Minneapolis voters on Tuesday rejected a proposal to replace the city's police department with a new Department of Public Safety, an idea that supporters had hoped would bring radical change to policing in the city where George Floyd's death under an officer's knee brought calls for racial justice.
The Defund the Police movement also hit a road block in crime-riddled Seattle, where pro-police candidates led several races in the progressive city on Tuesday.
The Minneapolis initiative proposed a change to the city charter to remove a requirement to have a police department with a minimum number of officers. Supporters said a complete overhaul of policing was necessary to stop police violence.
Opponents said the proposal had no concrete plan for how to move forward and warned it would leave some communities already affected by violence more vulnerable as crime is on the rise.
The ballot proposal had roots in the abolish-the-police movement that erupted after Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer last year.
Minneapolis voters on Tuesday rejected a proposal to replace the city's police department with a new Department of Public Safety. Mayor Jacob Frey casts his vote on Election Day alongside his family at the Marcy Arts Magnet Elementary School on Tuesday
Frey arrived to cast his vote on the ballot proposal which had roots in the abolish-the-police movement that erupted after Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer last year
Bruce Harrell, who is running against progressive Lorena Gonzalez in Seattle's mayoral race, speaks to supporters on election night Tuesday, November 2
Defund the police was an idea that supporters had hoped would bring radical change to policing in the city where George Floyd's death under an officer's knee brought calls for racial justice
The movement spread to liberal cities across the US during the summer of protests in 2020 in the wake of Floyd's death. Alondra Cano, a city council member, speaks during 'The Path Forward' meeting at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. The focus of the meeting was the defunding of the Minneapolis Police Department in 2020
Demonstrators march against racism and police brutality and to defund the Minneapolis Police Department on June 6, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
The debate over racial justice in policing brought national attention to Tuesday's votes, as well as a river of out-of-state money seeking to influence the outcome in Minneapolis that could have shaped change elsewhere, too.
In Seattle, pro-police candidates were expected to win mayoral, city attorney and City Council races when the final tallies are announced in the next few days.
In the mayor's race, former City Council President Bruce Harrell held a 30-point lead over progressive rival and current City Council President M. Lorena González, who wanted to slash police department budget by 50 percent.
'I'm not a status quo politician, they want the homeless issue addressed with a sense of urgency, they want effective policing … biased-free policing, so we feel very good about the results,' Harrell told FOX 13.
Republican Ann Davison led Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, a self-proclaimed police and jail 'abolitionist', in the race for city attorney. In the City Council race, Sara Nelson, who is against abolishing the police, took the lead over Nikkita Oliver, who campaigned to defund the police.
Tuesday's elections highlighted the great divide and national reckoning that is continuing as the country grapples with how to address the defund the police movement and rising crime.
The ballot question in Minneapolis called for a new Department of Public Safety to take 'a comprehensive public health approach to the delivery of functions' that would be determined by the mayor and City Council.
City Question 2 read: 'Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to remove the Police Department and replace it with a Department of Public Safety that employs a comprehensive public health approach to the delivery of functions by the Department of Public Safety, with those specific functions to be determined by the Mayor and City Council by ordinance; which will not be subject to exclusive mayoral power over its establishment, maintenance, and command; and which could include licensed peace officers (police officers), if necessary, to fulfill its responsibilities for public safety, with the general nature of the amendments being briefly indicated in the explanatory note below, which is made a part of this ballot?
Explanatory Note: This amendment would create a Department of Public Safety combining public safety functions through a comprehensive public health approach to be determined by the Mayor and Council.
'The department would be led by a Commissioner nominated by the Mayor and appointed by the Council. The Police Department, and its chief, would be removed from the City Charter. The Public Safety Department could include police officers, but the minimum funding requirement would be eliminated.'
The new proposed amendment would have replaced the police department with a new Department of Public Safety that would take a 'comprehensive public health approach to the delivery of functions' that 'could include' police officers 'if necessary, to fulfill its responsibilities for public safety.'
The new plan would have removed power from the mayor and the police for a new approach that would emphasize public health - especially mental health, according to Fox.
Supporters framed it as a chance to re-imagine what public safety can be and to devote more funding toward new approaches that don't rely on sending armed officers to deal with people in crisis.
Photojournalists document mayoral candidate Sheila Nezhad as she walks into the Gichitwaa Kateri Catholic Church on Election Day to cast her vote on Tuesday
Mayor Jacob Frey casts his vote on Election Day alongside his family at the Marcy Arts Magnet Elementary School on Tuesday, November 2, 2021 in Minneapolis
People check in to vote at Bryn Mawr Community School on Election Day on November 2
The effort was put forth by Yes 4 Minneapolis, a coalition of businesses and other groups, who gathers more than 22,000 signatures. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled it could go up for public vote in September.
