by Penka Arsova
LaCorte News
Large cities across the U.S. that promised to nix funding to police departments are revising their earlier decisions because of significant spikes in crime.
The story: Minneapolis, New York City, and Los Angeles are now vowing to give law enforcement more funding in hopes of curbing the rise in crime rates. This comes after leaders in these cities spent almost a year making promises to dismantle police forces and defund them.
In Minneapolis, the violent crime rate has jumped 21% in 2020, according to the Texas Star Tribune, amid the coronavirus pandemic and protests prompted by the death of George Floyd. In December last year, the Minneapolis City Council voted to divert $8 million in police funding to other services, such as violence prevention and mental health crisis response teams, as part of the promise to reform policing.
The city, however, has appeared to change tune since. Earlier this year in February, the council agreed to provide police with $6.4 million so they can hire more officers.