BREAKING NEWS – Minneapolis, Minnesota – The Minneapolis City Council, passed a budget that will cut its police funding by $8 million and use the money for mental health and violence prevention programs.
The plan for the shifting of police funding, called “Safety for All,” follows the city council’s stalled attempt to completely dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department earlier this year. Minneapolis is where the widespread protests against racism and police brutality — which often turned into riots — started before spreading around the country.
Steve Fletcher, who represents Ward 3 in Minneapolis stated, “In 2021, our city will implement mental health emergency response, support community safety programs, add violence prevention capacity and improve police accountability. Now we must use the $8 million to deal with the upsurge of violence in this city, that I and other members of the city council unwittingly created… wait a minute, let me rephrase that.”