‘I don’t feel comfortable publicly discussing the death threats against me or the level of security I currently have protecting me from those threats…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) After voting to disband the city’s police department, the Minneapolis City Council, fearing death threats, spent $63,000 of taxpayer dollars to hire a private security detail.
The city council is currently spending $4,500 per day on security for council members Andrea Jenkins, Phillipe Cunningham and Alondra Cano, according to Fox 9.
All three are members of the state’s far-left Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, which nearly dominates local politics. The three members have reportedly faced threats due to their vocal support for defunding and disbanding the Minneapolis Police Department.
When asked why the council had gone to such lengths to hire a private security detail when they could have just asked law enforcement for help, Cunningham said he doesn’t “feel comfortable publicly discussing the death threats against me or the level of security I currently have protecting me from those threats.”
A spokesperson for the police department said police have not received a single report of threats against city council members.
Jenkins blamed the cost, without evidence, on the “large number of white nationalists in our city and other threatening communications I’ve been receiving.”
She claimed she hasn’t reported death threats to the police because she’s been preoccupied with the “global pandemic and global uprising” over the killing of George Floyd.
The council passed a measure earlier this month to defund the police department and replace it with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention, “which will have responsibility for public safety services prioritizing a holistic, public health-oriented approach,” according to a draft of the council’s amendment.
One Minneapolis neighborhood, however, is proof that ridding the city of proactive policing is not a solution at all. Residents in Powderhorn Park vowed to do away with law enforcement earlier this month, and just a few weeks later, the neighborhood was overrun by homelessness, prostitution, and crime. Several residents admitted to the New York Times that they no longer feel safe in their own homes.
“I am afraid,” resident Shari Albers said. “I know my neighbors are around, but I’m not feeling grounded in my city at all. Anything could happen.”