Minneapolis City Council Votes to Spend $6.4 Million to Recruit More Police

Minneapolis is set to spend $6.4 million to hire dozens of police officers as some City Council members and activists work to replace the department.

“The council voted unanimously on Friday to approve the additional funding, which was requested by police. The department says it only has 638 officers available to work, roughly 200 fewer than usual,” the Associated Press (AP) reported.

In December, the city council voted to cut $8 million from the police budget, according to Breitbart News.

“This move came just months after the council pledged to abolish the police department altogether,” the article continued:

According to Breitbart News, on June 12, 2020, the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to abolish its police department. The pledge to abolish came on the heels of a pressure campaign spearheaded by Black Lives Matter activists and far-left Democrats to defund law enforcement in the wake of protests and riots over George Floyd’s May 25, 2020, death.

However, council members later claimed the group never said it would defund the police.

“‘Defund’ is not the framework the council has ever chosen,” Councilman Steve Fletcher stated.

In June, Council President Lisa Bender said it was “clear that we need to make major shifts both in the short term, and that our community is ready to reimagine public safety from the ground up, to think holistically, and to make sure every single member of our community is safe.”

Despite her statements, a Minneapolis hair salon owner whose business was burned to the ground during the riots denounced the police budget cuts.

“That’s terrible. I don’t think they should cut that $8 million from the police department. No. We need the police, we need them,” Flora Westbrooks said in an interview on Fox & Friends in December.

“A lot of my friends I talk to and they’re not feeling safe right now and with this cutting the budget down to $8 million, they’re not with that either. Neither am I because we need protection here. And especially my community, where I live, yes,” she added.

The city reportedly hopes to have 674 police officers by the end of the year, the AP article concluded.