In Response To George Floyd Killing, Minnesota Schools Dump Contracts With Minneapolis PD
from the rest-in-swill,-coppers dept
We can disagree (vehemently and at length) about the most effective means of societal change. But we’ve seen a blend of tactics that no one unanimously agrees are helpful or harmful, but are still pushing legislators and other government officials towards meaningful change.
Maybe we’ll never fully understand what motivates society as a whole. (And yet we live in one.) Let’s celebrate the steps forward — especially one that have occurred despite certain government officials (including our President) declaring almost any anti-government action to be stupid, criminal, and useless.
No one asked for cops in schools. At least, very few students did. Maybe some parents did. To be sure, a whole lot of school administrators did because it meant they could offload every disciplinary problem — no matter how small — to cops trained to handle serious criminal acts rather than underage acts of defiance. It made things easier for administrators who used this void they’d created in their own responsibility to enact a number of “zero tolerance” policies that relieved them of the pressure of using common sense and restraint when dealing with troublesome students. The end result was objectively awful.
Now, with law enforcement agencies having proven themselves objectively awful by badly reacting to a cop-created problem, Minnesota schools are deciding to kick cops to the curb.
The city’s public school board unanimously approved a resolution on Tuesday night that will end the district’s contract with the Minneapolis police department to use officers to provide school security. The Minneapolis superintendent said he would begin work on an alternative plan to keep the district’s more than 35,000 students safe in the coming school year.
“We cannot continue to be in partnership with an organization that has the culture of violence and racism that the Minneapolis police department has historically demonstrated,” Nelson Inz, one of the school board members, said. “We have to stand in solidarity with our black students.”
Hopefully this will spring a sizable leak in the school-to-prison pipeline, allowing the tax dollars no longer required for the receiving end to be routed to the future of America and those tasked with teaching them.
But it’s not just minors being protected from cops. It’s also a number of adults.
In a statement Wednesday evening, University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel announced changes in the school’s relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department.
U of M will no longer contract with MPD for additional law enforcement support needed for large events. This includes football games.
The school will also no longer use MPD for specialized services such as K-9 Explosive detection units.
As extraneous cop opportunities dry up, so should their funding. This will make it easier for legislators to remove police from situations where their dubious expertise has done more to harm than to help. What used to be just a libertarian fever dream is now a few steps closer to reality. Members of the Minneapolis City Council are actually considering at least a partial dismantling of the city’s police force.
Several members of the Minneapolis City Council this week have expressed support for drastic overhauls to the way the city handles law enforcement, ranging from calls to defund the department, to suggestions that social workers, medics or mental health professionals should be sent to some calls currently handled by police.
Council member Jeremiah Ellison, son of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison — who is leading the case against the officers involved in Floyd’s death — took a more radical approach.
“We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. And when we’re done, we’re not simply gonna glue it back together. We are going to dramatically rethink how we approach public safety and emergency response. It’s really past due,” Ellison wrote on Twitter Thursday.
Council President Lisa Bender joined Ellison’s call to dismantle the department.
“We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a transformative new model of public safety,” Bender wrote on Twitter Thursday.
The police likely won’t be disbanded, no matter who’s vowing to do what. And the Council — at this point – isn’t threatening to deprive the PD of its funding until it gets its problems sorted out. But the state’s Department of Human Rights has sued the PD, demanding a host of changes and a partial blockade on certain enforcement activities until the PD agrees to its demands for increased accountability. This is nothing new for the Minneapolis PD, which was hit with similar demands by the DOJ back in 2003. It appears the federal effort didn’t actually result in better officers so more drastic reforms are in the works.
While legislators may not be able to dismantle the PD and rebuild it from the ground up, they are taking steps to steer cops away from situations they’ve proven they can’t handle, like welfare checks and calls relating to mental health issues. Too often when cops are faced with situations they don’t completely comprehend, they respond with force, mostly of the “deadly” variety. If these reforms are pushed through, calls like these will turn EMS units and mental health professionals into first responders, giving these at-risk residents a better chance of surviving their encounter with the government.
