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The US city of Minneapolis plans to dissolve the police agency in the medium term

news-source="reuters">

Washington (Reuters) – After the violent death of African American George Floyd, the US city of Minneapolis plans to abolish the police in their current form.

The city council decided to dissolve the police department and replace it with a new model of public security. The current system will be abandoned after a clear majority decision by the city council, said panel member Alondra Cano, on Twitter. Minneapolis City Council chairwoman Lisa Bender said to CNN, “The idea of ​​not having a police department is certainly not a short-term one.” Several members of the panel emphasized that reforms are a long and complex process. At first, details remained unclear.

The 46-year-old Floyd died on May 25 after one of the policemen pushed the unarmed man to the ground with his knee on his neck for minutes. His death triggered protests against racism and police violence in numerous US cities and in other countries, including Germany. The wave of protests continued on Sunday – largely peacefully. During the marches through US metropolises, the mood of the participants was mostly cheerful and had little in common with the riots full of anger and violence of the past two weeks.

The reason for the change of mood may also have been that protesters’ demands for police reform were heard in Minneapolis and New York, among others. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said a series of reforms are now underway to restore trust between the city’s residents and the police. For this purpose, parts of the police budget are to flow into youth and social services in the future. Even the persecution of illegal street vendors will no longer be in the hands of the police, since the past has often been used to discriminate against minorities, the mayor emphasized.

In New York, at least half a dozen loosely organized groups marched through Manhattan in brilliant sunshine on Sunday afternoon. They had hand-made signs that read “Fund the schools, not the police” (“Defund the Police, Fund Schools”).

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