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The Daily

The Field: Policing and Power in Minneapolis

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 September 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode contains strong language. In June, weeks after George Floyd was killed by the police, a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council expressed support for dismantling the city’s police department. The councilors’ pledges to “abolish,” “dismantle” and “end policing as we know it” changed the local and national conversation about the police. President Trump has wielded this decision and law-and-order arguments in his campaigning — Midwestern states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota may be decisive in the general election. He has claimed that Joseph R. Biden Jr. wants to defund the police — which he does not — and told voters that they would not be safe in “Biden’s America.” On the ground in Minneapolis, Astead Herndon, a national politics reporter, speaks to activists, residents and local politicians about the complexities of trying to overhaul the city’s police. Guest: Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter for The New York Times, speaks to Black Visions Collective co-director, Miski Noor; Jordan Area Community Council executive director, Cathy Spann; and Minneapolis City Council president, Lisa Bender. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: Across America there have been calls from some activists and elected officials to defund, downsize or abolish police departments. What would efforts to defund or disband the police really mean?In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, some cities asked if the police are being asked to do jobs they were never intended to do. Budgets are being re-evaluated.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Today, we resume our series about the voters and the country in the lead up to the election.

0:31.0

That beat means that instead forgot the keys in the car.

0:37.0

From the New York Times, this is the field.

0:40.0

I'm a Steadhurnden, a Minnesota.

0:46.0

So this is Paltarhorn Park in South Minneapolis.

0:50.0

There's a big lake in the middle with a pathway, the wrapped around it, pretty quiet neighborhood.

0:58.0

So much has happened in the city since the killing of George Floyd.

1:05.0

This is a police station burning out of control overnight.

1:12.0

The National Guard has been deployed to the government.

1:15.0

The former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chavin, is in custody.

1:19.0

And it was here where an event happened that really changed the trajectory of the relationship between Minneapolis and police.

1:37.0

On June 7th, there was an event put on by two social justice organizations in Minneapolis.

1:44.0

Groups called Reclaim the Block and Black Visions Collective.

1:47.0

Black people and queer people and trans people and indigenous people and disabled people and immigrants and poor people.

1:55.0

We have never looked to the police for our safety.

2:00.0

There's a stage, there's littered crowds around.

2:03.0

In front of the stage, letters spell out, defund police.

2:08.0

We're here because now is the time to dismantle MPD.

2:13.0

Then they bring up nine members of the city council.

2:16.0

Yes, they all hear y'all.

2:19.0

This is brave, you know?

2:21.0

The first council member to speak is Lisa Bender.

...

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