Things are changing. This is good news. But let’s not be dismissive of all the bad news that led us to this point — including demonstrations (violent and otherwise) that demonstrated law enforcement’s inability to properly serve the public they owe their jobs to.
Filed Under: defund the police, minneapolis, minnesota, police, police violence, school resource officers
Comments on “In Response To George Floyd Killing, Minnesota Schools Dump Contracts With Minneapolis PD”
Maybe don't have the thugs providing security?
While it’s just a tad absurd that it took this long to maybe consider that armed police with a terrible track record might not be the best people to have in schools or providing security it’s better late than never, and hopefully it’ll snowball such that if they can’t be disbanded and replaced entirely at the least they’ll be provided as few chances to abuse their authority as possible.
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Re: Maybe don't have the thugs providing security?
So you are willing to endanger every child in the school because of one bad cop. That makes absolutely no sense.
Re: Re: Maybe don't have the thugs providing security?
The involvement of cops has not led to safer kids, particularly considering what cops were getting called to schools for.
Cops are not getting called because of actual school shootings – they’re being called because a minority of kids drew pictures of guns, were unruly in class, or heaven forbid – chewed a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun.
Cops have arrested children for having the audacity to struggle when handcuffed or physically dealt with, then whimpered for the press about how they feared for their life or genitals from unarmed children.
Children were forced into interactions with cops because of a few children who somehow made the principal and teachers piss themselves and only armed thugs in uniform are the solution. If a minority case was enough to institute cops in schools, why shouldn’t a minority case be sufficient to prove that the program failed to serve its purpose?
Re: Re: Maybe don't have the thugs providing security?
"So you are willing to endanger every child in the school because of one bad cop. That makes absolutely no sense."
ONE bad cop? One cop who murders people at some random nonviolent intervention. Three cops assisting him. And he’d been at that for how long, according to his complaints list?
The persistent thuggery of Minnesota police? Hell, yes. You’d get better protection with less collateral damage by paying the local gang protection money. Which says a lot about the Minnesota police.
It makes a lot of sense to not allow an organization into your school which has, for a long time, had the back of a thug who finally ended up murdering a person in broad daylight.
Re: Re: Maybe don't have the thugs providing security?
So you are willing to sidestep the issue at hand in order to deliver your point of view. That makes absolutely no sense.
Please list a few good reasons to have police in our schools, these must be things that the school is incapable of dealing with. Remember, schools have budgets in order to install metal detectors and the resident cops have not stopped a shooter have they? Some ran away, but donny would run in there and get that guy – lol.
Re: Re:
otherwording (or in-other-wordsing) — noun — summarizing a point of argument in a way that distorts the point into saying something it does not and attributes the false interpretation to the person who raised the original point; a blatant attempt to make winning an argument easier for someone who is out of their depth in said argument
Example: You will often find the phrases “in other words” or “so you’re saying” at the beginning of an instance of otherwording.
See also: strawman; your post
Re: Re: Maybe don't have the thugs providing security?
Have you ever stopped to consider that if you have no choice but to resort to resort to fallacies like that false dichotomy there to make your stupid point, that perhaps it’s you that has no sense?
If the police want people’s trust, they need to EARN IT.
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Here at Techdirt, we see Trump’s strategy:
It is a strategy of infiltration, disruption and selected blows
against Techdirt and revolutionary movements and leaders like Mike. It did temporarily succeed in creating a climate of distrust and suspicion on the left. Its tactics included threats and intimidation, espionage, grand juries and long trials about Email —and selected murders. The strategy against the Black movement and Techdirt and the strategy against the anti-war left are different faces of the same apparatus. Their basic repressive strategy is to divide, separate out, and make vulnerable – but don’t fall for it. Be a Techdirt Soldier! Demand they Defund the Police! Obama for President!
—to divide Third World and white, those in prison from those outside, those
in solitary from I hose in population, leaders from the grass roots and the
guerrillas from the mass? movement.
Organizing a Base fur Fasc i sm. In the US this means racism:
building cxplicHy or thinly -disguised anti-Black and Third World campaigns.
