Much to the disappointment of the left and folks like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) who have openly advocated to defunding police, the Minneapolis Police Department will receive millions of dollars in new funding as part of a new city budget.
The move comes after a few years after continuing attempts to not just defund the police department, but calls from prominent Democrats to dismantle it completely.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and the City Council agreed on a $1.6 billion budget that includes roughly $191 million for the police department. This brings the police department budget back up to almost pre-George Floyd funding levels.
Not Surprisingly, Defund The Police Not Popular
As calls came from the far-left to “defund the police” after the death of George Floyd in May of 2020, Minneapolis saw funds shifted away from police departments to other budget areas.
In 2021 however, defunding the police proved to be the mistake it sounded like it would be. Crime statistics for 2020 in cities that “defunded” the police showed alarming spikes in crime.
Last November, voters in Minneapolis overwhelmingly rejected the ballot measure that would have replaced the police department with some sort of public safety agency.
What Activists Are Saying
Despite rising crime statistics, activists are disappointed in the move.
Kenza Hadj-Moussa, spokeswoman for a progressive activist group called Take Action Minnesota, said about the new police funding, “I think many people in Minneapolis feel dismayed. What we’ve seen [is], year after year, no matter what’s happening with crime, the MPD always demands more resources.”
Mayor Frey
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who was bounced out of a protest following George Floyd’s death because he would not support defunding the police, requested police funding for adding new recruit classes, improving the field training program, and an increase to the health and wellness program for officers.
While Mayor Frey and the citizens of Minneapolis have figured out that defunding the police doesn’t work, far-left Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar back in October actually blamed police for the uptick in crime in Minneapolis.
She said that, “the police have chosen to not fulfill their oath of office and to provide the public safety they are owed to the citizens they serve.” She continued, saying that police officers are being held to account for their actions, “The Minneapolis Police Department is the most dysfunctional in our state and probably in the country.”
Omar was also among the first elected officials to support dismantling the Minneapolis police department. Her constituents do not agree.
