On Jul 25, 2021, the Minneapolis city council added a new ballot measure to be voted on this fall. Soon, citizens of Minneapolis will be voting on if they want to replace the police department with a “department of public safety.” This is going to be the ultimate test vote for the rest of the country- will people buy into the progressive rhetoric and ultimately vote to get rid of their police departments?
The text of the ballot measure reads: “Shall the Minneapolis City Charter be amended to strike and replace the Police Department with a Department of Public Safety that employs a comprehensive public health approach, and which would 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?”
The text of this document is extremely important. The language of this ballot measure will create a department of public safety which would include licensed police officers if necessary. This kind of shows that even the city council is hesitant to pass a bill like this; that they secretly know that they need the police. This gives the City Council an out to hire police officers when things go badly.
The group “Yes 4 Minneapolis” was highly critical of the City Council for adding the subtext allowing the council to add police officers if necessary, citing that it undermines the will of the people. Their reaction to this amendment shows that far leftists want nothing less than full removal of the police department.
When the city council of Minneapolis gave in to the far-left and proposed a voter initiative to see if the people want to abolish their police department, it became a pilot test for the left to see if the dismantling of police departments will be popular in their strongholds. However, the fact that the Council decided to add the clause allowing them to hire police officers if necessary shows that city leaders do not believe this progressive initiative will truly work. No doubt about it – this ballot measure needs to be defeated. If it is not defeated, police departments in other cities will most likely be removed as well.
Due to the hysterical rise of national criticism of law enforcement, enforcement of low-level crimes like shoplifting are beginning to be met with stiff resistance in major cities nationwide. Shoplifting is a particularly bad problem, best evidenced by the city of San Francisco.