To the extent that thev have gone unchallenged by organized revolutionary
forces they have ‘been serious defeats.
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Letting cops shoot black kids in schools isn’t going to prove Shiva Ayyadurai invented email, Hamilton.
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"Letting cops shoot black kids in schools isn’t going to prove Shiva Ayyadurai invented email, Hamilton."
Well, no, but letting cops shoot black kids in school is going to let poor Hamilton take a long look at his life and go "At least I’m not black".
Because, you know, if black people were considered equal then where would he find someone more of a loser in life than himself who he could spit at? Common problem for many poor oppressed white supremacists, that.
Re: That ship sailed, burned down, and sank years back
Earn it? That sounds like a whole lot of work, much easier to just beat people into submission, not like that could ever horribly backfire and lead into mass protests…
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Re: Re: That ship sailed, burned down, and sank years back
RIght, Comerade, you are Right. Here’s how it’s going to work: First, we will defund the police. Everybody already agrees on that. And THEN, Intel, Pepsi, Nike and other like minded revolutionaries will fund BLM (already happening). And THEN BLM will come to your neighborhood and ask for Support for their anti-White-Supremacy movement. With the investments from Intel and others, we have already purchased all the sanitation equipment (garbage trucks) in the US. Now, to support BLM, simply have them pick up your garbage. Simple. If you want to leave some donations to BLM in return for extra protection now that the police are gone, that’s fine, just mark them with a big $ and keep them very clean. We don’t want to HAVE to BEAT you to SUBMISSION, we don’t want to BURN YOUR RESIDENCE, so just contribute generously, please. Badged BLM members will come for an in-person interview (usually groups of 20 or more) soon, please be ready with your donations and thank you for supporting BLM! In fact, since we usually come about 3AM, maybe it would be better for you to just leave them outside. Omerica! It’s our Future! BLM OBMAM BLM!! Say it with me!
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Re: Re: Re: That ship sailed, burned down, and sank years back
AND, we have a special, I forgot to mention it. A special for those of you who are willing to get down on your knees and recite the names of 10 great black men and their birthdays, and then apologize publicly to them for your privilege. Doesn’t matter if you are white or not, you get a 10% discount from your refuse removal AFTER you post it on the BLM side and it is reviewed for quality and accuracy. AND, we use refuse to make the planet more GREEN, so that’s Good! And, your ten percent is good for a WHOLE year after you first register you bank account number and ATM and your PIN with BLM (as required by BLM law). Automatic Discounts, is that great or what? That was Nancy’s idea. She’s a former Catholic, and quite frugal.
Re: Re: Re:2 That ship sailed, burned down, and sank years back
You guys are getting beyond absurdity with your hangup about the black man who became president.
It says a lot about what you are when the response to the fact the police murder people is a long rant about how black people demanding equal rights will somehow "oppress" you.
Re: Re: Re:3 That ship sailed, burned down, and sank years ba
You are right!
They call us bandits, yet every lime mos! Black people pick
up our paychecks we are being robbed. Every iime we walk
into a store in our neighborhood we are being held up. And
every lime we pay our rent the landlord sticks a gun into our
ribs.
Assata Shakur (Joanne Oiesimard)
Racism is a weapon at the command of tin; ruling class, deliberately
fashioned into a culturally sanctioned inslitui ion, written into law, and
enforced by all the power of conscious custom and the state.
Ail primary national institutions corporation, government, social
services and organized labor are under 1 00/t effective white oppressive
control. Black peopie as a group do not control their schools, their jobs or
national policy. Despite all the state’s propaganda, Black people have not
been "incorporated" into the upper, or even middle, level* of the IS social
structure.
In fact, the conditions of life for ninny Rbek people have worsened
over the iast ten years. During the Jasi decade, the differential between the
wages of Black and white workers has increased, segregation in the schools
has increased, drug addiction has become an epidemic. The annual sales of
General Motors – S30 billion equals the purchasing power of the entire
Black population.
Institutionalized racism is mainlined and perpetuated over the
generations by the schools, the unemployment eclc, the drug trade,
immigration laws, birth control, the army, the prisons.
