Minneapolis officials appear to backpedal from abolishing police

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Some Minneapolis black leaders speak out against moves to defund the police

The panel on 'Fox and Friends' weigh-in.

Members of the Minneapolis City Council supported the idea of abolishing their city's police department after George Floyd's death in police custody, but a recent vote indicates that the city may not be in any rush to follow through with the plan.

The Minneapolis Charter Commission voted earlier this week to keep a police reform proposal off of November's ballot, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported. The measure would have scrapped a city requirement to maintain a police force of a size based on the city's population.

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This was the first of two proposals going before the Charter Commission, with a more sweeping reform proposal up for a vote next week. That measure, if added to the ballot and then passed, would remove from the city's charter the requirement to have a police force. Instead, a community safety department that may not have any officers could take its place.

A number of commissioners believe both proposals would be bad ideas.

"I believe that if one of these measures were to pass the voters of Minneapolis, the result would be a giant self-inflicted wound,” Commissioner Dan Cohen said, according to the Star-Tribune. Cohen said that if either proposal were approved, "crime would soar, property values on our homes would fall,” and people “would flee the city."

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Other commissioners argued that more research and public discussion needs to be done before either proposal goes to a vote.

Meanwhile, in Seattle, hundreds of residents pushed back against the notion of defunding the police, making their voices heard at a city council budget meeting on Wednesday, according to local reports.

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“Defunding the police is a radical experiment that will hurt the vulnerable,” one member of the public, calling in to the phone-in meeting, told the council, according to Q13 FOX.

The council is considering a plan that could slash the budget of the city’s police department by 50 percent – resulting in layoffs for hundreds of officers – all as Seattle deals with the coronavirus outbreak and frequent riots and unrest since Floyd's death.

Fox News' Dom Calicchio contributed to this report.