The guardian
Minneapolis promised change after George Floyd. Instead, it’s ready for war
The trial of Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed Floyd, has begun – and Minneapolis looks like a police state. On March 9, 2021, members of the National Guard will open a security gate outside the Hennepin Government Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo: Kerem Yucel / AFP / Getty Images The uprising of George Floyd, which began in Minneapolis, called for the police to be defused by the general public, empowering black-led anti-police violent movements around the world, and changing policy. in cities in the US. , and the most important built new organizations that have the ability to fight for long-term systemic change. The uprising also brought many reforms and positive developments in his hometown, including a move to actively defend the Minneapolis Police Department and redistribute funds to services with a greater potential to eradicate crime and poverty. Now the governments of Minneapolis and Minnesota are undoing the progress and moving in the opposite direction. The trial of Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed 46-year-old George Floyd in public – and who caused the largest protest movement in American history by accident – began this week. Instead of becoming transparent and committed to undoing the anti-black image it cultivated, the city of Minneapolis quickly transformed itself into a 21st-century police state, pushing even further than hyper-militarization. and violence that plagues all police departments across the country. USA. For a while, Minneapolis seemed to be on a better path. A veto-stable majority of city council members had earlier promised to dissolve the police department and build something better to replace it. Their efforts were thwarted by the Minneapolis Charter Commission, which concluded a voting initiative that would give voters the chance to abolish the police department in favor of a proposed Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. By this winter, the ambitions of summer have been replaced by a renewed commitment to the status quo. The police budget was cut by only $ 8 million – out of a total budget of $ 179 million – and a proposal to reduce the police force modestly was rejected by city councilors and mayor Jacob Frey, who would be more useful to the world than Justin Trudeau imitator as an elected official. Although the cut is a step towards disinvestment in the police, it pales in comparison to the more radical rhetoric of the city council. Some of the blame for this policy around the face lies in the increasing violent crime rate of the city and the subsequent pressure by some in Minneapolis for increased policing. This increase in crime can be seen across the country and could fuel the fiery opposition to the abolition of the police. Adding more police is virtually never the right solution to increased crime rates, although it is often the first thing cities strive for. There is no conclusive evidence that the over-policing of the 1990s and the rise of mass detention caused the decline in crime by the end of that decade. A growing number of sociologists and other social scientists believe that there is an abundance of historical evidence showing that violent crime, particularly murder, is deeply linked to political instability and a lack of confidence in government institutions. Given the pandemic and decades of unresolved social crises such as police violence against blacks (only one police officer in Minnesota has been convicted of murder in service in recent history), it should come as no surprise that public confidence in the government is close. historical lows are not. Increasing police presence, especially in moments of justified tension, will only continue this trend. It looks like the direction the state of Minnesota, and specifically Minneapolis, is heading as they prepare for protests in response to a possible acquittal of another police officer caught stabbing someone on camera. Governor Tim Walz has issued an order authorizing the National Guard to send Frey to Minneapolis at the request of Frey. The governor also proposed $ 35 million in state aid to fund the deployment of police officers from across the state to support the Minneapolis Police Department in the event of “extraordinary public security incidents.” The state also coordinates with the FBI, the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Hennepin Government Center, the location of the trial, is being transformed into a fortress. Several low-barbed wire fences with high security lead the area around the center and a few buildings around it; it is reinforced with large concrete barriers that, together with up to 2000 national guard soldiers, give the impression that the city is ready to fight its own people. In an interview with ABC News, Kandace Montgomery, the current co-director of the local liberation organization Black Visions, responded to the city’s preparations: ways to respond by basically preparing to go to war with people … so I think it’s an intimidation tactic. ‘The city wanted to be probably the most dystopian move, and also wanted to pay influencers on social media to share messages during the trial to prevent potential riots. The city planned to give six influencers $ 2,000 a day each to combat “misinformation.” In January, the city approved more than a million dollars to fund a communication strategy that would include community organizations and influencers, specifically targeting the “black, Somali / East African, Native American, Hmong and Spanish” communities through “city-generated and approved messages “. – which compared local activists to the Ghetto Informant program that Cointelpro used to impede black movements in the 1960s. To the anger of community members, the influencer plan was scrapped, though the city still plans to communicate with local leaders – excluding organizations like Black Visions that helped popularize the police claim. People in Minneapolis are preparing for the trial in their own ways. Some organizers have already planned protest marches, while others are building mutual aid networks to support each other with groceries and resources in case of unrest. The Corcoran neighborhood organization encourages text chains among neighbors and has started neighborhood patrols. Frey insists these preparations are unnecessary, but there is a strong lack of faith in the city’s ability to keep people safe, from the police and white supremacists, who sometimes used moments of upheaval to attack protesters. , such as the shooting of five Minneapolis in 2015. activists by white supremacists during protests over police murder of Jamar Clark. The city’s plans so far appear to be more concerned with what were statistically peaceful protests than with the real threat of white supremacist violence. Instead of committing themselves to police reform and recognizing transparency – or the growing threat of the far right – the city of Minneapolis, in the words of City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison, is ‘ready to show up’. Akin Olla is a Nigerian-American political strategist and organizer. He works as a coach for Momentum Community and hosts the podcast of This is The Revolution Miski Noor contributed to the research of this article.