Minneapolis City Council has declared the police service to be a new model of public safety. (File)
Washington:
The police department of the American city of Minneapolis will be dismantled and rebuilt, announced the municipal councilors Sunday after the death in police custody of George Floyd, which started demonstrations on the national scale against racism in the forces of order.
“We are committed to dismantling the police service as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuilding with our community a new model of public safety that keeps our community safe,” said Council Chair Lisa Bender, at CNN.
Council member Alondra Cano tweeted that the decision was made “by a veto-proof majority of the MPLS city council”, who agreed that the police force “is not reformable and that we will end the current police system. “
White Minneapolis police officer was charged with murder in the death of George Floyd on May 25, after a bystander video showed the officer’s knee wedged on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes while ‘he pleaded for his life and called his mother.
This is the last case in which white law enforcement officials have been charged with the death of an unarmed black man.
Floyd’s death sparked two weeks of peaceful protests across the country against racism in US law enforcement. Some protesters demanded reimbursement from the police.
Last year, a former black Minneapolis police officer was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison for the murder of an unarmed white Australian woman trying to report a crime.
Bender told CNN that she is considering shifting police funding to community strategies and that city council will discuss how to replace the existing police service.
“The idea of not having a police force is certainly not in the short term,” she added.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