Black and Mexican and Puerto Rican and Asian labor has been
essential in building this country. The labor of Third World people cleans the
streets, the floors, hauls the heavy loads, cooks the food.
Last hired, first fired, the inicmp.loym.ent rate among Black people
in the cities is four times that of whites and the unemployment among Black
youth is now expected to exceed 30%. The high rate of Black
unemployment reduces i})e effects of depression cycles on the rest of the
population arid encourages competition instead of solidarity.
Oh, wait, this was 60 years ago.
Re: Re: Re:3 That ship sailed, burned down, and sank years ba
It’s also really odd how they fixate on this idea that "leftists" want to put Obama back in power, when:
Re: Re: Re:4 That ship sailed, burned down, and sank year
Well…
1) The sort of people focused on "leftists" bringing Obama back to power aren’t exactly well-read on the constitution – or anything other than the Dummy’s Guide of Mein Kampf, for that matter.
2) …they just heard "But Obama!". Joe might be a democrat and every now and then he’s a liberal but at least he’s white.
Don’t you get it? There was a black man in the oval office. A woman stood as presidential candidate. If one day 50 years down the road fscking aliens land and reenact George Well’s "Invasion of the worlds" these gormless fsckwits will dodder out of their old folks homes and give voice to the source of all their grievances by croaking "But Obama!" while dying under some fscking martian’s death ray.
The alt-right feels violated as if someone came and grabbed them right in the white house without consent. Some black man, that is. Apparently when the same is done by an orange man there’s no problem.
Re: Re: Re: That ship sailed, burned down, and sank years back
"First, we will defund the police."
Yes? A government unit which fails to do its job and creates collateral civilian damage worse than the military in many war zones has no business receiving salary by the taxpayer.
"And THEN, Intel, Pepsi, Nike and other like minded revolutionaries will fund BLM (already happening)."
Points to these otherwise rather ethically challenged companies doing something good.
"And THEN BLM will come to your neighborhood and ask for Support for their anti-White-Supremacy movement."
If anyone actually has to ASK you to oppose white supremacy movements that’s already a fail on behalf of the community. No sane person likes a nazi.
"…to support BLM, simply have them pick up your garbage…We don’t want to HAVE to BEAT you to SUBMISSION, we don’t want to BURN YOUR RESIDENCE, so just contribute generously, please."
….aaand there we have the implication that black people being activists for equality == The Mafia. You know, Baghdad Bob, you might as well have signed in as "KKK" given the story you are trying to sell here.
All you’re missing so far in the racist boilerplate is "They’re coming for our women!!". I assume you’ll fit that into a followup post?
Now, since you’re being more than a bit slow, as racists do tend to be, with the proportion of police killings in general, the proportion of black people killed by police being twice that of white people being killed, evidence of systemic prejudice surfacing every damn year, in every US state, calling for that shit to stop isn’t grounds for a rant about how The Black Man Is Taking Over White America.
I realize that the black man usurping power and oppressing the white man is a core narrative you sad, deluded losers in the Stormfront echo chambers are building your lives around. Feel free to go right back to Stormfront and Breitbart for a receptive audience.
But kindly stop coming around to places where sane people gather and try to peddle fairy tales concocted by the grinch on a bad trip.
Oh, wait. No. Please DO come back and tell us all about it. One reason we’re at this point, after all, is that we all forgot you asshats existed. Every time you pour that bile out in some thread, more people wake up and realize that you guys are out there.
Re: Re: Re:2 That ship sailed, burned down, and sank years back
This is a deathly culture. It beats its children and discards its old
people, imprisons its rebels and drinks itself to death. It breeds and educates
us to be socially irresponsible, arrogant, ignorant and anti-political. We are
the most tec hnologie ally advanced people in the world and the most
politically and socially backward.
Burn it all down!
