The Minneapolis City Council on Friday passed a resolution asking state and local leaders to stop using tear gas, rubber bullets and other “less lethal” weapons to disperse crowds in the city.
The request comes three days before closing arguments in the trial of former officer Derek Chauvin. Many of the council members who spoke Friday said they were troubled by the tactics police used to disperse crowds in Brooklyn Center following Daunte Wright’s death this weekend and want to see a less violent response in Minneapolis.
The final decisions, though, will continue to rest with the people who lead the coalition of law enforcements agencies coordinating security plans surrounding Chauvin’s trial.
“This is not expected to direct the actions of our police department,” Council President Lisa Bender said of the resolution they passed overwhelmingly Friday. “But it’s intended to inform the mayor and the chief, who are the command authority over use of force in our city.”
State and local law enforcement agencies formed Operation Safety Net, a coalition of at least nine agencies, to coordinate plans surrounding Chauvin’s trial. They relied on some members of that group earlier this week to respond to protests in Brooklyn Center following the killing of Wright.
Each agency in the coalition has its own policies regarding use of force. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo has said he will make decisions on when city police can use such tactics and will attempt to distinguish people peacefully protesting and those committing crimes.
All of the council members who spoke Friday said they were troubled by the way less-lethal weapons have been used over the past year and by the injuries they have caused, including fracturing skulls and blinding people.
“We know that they’ve been consistently misused,” said Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, who added that he had never seen those tactics accomplish the goal of dispersing a crowd.
“They’ve always sort of bubbled into more chaotic situations and they’ve always created the atmosphere for folks to be … enraged,” Ellison said.
The lone vote against the resolution was Council Member Linea Palmisano, who said she too had deep concerns about the way such tactics were used in Brooklyn Center but didn’t want to discourage their use in situations where they were “absolutely lifesaving.”
She cited as examples two incidents from last year: one where officers used chemical agents to stop a group from throwing someone off a bridge, and another where officers used chemicals and a flash-bang grenade to rescue two people, including a stabbing victim, while a store was being looted.
In Minneapolis, the city’s charter gives the mayor “complete power” over the department’s operations. City Council members asked the city attorney’s office to provide an opinion by May 14 as to whether they have the authority to ban city police from using “less lethal” weapons.
Bender asked what it would take to change a city ordinance that allows the mayor to unilaterally declare an emergency — a prerequisite for a curfew — for 72 hours before requiring council approval.
The clerk’s office told her it would require a change to local codes.
Liz Navratil
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Go back to the Water cannons. It dispersers riots and puts out the fires that the rioters started.
I agree, they should switch to live ammo. That would fix a lot of the problems we seem to have in this country, criminal thugs running wild.
I’m for going back to live rounds at this point.,….
“The Minneapolis City Council on Friday passed a resolution asking state and local leaders to stop using tear gas, rubber bullets and other “less lethal” weapons to disperse crowds in the city.”
So they must prefer “live” ammo.
How about the City Council pass a law forbidding the use of bricks, rocks, frozen water bottles and frozen soda cans, fireworks, laser pointers.
, Molotov cocktails, etc. by the rioters ( oh , sorry “peaceful protesters”). What, those are already laws? How can that be , no one gets arrested for that ****.
HOWS about every security force, CEASE PROVIDING any guard duties to everyone of these city council hacks… THEN LET THEM SEE how ‘using non-lethal force’ does, when the rioters COME FOR THEM!
put the beloved city council out on the front lines and see how fast non lethal orders are revoked!
My thoughts exactly, he who makes the rules should live by the rules–on the front line
The people of the stone age cities got exactly what they voted into office….they are now living in a leftist re-education camp run by their own drug junkies
AND do so, after removing every security guard they all have…. NOT JUST from their own details, but from those doing the ARMED GUARDS at their gated communities.
Every person connected in any way with law enforcement in Minneapolis needs to leave the city for 96 hours. When they come back, have each of them ask the first (breathing) person they see “did you miss me?”
why just 96 hrs.. GO FOR A FULL ON WEEK, or better yet a month!
AND NOT just LE. BUT all those in emergency services.. Last i checked every time fire respond to a call, A COP IS along. Every time EMT goes out, a COP comes along.
NO COPS then by logical extension, NEITHER SHOULD any other service, respond…
I think the whole police force should call in and say they have covid so they can get two weeks off paid. I heard there are actually police going up there from Ohio, where I am. I don’t understand what is going thru these cops heads. Why would you go to these riots just to take abuse and to just have to stand there and watch? What is the point? The worst part of all of this is that these ppl are going after their fellow citizens instead of going after the real problem… the politicians. I guess that’s what happens when you completely dumb down a whole generation.
Maybe they were ORDERED to go??
In 96 hours, there would be no city to which return. What was a city would be a heap of rubble and ashes.
AND when that happens, LEAVE IT AS IS.. Do not pay one bloody dime, to rebuild a damn thing! AND Wall the entire city off, so those inside, HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE DESTRUCTION, for the rest of their lives.
