The Field: Policing and Power in Minneapolis

<p><em>This episode contains strong language. </em></p><p>In June, weeks after George Floyd was killed by the police, a veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council expressed support for dismantling the city’s police department.</p><p>The councilors’ pledges to “abolish,” “dismantle” and “end policing as we know it” changed the local and national conversation about the police.</p><p>President Trump has wielded this decision and law-and-order arguments in his campaigning — Midwestern states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota may be decisive in the general election.</p><p>He has claimed that Joseph R. Biden Jr. wants to defund the police — which he does not — and told voters that they would not be safe in “Biden’s America.”</p><p>On the ground in Minneapolis, Astead Herndon, a national politics reporter, speaks to activists, residents and local politicians about the complexities of trying to overhaul the city’s police.</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/astead-w-herndon?smid=pc-thedaily" target="_blank">Astead W. Herndon</a>, a national politics reporter for The New York Times, speaks to Black Visions Collective co-director, Miski Noor; Jordan Area Community Council executive director, Cathy Spann; and Minneapolis City Council president, Lisa Bender. </p><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily" target="_blank">nytimes.com/thedaily </a></p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>Across America there have been calls from some activists and elected officials to defund, downsize or abolish police departments. What would efforts to<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/us/what-does-defund-police-mean.html?searchResultPosition=1" target="_blank"> defund or disband</a> the police really mean?</li><li>In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, some cities asked if the police are being asked to do jobs they were never intended to do. Budgets are<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/us/defund-police-floyd-protests.html?action=click&mod