Minneapolis became the flashpoint for anti-police activists in the wake of the death of George Floyd, and the city has been plagued by violence ever since. Now, black residents of the city remain opposed to efforts to replace the Minneapolis Police Department.
The Star Tribune, along with other outlets, polled likely voters in Minneapolis about policing and the city’s public safety charter amendment, which would replace the police department with a public safety department that gives the mayor and city council more control. The poll found that while Minneapolis voters generally and black Minneapolis voters specifically had a negative opinion of the Minneapolis Police Department, black voters opposed replacing it with the proposed Department of Public Safety by a 47%-42% margin. White voters support the idea 51%-40%.
This is not a surprise. By a margin of 75%-14%, black voters think the city should not cut the size of its police force. Black and white voters in the city recognize that crime has gotten worse over the last two years, but it’s a problem that affects the black community more. The precincts with the most nonwhite residents have seen the most homicides, with nearly half occurring in Precinct 4 in the northwest of the city.
Black residents of Minneapolis don’t trust the city council to determine the functions of this replacement public safety department. Why should they? The Minneapolis City Council has overseen a surge in homicides not seen since the city was dubbed “Murderapolis” in the mid-1990s. The new pace of homicides has persisted into 2021, with the city already 12 deaths away from matching its full-year 2020 homicide total.
If the amendment is approved in November, Minneapolis will have “abolished” its police department and replaced it with a department that will be overseen by the incompetent city leaders who are responsible for the bleak position the city has been in for two years now. Again, anti-police activists and white Democrats are going to overrule the black residents who have borne the brunt of the city’s homicides.