The city council of Minneapolis, Minnesota pledged by a veto-proof majority on Sunday to dissolve the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) as officers deploy teargas and rubber bullets to forcibly remove peaceful protesters from public spaces.
“Decades of police reform efforts have proved that the Minneapolis Police Department cannot be reformed, ad will never be accountable for its action,” the council said in a statement.
The city will “begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department and creating a new transformative model for cultivating safety in our city,” according to the council.
The decision comes as MPD officers use heavy-handed tactics, such as teargas and rubber bullets, to disperse peaceful protests against police brutality that have arisen after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of white officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for almost 10 minutes.
In one viral video, MPD officers are seen walking through a neighborhood and firing paint canisters at residents:
Share widely: National guard and MPD sweeping our residential street. Shooting paint canisters at us on our own front porch. Yelling “light em up” #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #JusticeForGeorge #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/bW48imyt55
— Tanya Kerssen (@tkerssen) May 31, 2020
