- The ballot question would have essentially removed power from the mayor and police chief in an effort to re-imagine policing
Ekohotblog reports that following demands for change in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, voters in Minnesota’s largest city rejected what would have been an unprecedented effort to disband the police department at the ballot box on Tuesday.
The referendum asked voters if they supported modifying the city charter to create a Department of Public Safety in place of the Minneapolis Police Department. The initiative would have deleted agency-related wording from the charter, including minimum financing requirements, and separated power of public safety between the mayor and City Council.
The question failed 57% to 44%, according to the results released by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office with 133 of 136 precincts reporting. It needed 51% of voter approval to pass.
“I’m ecstatic, elated and saddened at the time same because the elected officials who pushed this thing through left the people that they were supposed to represent and got off into their own personality,” Pastor Jerry McAfee of the New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis told Fox News Tuesday night. “They dragged and diverted the attention of what’s really going on in our community to something that is a problem but is minuscule when you look at the cause of violence and everything that goes with it.”
The ballot question would have essentially removed power from the mayor and police chief in an effort to re-imagine policing amid fraught relationships between law enforcement and minority communities nationwide. Tuesday’s vote came as Minneapolis is experiencing an uptick in violent crime similar to other cities.
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