Minneapolis Inches Closer to Disbanding Its Police Department

It’s no secret that the Minneapolis Police Department—like many other police departments across the country—has disproportionately brutalized Black communities. The nation caught a glimpse of this brutality last year in the widely circulated video clip that showed George Floyd gasping for air under the knee of a uniformed white police officer.

Police use of excessive force against Black Americans, who represent 20 percent of the city’s general population, has remained a common phenomenon for decades. Between 2015 and 2020, as a New York Times analysis concluded, Minneapolis police officers were seven times more likely to use force against Black people than against their white counterparts.