3 responses to “As crime surges, Minneapolis cuts millions from police”

Ian Smith, YesthatIan

December 11, 2020 at 7:41 pm

I think most people agree that a band-aid solution will not fix an underlying problem. Instead addressing the root cause of the problem will be much more effective. A lot of information is left out of this article again. Nearly $8 Million is being SHIFTED to other community safety initiatives. ‘Safety For All Plan’ includes programs for Violence Prevention (Remember Police are reactive, no proactive. They respond to crime, not prevent it.), Mental Health Crisis Teams (Police are notoriously undertrained in mental health response), and moving non emergent calls out of the Police Department (freeing up police to respond to more emergencies).
Also it’s only $8 Million from a Police budget of nearly $180 million. Shifting that money to Programs the police don’t even deal with or shouldn’t deal with, seems like a responsible course of action. Throwing police money at non-police issues does not fix root problems. Remember that band-aid.

LikeLike

Reply
1. Dean Smith
  
  December 11, 2020 at 9:41 pm
  
  I think the real issue is that with the number of shootings in the city double last year, car jackings up 300% over last year and violent crime up 30% that the police actually need more funding not less.
  
  The city has an annual budget of $2 billion and finding $8 million in cuts would be a walk in the park. As with most bureaucracies you could cut half the middle managers at city hall and nobody would even know they are gone.
  
  The reasonable approach would be to take that funding from other sources, implement the new programs to take over those areas that as you suggest the police may not be trained to deal with this. That would allow police to concentrate on the rising crime rates. If the new programs work and reduce, crime rates then cut police accordingly. Don’t cut funding when crime rates are doubling.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
Ian Smith, YesthatIan

December 11, 2020 at 10:55 pm

See this is a solution. Shift money from healthcare, education, fire, public works or anywhere really, to fund the Safety for All Plan. This would allow them to keep or expand the police budget at $179 million.

The actual real problem is that the America police are heavily militarized and posses “qualified immunity”. This essentially gives impunity to good and bad cops. And as we know it’s the taxpayers who actually pay, when a cop is sued for things like wrongful death or violating a persons constitutional rights. The City of Louisville, Kentucky paid a $12 Million settlement for Breonna Taylor. Cleveland $6 million – 12 year old Tamir Rice. New York $5.9 million – Eric Garner. St. Anthony, Minnesota – $3.8 million – Philando Castile etc. Taxpayers and city officials are tired of paying all this money for cops who abuse the law and their authority.

Giving more money to a system that has government employees murdering citizens (like
Minneapolis’ George Floyd) does not incentives them to stop. That was the whole point of the defunding and police reform movement. This is just a little context to the situation which appeared to be missing from this article. More money here or less money there, it doesn’t matter if you don’t look the root cause. Remember that band-aid.

LikeLike

Reply