Several residents in Minneapolis are suing the city council over a lack of presence from the police while violent crime rates spiked in the city.
Residents are blaming the council’s decision to defund the police after George Floyd’s death in May and argue that the city has not said if there are currently enough officers on the ground to meet the minimum requirements for protecting citizens.
Community activist Cathy Spann said at a press conference, “We are here, together in unison, to say enough is enough. I am here today to say it is about all of us coming together to make a difference to stop the gun violence that is in our city — downtown, south, north. We are stopping it. We are no longer asking for a plan. We are the plan.”
Members of the Minneapolis City Council voted to dismantle the city’s police department and completely replace it with a community safety program.
Since the vote in June, the council has changed its stance due to a surge in violent crimes and carjackings in Minneapolis. Mayor Jacob Frey’s budget plan for the upcoming year includes a $14 million cut to the police department.
“We have made the emotional appeal,” said former City Council member Don Samuels during the press conference. “We have demonstrated the statistical uptick [in violence], and now, this is the legal action we are exercising because it seems as if the City Council cannot hear us and doesn’t feel what we feel.”
It has been reported that the city is meeting federal requirements for the number of sworn officers representing a population and asked that the judge involved in the case have it dismissed.
Representing the plaintiffs is Attorney James Dickey who said, “We simply want to have enough police on the streets to keep Minneapolis safe.”
