Minneapolis Ballot Proposal On Policing - Too Much, Or Too Little?

<p>Tiffany Bui reports: </p><p><br></p><p>The City of Minneapolis must reword a note it plans to include on this fall’s election ballot, after a Hennepin County judge found the language <a href="https://www.startribune.com./judge-minneapolis-must-change-ballot-language-for-policing-proposal/600087780/?refresh=true">“problematic.” </a></p><p><br></p><p>The re-worded explanatory note will accompany a question on the November ballot about the future of the Minneapolis Police Department. </p><p><br></p><p>The proposal, authored by the organization “Yes 4 Minneapolis” would remove the requirement that the city keep a police department. It would replace the police department with a Department of Public Safety. City officials say they added the note to provide more information about the proposal’s impact. But Yes 4 Minneapolis said the note was misleading, and sued the city. </p><p><br></p><p>Supporters of the Yes 4 Minneapolis proposal say<a href="https://racialreckoningmn.org/2021/07/14/minneapolis-voters-will-decide-future-of-citys-public-safety-this-fall/"> it allows Minneapolis to move beyond a “police-only” response to public safety, but police would still be part of the department. </a></p><p><br></p><p>While some say the proposal is too extreme, others say it doesn’t go far enough.</p><p><br></p><p>Adnan Ahmed, an activist living in the Twin Cities, co-authored an article on the website <a href="https://www.leftvoice.org/yes-4-minneapolis-reforming-an-uprising-but-not-the-police/">Left Voice</a> where the authors describe the Yes 4 Minneapolis proposal as a “nonthreatening, palatable option.” </p><p><br></p><p>Ahmed is especially critical of its philanthropic funding - which he sees as an act of the wealthy “co-opting” social movements. Yes 4 Minneapolis has previously reported a $500,000 donation from the Open Society Policy Center.</p><p><br></p><p>“How is money coming from foundations going to abolish or even reform police when capitalism thrives on maintaining a system of economic disparity? So what