Voters in Minneapolis overruled Dem Rep Ilhan Omar and rejected a ballot measure that would have dismantled the police department. The measure asked voters if they favored changing the city’s charter to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety.
Ilhan Omar publicly backed the move. The measure, however, failed 57% to 44%. It needed 51% of voter approval to pass a stunning setback for Omar and the progressive wing of the Dem Party.
“I kind of trembled a little bit in the voting booth today because I live in one of the neighborhoods most impacted by crime and violence and knew the correlation between the lack of policing and good policing,” Sondra Samuels, a Minneapolis resident told Fox News. “We can have reform and we can have enough police to keep our children, our elderly safe. So this was a win tonight.”
But they weren’t just rebuked in Minneapolis. The Dems saw a backlash across the country only their highly paid consultants missed.
The Dem Party got wiped out in Virginia and it wasn’t even close. In New Jersey, a race no one thought would be close, the Dem incumbant is tied with the GOP candidate for governor.
From Fox9:
Minneapolis voters struck down a proposed charter amendment that would have eliminated the city’s police department and replaced it with a public safety agency.
57 percent of voters voted “no” versus 43 percent for “yes” on the ballot question, which asked if the city charter should be amended to remove the Minneapolis Police Department and replace it with a Department of Public Safety. The proposed charter amendment would have eliminated the minimum police staffing requirement as well as the position of police chief.
The charter amendment was drafted in response to calls to defund or dismantle the police department following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. It has received national attention and was fought in the courts. Millions of dollars were raised and spent by both supporters and opponents of the proposed charter amendment leading up to Election Day.
From The Daily Caller:
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar voted Tuesday to abolish the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), she announced on Twitter.
If enacted, City Question 2 would abolish MPD and replace it with a Department of Public Safety. The Department of Public Safety would “employ a comprehensive public health approach to the delivery of [its] functions,” according to the referendum question.
It “could include police officers, but the minimum funding requirement would be eliminated.”
Omar claimed that the amendment “puts control of Minneapolis’ public safety in the hands of residents” and “would not eliminate police.”
Although the amendment does not require the elimination of police, it would allow the city council to do so.
The current Minneapolis City Charter requires 0.0017 police officers per resident. If adopted, Question 2 would eliminate this requirement.
“THIS SHOULD BE A WAKEUP CALL TO POLITICIANS” Minnesota Police & Peace Officers Association, representing 10,000+ law enforcement professionals weigh in on tonight’s results on public safety question #2 in #Mpls. @FOX9 pic.twitter.com/SsvzbdBtsp
— Paul Blume (@PaulBlume_FOX9) November 3, 2021
On the ballot questions I’ll be voting NO on question 1, and YES on questions 2 and 3. pic.twitter.com/9eVpZGKbIo
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) November 2, 2021