Dec. 3, 2020
Mostly clear skies with lows from 19 to 27. Friday will be sunny with highs near 30 in the northeast to upper 30s to mid 40s in the southwest. Find more at the Updraft weather blog.
A handful of Minneapolis businesses established a fund they hope would help avoid cuts to the city’s police department. The group has put together $5 million to help fund what they call holistic community safety innovations. The city council is currently looking at cutting about $8 million from the police budget and using those funds to fund innovations like mental health crisis teams and other alternative responses to calls usually handled by police. Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo says the fund can help the city begin innovations without slashing the budget. "We can do both. We can still maintain public safety and still deal with the effects of what transformational change looks like and holding folks accountable that do not live up to that," Arradondo said. "But we can’t sacrifice the lives of our residents by listening to one core constituency." On Wednesday night, Minneapolis residents weighed in on the mayor's proposed budget during a public hearing lasting several hours. More than 400 people had signed up to speak. And for many people, public safety and the police budget were their biggest concerns.
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg called in to say police do not prevent crime. "My people's history and my lived experience have taught me that police are inherently violent," Rosenberg said. "Police come after harm has happened, and do nothing to change the conditions which lead to harm and violence." The council members who crafted the proposal say the money will go to non law enforcement based public safety initiatives and free up police officers to handle more serious crime. In the latest COVID-19 news, 92 more people died according to the latest Minnesota Department of Health report. The high number of deaths today pushes Minnesota’s 7-day average of lives lost to 58 per day.
You can get more of the latest news, in just a few minutes, via the Minnesota Today podcast. — Hannah Yang | MPR News | 
