Defund The Police Is Over

Along with Critical Race Theory, masking children, and Leftist bullying, one other progressive issue met a resounding defeat Tuesday night: the Defund the Police movement.

The movement was already on the ropes, with cities across the country refunding police departments after cutting funding as the hyped-up movement took hold. Earlier this month, the Alexandria City Council voted to temporarily restore school resource officers after previously voting to reallocate $800,00 that had been dedicated to the program.

On Tuesday night, however, the movement was thoroughly repudiated.

In Minneapolis, voters rejected a ballot measure that would have replaced the police department with a “department of public safety.” The measure lost 56% to 44%.

The Defund the Police movement gained significant momentum in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in 2020. While Democrats later claimed “defund” didn’t really mean “defund,” many cities attempted to do just that.

“The ballot measure in Minneapolis emerged from a pledge by nine city council members in the wake of Mr. Floyd’s murder to begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department. The city has taken some money from the police department as it created an Office of Violence Prevention. Activists say the moves haven’t gone far enough,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “In the 17 months since Mr. Floyd’s death, violent crime has increased and the ranks of the police department have dwindled as officers retired, left or took leave for PTSD and other issues.”

Had voters approved the measure to replace the police department with the department of public safety, oversight of the department would have been shifted to the city council – the same council that tried to defund the police.

Minneapolis wasn’t the only city with ballot measures related to police. The sentiment across the country seemed to be that people didn’t want a reduction of their police force, but also didn’t want an increase presence and preferred reform.

In Austin, Texas, 67% of voters rejected a measure that would have “put forward an additional 40 hours of training per year for officers, extra compensation for officers proficient in a foreign language and demographic representation when hiring, if voters chose to implement the measure,” Forbes reported.

In Cleveland, Ohio, and Albany, New York, voters approved measures related to civilian-led committees to have oversight over police departments. In Cleveland, the commission “would have the final say on police policies and discipline, and would require some of the

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