A white policeman had kneeled on the neck of the late George Floyd for almost nine minutes - the authorities now want to take a drastic step.
- George Floyd was killed in a brutal arrest in Minneapolis .
- The local police are now to be replaced by a new organization.
- The US Democrats are also in favor of greater control over the police authorities .
Minneapolis - In the US city of Minneapolis , African-American George Floyd * was killed in a police operation * - and the local community is now taking consequences: the police are to be reorganized completely. The city council decided on Sunday to completely dissolve the local police department and to create a new structure. Alondra Cano tweeted that the body had agreed that the police agency was “not reformable”.
A veto-proof majority of the MPLS City Council just publicly agreed that the Minneapolis Police Department is not reformable and that we're going to end the current policing system.
- Council Member Alondra Cano, City of Minneapolis (@ MplsWard9) June 7, 2020Protests in the USA: Police department in Minneapolis is dissolved
City council chairwoman Lisa Bender said on the CNN news channel that a "new model of public security" should be created in Minneapolis "that will actually keep our community safe". The city council will still discuss how the previous police authority should be replaced. The handling of the police department is likely to be a "long and complicated struggle," wrote the local newspaper Star Tribune .
In the city in the state of Minnesota, Floyd was killed in a brutal police operation almost two weeks ago. A white policeman * had kneeled on the unarmed man's neck for almost nine minutes, although Floyd repeatedly complained that he could not breathe.
After George Floyd's death: protests against racism and police violence increase
The incident triggered nationwide protests in the United States and numerous demonstrations in other countries * against police violence and racism . The protests in the US continued on Sunday. They took place in New York and Washington, among others. In the US protests, the focus has recently been increasingly on the demand for far-reaching reforms in the police and judicial system.
#GeorgeFloyd Minneapolis council vows police dismantling as protests continue https://t.co/hPT9Xy6aX9
@keremyucel #AFP pic.twitter.com/uzvWmUaIjf
In New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced reforms to the police. The head of the city should reduce the budget of the police authority and instead put some of the money into youth and social work. He did not specify how much the police budget should be cut.
US protests: brutal police operations should be punished more easily
In Washington, African-American parliamentarians from opposition Democrats said they wanted to bring a bill to the House of Representatives on Monday to tighten police control.
Among other things, it provides for civil servants to be more easily prosecuted for brutal operations with fatal consequences . Restraint techniques such as those that led to Floyd's death should also be prohibited. According to the legislative initiative, a database on police misconduct is also to be set up.
AFP / dpa / frs
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Rubric list image: © AFP / MARK FELIX