Re: Re: Re:
I understand that right-wingers/conservatives don’t have genuinely popular movements and need to have everything astroturfed for them, which is why you spout conspiracy theories about corporations and George Soros and [conservative boogeyman #35] funding left-wing/liberal movements. But consider this: The powerful hop on the side of the genuinely popular movements because they see opportunity in acting like they were on that side all along. Nike will make far more money by being on the side of people asking for racial justice than it ever could by being on the side of people who defend Confederate monuments.
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Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Nike will make far more money in China by being on the side of …. the Chinese, as they join forces with leftist radical to destroy America.
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
"…as they join forces with leftist radical to destroy America."
Oh, hey, the communist scare again? Bit late to the party ain’t ya? Took the liberty of fixing your statement – you left a word out.
Honestly, China has no need to lift a finger to destroy the US. Very Fine People such as yourself are already seeing to that. But it’s telling that you people truly appear to believe that racial equality equals the destruction of the US.
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
Where do you get this claptrap?
Re: Re: Re:4 Re:
"Where do you get this claptrap?"
Where else? A group of people in stormfront echo chambers toss conspiracy theories back and forth at each other to come up with the arguments which might support their chosen conclusion that equal rights must be a bad thing.
What comes out of that is a steaming heap of bullshit but at least they are agreed that everyone of them needs to go to forums outside of their own echo chamber, drop their pants, and squat at once so the rest of us all get to see and smell the arguments they’ve worked so very hard to ferment.
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Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
On May 4, 1886, in Chicago, a workers’ rally was called to protest
the murder of striking McCormick Harvester employees a few days before.
As it ended, a bomb was tossed killing one policeman. Seven labor and
anarchist leaders were framed and convicted and four were executed for the
act. From this struggle, people all around the world commemorate May Day.
The city of Chicago erected a monument to police power —the statue of a
policeman which, until recently, stood in Haymarket Square.
We are being Framed and Convicted and Executed and IT ALL HAS TO STOP. Yes, it happened a LONG TIME AGO, but THAT DOESN’T MATTER! YOU HAVE TO PAY!
Defund the Police! Ban all law except BLM law! BLM – here to service your garbage, as friendly and helpful as ever. Please be generous with your next required donation.
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
Is this a mental breakdown, or is that their normal state?
Re: Re: Re:4 Re:
Not sure whether he’s being sarcastic, thinks he’s making a point…or whether he’s actually trying to sound like what he expects a "Black Lives Matters" activist to sound like.
White supremacists have always been morons but this one is rather persistent in trying to win the lowest IQ of the year award no matter HOW we interpret his deranged rants.
Re: Re: Re:5 Re:
Was anyone ever able to inform them (or people in general) that there is no actual award, medal, etc for that?
Re: Re: Re:6
We tried. They were too busy ranting about the Black guy who was president after 200-plus years of White guys holding that office. We thought it best to leave them to their rants so they wouldn’t start getting violent.
Re: Re: Re:6 Re:
They’re still hoping enough dedication to the cause will have Der Führer pinning an iron cross to their chest or general Lee decorating them in the field. White supremacists tend not to stay up to recent events.
Some have been informed Hitler was actually the bad guy in world war 2 but I think those are still in therapy.
However, I have yet to read a single comment by Hamilton/Baghdad Bob which suggests he’s aware that Obama is, in fact, no longer the president.
Most effective action to take for lasting change: vote. vote in every election, even if you have no preference (flip a coin, something). start by making the voting process itself convenient for everyone.
Re: Re:
No, don’t do that. If you can’t find enough information to make an informed decision on who to vote for for city constable or whatever, then it’s okay to leave that section blank. Don’t vote based on the output of an RNG. Please.
Do vote in every election and take the time to educate yourself not just on president, senator, and representative but on the down-ballot offices. The more local the office, the more your vote matters; it may not be easy to get information on the candidates running for city council or water conservation district or whatever, but take the time to do your best.
It looks (to me) like the city is saying the right words. Would be nice to see the right actions though (I won’t hold my breath).
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Re: Re:
The Right Words? Are you INSANE? Consider:
—Close to half the US population has one or more chronic
conditions —diabetes, asthma, arthritis, heart diseases, high blood pressure.
