Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) is expressing disagreement with the city council, as he does not support abolishing the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).
Minneapolis city council members made a vow to dismantle and defund the police, as IJR reported. This follows after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis police custody after he had his neck pinned by a former police officer’s knee for almost 9 minutes.
“A veto-proof majority of the MPLS City Council just publicly agreed that the Minneapolis Police Department is not reformable and that we’re going to end the current policing system,” Alondra Cano, a member of the Minneapolis council, tweeted.
Frey said that he wants to work with MPD Chief Medaria Arradondo, but does not want to defund the police department.
“I’ll work relentlessly with Chief Arradondo and alongside community toward deep, structural reform and addressing systemic racism in police culture. And we’re ready to dig in and enact more community-led, public safety strategies on behalf of our city,” Frey said in a statement. “But I do not support abolishing the Minneapolis Police Department.”
The nine city council members support for the defunding means that they have a supermajority and can override a veto by Frey, according to Fox 9.
Frey was met with opposition from protestors over the weekend. On Saturday, the Minneapolis mayor was booed for not supporting abolishing the police department. Demonstrators shouted, “Go home, Jacob, go home” and “shame.”
See the video below:
Crowd yells “shame” as @Jacob_Frey gives no clear answer for #AbolishThePolice @MPD_150 pic.twitter.com/m8IMFtiDhN
— Scotty Reynolds (@POperettaScotty) June 6, 2020
Chief Arradondo leads with integrity and compassion. We need to seize this moment. We need to tear down barriers that have prevented deeper reform and limited his work to fundamentally shift the culture within the MPD.https://t.co/kEdy1X8gqf
— Jacob Frey (@Jacob_Frey) June 6, 2020
In Washington, D.C., the message “Defund The Police” was painted in bright yellow on 16th Street, alongside the “Black Lives Matter” mural.