In the wake of the police-involved killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a nine-member majority of the City Council announced on Sunday their commitment to defund and dismantle the police force, in lieu of more community-led ways to address public safety.

According to CNN, the nine votes already committed to restructuring the way public safety is handled signal a veto-proof majority. The council acknowledges that things just aren’t working the way they currently are.

“We committed to dismantling policing as we know it in the city of Minneapolis and to rebuild with our community a new model of public safety that actually keeps our community safe,” Council President Lisa Bender told CNN.

“[We need] to listen, especially to our black leaders, to our communities of color, for whom policing is not working and to really let the solutions lie in our community,” Bender added.

The city council will discuss what it looks like to replace the police department while reallocating police funding to community-led initiatives, although “the idea of having no police department is certainly not in the short term,” Bender acknowledged.

Yes. We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a >https://t.co/FCfjoPy64k

— Lisa Bender (@lisabendermpls) June 4, 2020

Floyd’s death has lit a new fire in the nation calling out for justice and equality for all Black lives and prompted some newer calls to flat out defund police departments across the nation.

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