The Mayor of Minneapolis is at odds with the city council pushing to abolish the police force over Floyd's death and Ben Carson calls for dialogue on insults

The Mayor of Minneapolis is at odds with the city council pushing to abolish the police force over Floyd's death and Ben Carson calls for dialogue on insults

Shame! Shame! Mayor Jacob Frye

The Minneapolis protesters removed Mayor Jacob Frye from the rally on Saturday, chanting "Shame! Shame!"  After he rejected calls to defend the police.

It was an amazing moment that demonstrated how much the national conversation has changed in nearly two weeks of protests over the death of George Floyd, who was killed on May 25 by a Minneapolis officer who knelt on his neck. What was once a specialized radical argument - the police freeze - has become a massive call for demonstrators who want radical changes that would dismantle a system they deemed racist and ineffective.

While most Americans do not support lowering police budgets (according to the Yahoo / YouGov poll conducted during the early days of the protests), officials are now forced to confront these arguments at least. This includes Fry, who campaigned on the police reform platform before his election in 2017. He faced the question during a rally he visited on Saturday: When a woman on stage gave him a microphone to answer whether "D: He has been running the Minneapolis Police Department," he replied: "I do not support the complete abolition of the police."

Later, in an interview with The New York Times, Fry said he still supports "a deep structural reform of a racist system" such as preventing the police union from collective bargaining. It is a step that, according to one study, can reduce violent police misconduct, but it is far from what activists are seeking.

Some of the activists ’demands have been met: after Floyd’s death, the University of Minnesota, the Minneapolis Public Schools, the Minneapolis Park and the Recreation Council ended their relationship with the police department. For Minneapolis activists who support abolishing the police, this is not enough.

Go home, Jacob, go home!" And "Shame! Shame!"

After his response, the protesters booed the mayor and chanted, "Go home, Jacob, go home!" And "Shame! Shame!"

Minneapolis mayor refuses to push the city council to dismantle the police, despite the veto majority Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye reiterated on Sunday that he does not support the abolition of the city police force, hours after a majority of Minneapolis City Council members vetoed that they wanted to take this drastic step in the wake of George Floyd's arrest.

"I will work tirelessly with the president Chief [Medaria] Arradondoand alongside society for deep structural reform and addressing systemic racism in the police culture," Fry said in a statement to CARE. "We are ready to search for and implement more community-led public safety strategies on behalf of our city. But I do not support the abolition of the Minneapolis Police Department."

  

Ben Carson "engage in a dialogue"

On Sunday morning, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson urged Americans to "engage in a dialogue" about racism, instead of hurting insults and tarnishing each other's image.

"What will help the national recovery is if we engage in dialogue together," Carson said in "State of the Union" on CNN. "Let's not make the solution democratic or republican. Let us make it an American solution and recognize that our country is exceptional."

Carson added that while other countries such as China and Russia cannot bring down America, "We can destroy ourselves internally" and it is important for the American people to realize that they are "not each other's enemies."

Jake Tapper of CNN noticed Carson's calls for healing and understanding, but he questioned whether his boss might be part of the problem. Tapper cited the retirement of President Donald Trump for a position attacking the character of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck less than two weeks ago.

Carson replied: "I think you will hear from the President this week on this subject in some detail, and I would like to ask you to judge even after that time." Carson, who was a Republican presidential candidate in 2016, noted that he "grew up at a time when there was real systematic racism", reflecting his own experiences as a black high school student in Detroit.

"This kind of thing was not uncommon when I was young. This kind of thing is not common now," he said. "Are there still racists around them? Certainly. It was there yesterday, today, and it will be tomorrow. But that does not mean that it should not be fought, and this is the right time now. People are focusing on this. We cannot let this moment slip through."

"We need to deal with some cases in police stations, but this is an easy time to do that," Carson added. "We have rogue policemen. The vast majority of policemen are great, but you have some rogue and can move from one jurisdiction to another, and nobody does anything about it."

Likewise, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - who served as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State under President George W. Bush - urged Trump to change his tone when discussing these issues and rely more on sympathy for continued dialogue.

"I will ask the president to speak first and foremost in the language of unity, the language of sympathy," Rice said in an interview with CBS host Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation". President, with this president, but you have to talk to every American, not just with those who might agree with you. "

"I would not advise the president, but if I were, I would say let's put a tweet aside for a while and talk to us and have a conversation with us," Rice added. "I think we need that, and I think he can do it."