Medical care is inadequate and inaccessible to most people, Since 1960,
medical costs have been rising twice as fast as the skyrocketing cost of living,
and hospital costs five times. One night in a hospital costs a week’s pay for a
worker. Health insurance companies arc getting rich from the people’s pain.
The horror intensifies for poor people: malnutrition is the great hidden cause
of disease in the US. With humane priorities, the violence of socially
unnecessary pain would be eradicated , women’s health would be a priority,
people would not die from hunger or poverty-related illness.
DEFUND THE GOVERNMENT! BLM! OBAMA! YAY!
Pay for your refuse removal, or YOU WILL BE the refuse! Don’t refuse! It’s better for you that way.
This message approved by BLM and all the FTP niggers with tattoos about it.
Gasoline is cheap. Think about that, whitey.
Re: Re: Re:
Would have been nice if there was a coherent thought here that actually applied to the comment in the context of this article.
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Poo-flinging idiots don’t have coherent thoughts, their sole purpose is to soil their bed and fling the excess around.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Would have been nice if there was a coherent thought here that actually applied to the comment in the context of this article."
He did manage to get his "But Obama!" into this one. See? Makes perfect sense, in his world.
It’s almost an act of magic. Read out aloud from a history book, movie script, harry potter and the golden goblet…then chant the words "But Obama!" at the end and it all transforms into a steaming heap of racist bullshit.
Re: Re: Re:2
I wonder if that would work for The Eye of Argon… ????
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
By Grabthars Hammer, there’s an idea! ????
This is a small, but important, step in the right direction. like government in general, the more things police are involved in / responsible for (schools, traffic, parking, stray dogs, mental crisis, etc) the more power they have. The more they can be made to stay in their lane, the better off we will all be.
"…..contract with the Minneapolis police department to use officers to provide school security…."
That right there was where it all went wrong.
When you contract for a hammer, why are you surprised when everything is treated like a nail?
How many times even deployed and of those, how many times explosives found?
Magic Lottery Spell With The Help Of Dr,Lordshakikispell@yah
Wow – ordinary spam. Kind of refreshing, in a weird sort of way.
I want all the police to just QUIT there. Clearly they are not wanted. If I was one of them, I’d be looking for another job out of the state and putting my house on the market If I had one. If I was renting, that would be even easier. FLEE while the going is good.
Stupid meta comment: Please don’t use "first responder" incorrectly as is so much the fashion these days. First responders aren’t a class of people or group of professions. It literally is a designation for the person(s) first arriving at the scene of something. This is the last place i expected to see this phase abused.
cf epicenter, point blank, ground zero. none of these things mean what people use them for. And no, that isn’t "language evolving".
But, you know, well written article, as always.
Re: Re:
I once tried to get a dose of naloxone (Narcan) for my vehicle first aid kit. I was told that only "first responders" ie cops, EMTs, and fire department personnel were allowed to have it. Unfortunately, my argument that those people are almost never the first people to respond to an overdose (since they are almost always called by someone else) didn’t fly. You provided some good examples of language degenerating to (almost) everyone’s detriment.
Fired.
Oooh how quickly we forget. Do we not remember before the police officers were requested. Do you really think that law enforcement wants to hang out with your spoiled, gifted and honored child and listen to them whine about how the seats are too hard? Law enforcement was brought into the school system because the fledgling drive-by shooters were, well shooting up the schools. Big ole boys and girls ( children are bigger today than in years past) fighting and uncontrollable so who’s going to jump in and stop it now? A social worker. Paramedics? You folks have NOT thought this through. You’ll wish you never came up with that hair brained idea. You’ve completely missed the point of the officers presence in the hallways and cafeteria. Without them there these knuckleheads will do what they want and I can not wait to see the outcome. Holy hell,!this is worth televising and I’d pay for it. A shoot out and a fist fight going on at the same time and Maranda and and Wanda are trying to break it up but aren’t having any success so Brian the Math teacher who was hired for his ability to add and subtract is getting the living shat stomped out of him and someone picks up the phone and calls the police just like old times. It’ll be awesome.