Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey REJECTS Push To Defund Police Despite City Council Vote
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is standing by his decision not to support defunding and disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department, even after a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council voted to abolish the city’s police force and replace it with community outreach programs.
Frey was booed by anti-racism protesters on Sunday, according to CNN, after refusing to commit to defunding the Minneapolis Police.
“Multiple videos on social media show the confrontation, which took place when protesters marched to Frey’s home and called for him to come out,” the outlet reported. “Protesters asked Frey directly if he supported defunding the Minneapolis Police Department. When Frey replied that he did not, the crowd booed him as he walked away.”
“Go home, Jacob, go home,” the crowd chanted. “Shame, shame.”
Frey tried to reason with the crowd by saying he was “coming to grips” with his privilege, but it was too late.
Frey doubled down on his position late Sunday, insisting, despite the incident, that he will continue to keep the Minneapolis Police Department together even after his own city council voted to follow protesters’ demands.
“I’ll work relentlessly with Chief [Medaria] Arradondo and alongside community toward deep, structural reform and addressing systemic racism in police culture,” Frey said in a statement to a local news outlet, per Fox News. “We’re ready to dig in and enact more community-led, public safety strategies on behalf of our city. But, I do not support abolishing the Minneapolis Police Department.”
The Minneapolis City Council, led by Council President Lisa Bender, voted Sunday to disband and replace the MPD.
“Our commitment is to end our city’s toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department,” Bender said after the vote was completed. “It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our communities safe. Our efforts at incremental reform have failed, period.”
Bender added that she and other members of the council plan “to end policing as we know it and recreate systems that actually keep us safe,” per Fox.
On Monday morning, Bender struggled to defend her vote on CNN, speaking with the network’s Alisyn Camerota.
When Camerota asked Bender, “what if in the middle of the night my home is broken into. Who do I call?” Bender responded with a shocking reference to white privilege, implying that there was no need for law enforcement to protect individuals from crime.
“Yes, I hear that loud and clear from a lot of my neighbors,” Bender said. “And I know — and myself, too, and I know that that comes from a place of privilege.”
Shen then suggested that “defunding” the police was actually a reference to “reforming” police.
Although over the weekend a number of high-profile Democrats embraced far-left calls to disband and defund police departments in response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, on Monday, former Vice President, and presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, dismissed calls to defund law enforcement, pledging instead to pursue police reforms.