Rishi Khanna, 31, a tech worker, voted yes on replacing the police department in Minneapolis, saying he doesn't believe police officers are qualified to deal with many situations, such as mental health crises. He said he thinks having professionals equipped to deal with a range of public safety issues in the same department as law enforcement will benefit both residents and police officers.
'I understand that law enforcement will have to have a seat at the table, but I think both in our community and in communities around the country, too often law enforcement is the only seat at the table,' he said. 'I don't think that's the right solution.'
Askari Lyons, 61, voted against the ballot initiative. A resident of the city's largely black north side, where violent crime runs higher than in the rest of the city, he said he believes Minneapolis police officers 'may have learned a lesson after George Floyd's death and what happened to the cop that killed him.'
Lyons called it 'unwise' to replace the department and said he believes change within the department is imminent.
'People are so frustrated, so angry, so disappointed with the violence occurring citywide as much as they are with the city's law enforcement,' he said.
The Minneapolis police department has a long history of accusations of racism. The New York Times reported that there's a deep divide between the predominately white police force and the community of Minneapolis.
'The truth is we do not have a good history,' Jamar B. Nelson, a longtime community activist, told The NYTimes. 'The biggest complaint is that the community feels the Police Department is racist, bigoted, and uncaring about the black community.'
Bodycam footage showing Minneapolis police saying they were 'hunting' people and 'f*** these people' as part of the unrest following Floyd's death have sparked outrage in the city and the nation.
'We're going to go find some more people, instead of chasing people around. You guys are out hunting people now, and it's just a nice change of tempo,' former police commander Bruce Folkens said on May 31, 2020, CNN reported.
Mayoral candidate Sheila Nezhad, right, casts her vote on Election Day at the Gichitwaa Kateri Catholic Church on Tuesday, November 2, 2021 in Minneapolis
Minneapolis voters on Tuesday rejected a proposal to replace the city's police department with a new Department of Public Safety, an idea that supporters had hoped would bring radical change to policing in the city where George Floyd's death under an officer's knee brought calls for racial justice. Monica Rojas gets directions from a poll worker on her way to casting her ballot at Sabathani Community Center
Mayoral candidate Sheila Nezhad walks into the Gichitwaa Kateri Catholic Church on Election Day to cast her vote on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021 in Minneapolis
Voters emerge from Sabathani Community Center after casting their ballots during municipal elections Tuesday, November 2, 2021, in Minneapolis
Moments like these have citizens calling for reform and new measures. Many cities have discussed adding workers to deal with mental health calls instead of the police.
The future of policing in the city where Floyd's death on May 25, 2020 launched a nationwide reckoning on racial justice overshadowed everything on the municipal ballot.
Defund the police protests broke out across the nation, arguing over-policing, gun violence, and systematic racism are causes in the deaths of black citizens like Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.
The City of Denver, Colorado implement this program in June 2020, according to Time magazine. More than 800 mental health calls have been responded to and city officials have reported positive feedback.
Other cities like Austin, Texas, have allocated money from their police budget to buy a hotel for the homeless community.
As rallies popped up across the nation, many cities boosted police spending or kept it the same, Bloomberg reported in September 2020. Twenty cities, including New York and Austin, decreased police budgets by early 2021.
Minneapolis' Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey was also in a tough fight on Tuesday as he faced re-election for a second term, facing a bevy of opponents who have attacked him for his leadership in the wake of Floyd´s death. Frey opposed the amendment to disband the police force.
Mayor Jacob Frey casts his vote on Election Day
Rishi Khanna, 31, a tech worker, voted yes on replacing the police department in Minneapolis, saying he doesn't believe police officers are qualified to deal with many situations, such as mental health crises.
Two of his leading challengers in the field of 17 candidates, Sheila Nezhad and Kate Knuth, strongly supported the proposal.
With nearly complete returns, Frey had about 43 per cent of the first-choice vote. He needed more than 50 per cent to win outright under the city's ranked-choice voting system, with the city to begin sorting second - and potentially third-choice votes Wednesday morning.
Nezhad and Knuth were both near 20 per cent.
Two nationally prominent progressive Democratic leaders - U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who represents the Minneapolis area, and state Attorney General Keith Ellison - both supported the policing amendment.
But some leading mainstream liberals, including Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, opposed it and feared the backlash could lead to Democratic losses across the country in 2022.
Support didn't cleanly follow racial lines. Opponents included several prominent black leaders, including some who have been top voices in the police accountability movement.
Minister JaNaé Bates, a spokeswoman for the pro-amendment campaign, told reporters Monday that even if the proposal fails, the activists behind it have changed the conversation around public safety.
'No matter what happens, the city of Minneapolis is going to have to move forward and really wrestle with what we cannot unknow: that the Minneapolis Police Department has been able to operate with impunity and has done quite a bit of harm and the city has to take some serious steps to rectify that,' Bates said.
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