The clueless fools running the city care more about criminals and thugs than the lives off innocent law-abiding citizens and the police. These people will be the one’s with blood on their hands should anyone die from the actions of these domestic terrorists.
It’s dangerous to think they do not know exactly what thy are doing.
Perhaps they DO, and this sort of utter anarchy is EXACTLY what they are wanting to happen.
The only think Minneapolis does not oppose is riots.
The police should all resign and leave the mayor and council content with the situation they themselves have exacerbated from the very beginning. Thay are sending a David like force armed with a slingshot, not against a lone giant, but an organized mob equiped with the latest technology procured for deeply subversive purposes.
Yep, no law and order and what happens in the inner cities? The destruction of society. Why would anyone want to be a police officer, when their hands are tied behind their backs, while they are being physically attacked?
I know a lot already resigned, but imo NOT ENOUGH did.
Perhaps the common liberal methods of population control of abortion and AIDS should be used instead?
The insane progression of mass suicide is thus:
Drink alcohol to great excess leading to traffic deaths plus domestic violence.
Smoke cigarettes to darken your teeth, putrefy your breath, and lead to death.
Take whatever pills (illegal drugs) you are offered until you eventually overdose.
Add e-cigs to your routine to hasten more illnesses and shorten or end your life.
Play dangerous “games” that will inevitably end in injury or death.
Eat huge amounts of junk food and avoid exercise in order to become morbidly obese.
Assure high blood pressure by developing a deep hatred for anyone different than you are.
Avoid any relationship with the Creator of the Universe &/or any of “those stupid Christians.”
When you are obviously near death, double down on your rebellious lifestyle to the very end.
what total genius -we haven’t demonized our police enough with the threat of every action they take being second -third and fourth guessed –
LET’S TAKE AWAY THEIR BEST DETERENTS THAT DON’T KILL PEOPLE AND FORCE THEM TO BE BEATEN OR BURNED OR ACTUALLY HAVE TO
DRAW THEIR LETHAL WEAPON TO SAVE THEIR LIFE-
Did the City Council say anything about the “peaceful” demonstrators’ less-lethal frozen bottles, concrete blocks, industrial lasers, etc?
It is my opinion that the police should use the same weapons.
No, cause they probably help PAY FOR those items.
It would be a very brave and humanitarian gesture for the the MPLS City Council to deputize themselves and personally take over all riot and crime control in the city. But obviously they would never dream of doing that.
I’ve tried very hard to understand the reasoning of the “city fathers”, now and for the past thirty but I don’t find any logic involved. But the buck actually stops with the voters who keep electing these officials.
You get what you vote for. Plain and simple. In this case a crumbling city, riots, thefts, murders and terror in a city that not long ago was a prize place to live in the United States. Second place credits for the tragedy is the Twin Cities Legacy Press.
With a Democrat Socialist government in your state/city you probably do not get what you pay for, but you do get what you ordered.
We The People have not gotten what we paid for since Eisenhower was in office.
WITH the amount of voter fraud going on, you assume the voters ACTUALLY elected these fools…
When your only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail.
When your only tool is lethal force, every confrontation is lethal.
If only the police should have guns, and the police should only have guns, and the police can’t be trusted, then only criminals should have guns. TIFIFY!!
So what are the police supposed to do? — stand in front of the rioters and say, “Shame shame everyone knows your name”? Yes, that should work. /s
IMO they want the cops either to have to FLEE, or to just stand there and get injured…
If police does not respond to any calls for 24/48 hours, let the council members respond first with open arms and no weapons of any kind. Let’s see what they have to say after that.
“The Minneapolis City Council on Friday passed a resolution asking state and local leaders to stop using tear gas, rubber bullets and other “less lethal” weapons to disperse crowds in the city.” There, enough said. I agree with this message, 100% at that point. The instant these mad dogs step over the line from peaceful demonstration, to riot mode, cut them down with blasts of 00 Buck. The best way is to fire from the hip, aiming about 2/3 the distance between you and their front line. That turns the circular spread into a flat fan and hits about knee high. The writhing and screaming front the front line of rioters, usually will turn the mob. That is part of what I was taught for mob control. You also break them up at intersections and send some down side streets. Soon they are below critical mass and no longer a mob. It absolutely would stop any looting and destruction. It has been tried and it does work every time.
How to “clean the streets” of protestors / rioters:
Mount a water cannon on a large police vehicle (like a SWAT team transport).
Have a large tanker truck filled with water accompany the water cannon vehicle while attached with a fire hose.
Sweep the streets with the water cannon, removing rioters and other trash from the streets.
Have large paddy wagons available to lock up any remaining trash you missed.
High fines &/or long jail times enforced to assure fewer repeat offenses.
THIS is a non-violent solution to the problem…but only if acted upon.
SEnd in the borg, to assimilate them all and make them drones…