The council of Minneapolis, the city where George Floyd died, has gone through a complete turnaround. After Floyd s death the city council made plans to abolish police but, not much later, it was forced to drop the idea as it received a slew of complaints from residents about the sudden upsurge of crime. In what many view as a remarkable seachange, the council has recently approved many grants worth millions of dollars in extra support to law enforcement.

George Floyd, a black man with a known criminal record, was killed during a police action in Minneapolis last May. His death has triggered a wave of protests across the US under the auspices of the Black Lives Matter movement. A central theme of the movement was, and still is, to abolish or at least defund police, seen by them as the root of all evil.

Apparently, the Minneapolis City Council also stands by this ideology. With a unanimous vote in June, they decided to get rid of the city s police department and replace it with a „community-led public safety system.” The plan has not been implemented to this day, but it resulted in a mass exodus of local police officers from the force. 

The idea of a city without a police force proved mistaken as early as September, when the city council of Minneapolis questioned its police chief about the growing crime wave and asked where police were, when needed. Members of the council said their constituents kept asking them what the department was doing. Police found it very difficult to reach a scene if called and, being inundated with reports, they were unable to keep up with day-to-day events.

The city council, however, made a remarkable volte-face just a few days ago. They gave up their original plan to defund police and, with a unanimous vote, they approved 6.4 million dollars in additional funding, as requested by the police department.

The money will go toward hiring dozens of new officers, which seems necessary as the number of law enforcement officers has declined and violent crime has seen an upsurge, leaving officers unable to respond to every call.

The city currently has two hundred fewer police officers on duty than in recent years. Many have quit, retired or gone on a medical leave, while many complained of suffering from PTSD in the wake of the violent protests in the spring.

Yet there are still some who would abolish the police. The Yes 4 Minneapolis petition would remove Police Department language from the city charter and create a public health-focused Department of Public Safety, „including licensed peace officers, if necessary, to fulfill the responsibilities of the department.” Star Tribune reports that the coalition led by black people has received 500 thousand dollars in funding from the Open Society Policy Center, which is linked to George Soros s Open Society Foundations.