By a vote of 57%-44%, Minneapolis voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have abolished the Minneapolis Police Department and replaced it with a "Department of Public Safety." Question 2 would have changed the city charter to remove a requirement that the city have a police department with a minimum number of officers. It called for the creation of that new department to take "a comprehensive public health approach to the delivery of functions" that would be determined by the mayor and city council.
Randy Sutton of The Wounded Blue says because the measure didn't include any details about what the new department would look like – and clearly left it up to the city's leaders – Question 2 went down in flames.
"The people didn't know what [they were] going to get," he summarizes. "And I think that probably hurt them, which I'm very happy for, because they could have put in anything – it literally left everything up to the city council."
He says voters also reacted to an increase in crime, as in every city that has attacked its police force. The murder rate increased almost doubled in 2019 to a record high, and 2021 is on pace to eclipse that. The residents of Minneapolis, says Sutton, have reached their limit on the nonsensical abuses of the "woke" Left.
"I think that what we're seeing is the American public finally saying, You know? This ain't working. We've got to go back to some type of normalcy."
He says it could take the 2022 midterms to say for sure, but Tuesday was a fantastic first step.
"I'm feeling pretty good that maybe normalcy is going to march back in at some time. It may take next year's election to actually show that the American public is really tired of what they have been subjected to. But I think what we've seen here is encouraging."
About those who voted against it
A Minnesota-based ministry leader agrees, saying the residents of Minneapolis clearly came to their senses in rejecting Question 2. Jan Markell is founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries tells AFN that it makes no sense to her that more than 40% of those who voted wanted to implement some kind of social work program.
"Well, if there's violence involved, social workers aren't going to be much good," she states.
But Markell suggests that what's going on in Minneapolis and other cities is a sign of the approach of the End Times.
"The hour is getting later and later and later – and the Lord is going to rapture his Church out of this rather sinful, decrepit, broken planet very, very soon," she shares. "Now in the meantime, could we ever return to more sound government? It would be nice."
Two left-leaning Minnesota Democrats – U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, who represents the Minneapolis area, and state Attorney General Keith Ellison – both supported the anti-policing amendment.
