Nearly a year after protests following the slaying of George Floyd, there is scant evidence that Minneapolis has changed how its police officers use less-lethal weapons or strengthened its oversight. Instead, the city may be a study in stymied reform, unenforced policies and a lack of transparency.
A year after Floyd's death, seeking a new direction for policing startribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from startribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Determined to change policing in Texas’ capital city, the Austin City Council last August voted to cut one-third of its police budget to fund mental health programs, a hotel for homeless people and other alternative public safety measures.
Only a year earlier, the council had resoundingly rejected a proposal to divert a tiny fraction of that spending.
Then came the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which radically expanded the ideas Americans are willing to contemplate to transform policing.
“It’s clear that millions of people marching in unison and calling for change really pushed elected officials to make more transformative change,” said Greg Casar, the Austin City Council member who proposed the cuts. “My office alone received about 20,000 calls and e-mails from Austinites in the week where protests and marches were most heightened in Austin asking for change to the budget.”
Photo by Drew Angerer, Getty
The killing of George Floyd inspired a reckoning in major cities across the nation. But in a moment of intense political division, the future is far from clear. May 21, 2021 9:26am
Determined to change policing in Texas capital city, the Austin City Council last August voted to cut one-third of its police budget to fund mental health programs, a hotel for homeless people and other alternative public safety measures.
Only a year earlier, the council had resoundingly rejected a proposal to divert a tiny fraction of that spending.
Then came the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which radically expanded the ideas Americans are willing to contemplate to transform policing.
National links: Baltimore's "highway to nowhere" may be dismantled – Greater Greater Washington ggwash.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ggwash.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.