I Hope that this Happens, but I Fear that It Won't

After decades of abusive policing, and decades of cowardly supervision its political leaders, a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council have promised to abolish the Minneapolis Police Department.

I do not thing that this will happen, there is too much in the way of entrenched opposition, and there is little to no consensus as to what it actually means to, "Disband the city’s police department and replace it with a new system of public safety."

The devil will be in the details, because the details will determine whether the force has people like Bob Kroll and Derek Chauvin have a place in the organization.

The Minneapolis city council has pledged to disband the city’s police department and replace it with a new system of public safety, a historic move that comes as calls to defund law enforcement are sweeping the US.

Speaking at a community rally on Sunday, a veto-proof majority of councilmembers declared their intent to “dismantle” and “abolish” the embattled police agency responsible for George Floyd’s death – and build an alternative model of community-led safety. The decision is a direct response to the massive protests that have taken over American cities in the last two weeks, and is a major victory for abolitionist activists who have long fought to disband police and prisons.

America is over-policed, over-criminalized, and over-imprisoned.

It should change, but I do not think that it will change.