Minneapolis: Voters in Minneapolis decided Tuesday whether to replace the city police department with a new public safety department, more than a year after the death of George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer launched a movement to delay or eliminate police across the country.
Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey also struggled for the second term, facing the opposing association that had attacked him because of his leadership after Floyd’s death.
Frey opposed the police amendment.
The two main challengers in the field of 17 candidates, Sheila Nezhad and Kate Knuth, strongly supported the proposal.
Minneapolis voters also decided whether to replace the “weak mayor, strong council” system that is unusual with the distribution of more conventional executive and legislative strength that will provide clearer authority for everyday government operations.
While the results of the sound questions are expected Tuesday night, the Mayor’s race is a question mark because the city uses the selection of ranking options.
If there are no candidates that reach 50% in the first round of calculations, the winner will be determined after the Wednesday calculation of the second choice and potentially third.
The future of the police in the city where Floyd’s death on May 2020 launched a national calculation on racial justice to houses all voting in the city.
This debate brings national attention to elections, as well as rivers of money outside the country that seeks to affect contests that can form changes in policy elsewhere too.
The amendment proposed in the city charter will delete the language whose mandate that Minneapolis has a police department with a minimum number of officers based on population.
This will be replaced by the new Public Security Department that will take “a comprehensive public health approach to deliver the function of” that “can include” police officers “if necessary, to fulfill their responsibilities for public safety.” Supporters of changes argue that the total police reshuffle is needed to stop police violence.
They beat them as an opportunity to imagine what public safety can be done and to devote more funds to a new approach that did not rely on sending armed officers to deal with people in the crisis.
But the opponent says the ballot proposal has no concrete plan for how the new department will operate and declare the fear that it might make people have been affected by pistol violence even more susceptible to increasing crime.
The details, and who will lead a new agency, will be determined by the mayor and the city council.
Two leading progressive democracy leaders nationally – rep.
Ilhan Omar, who represented the Minneapolis area, and General Prosecutor General Keith Ellison – both supported police amendments.
But some leading leading liberal liberals, including the government of the Walz and A.S.s.
team Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, opposed it and fear of a reaction can cause democratic losses throughout the country in 2022.
Support does not cleanly follow racial lines.
Opponents including several leading black leather leaders, including some of which have become the top voice in the police accountability movement.
Minister of Batase Bates, a spokesman for the pro-amendment campaign, told reporters on Monday that even if the proposal failed, activists behind him had changed the conversation around public safety.
“No matter what happened, the city of Minneapolis must move forward and truly wrestle with what we cannot fear: that the Minneapolis Police Department has been able to operate with impunity and has done a little danger and city to take a few serious steps to improve it, “said Bates.
(AP)