As Allahpundit discussed yesterday, the Mayor of Minneapolis wasn’t willing to discuss defunding the police. He wound up slinking away from a crowd of protesters after he was booed off the stage. But as it turns out, defunding wasn’t enough for the City Council so they’re just ignoring him anyway. They’re moving to eliminate the police department entirely. Remember when #AbolishICE was all the rage on the left? Well, now we’ve moved from defunding to #AbolishThePolice. And yes, that’s drawing a lot of traffic on Twitter. (NBC News)

A majority of the Minneapolis City Council agreed Sunday to dismantle the city’s police department after the in-custody killing of George Floyd, a council member said.

In an interview with NBC News, Councilman Jeremiah Ellison said the council would work to disband the department in its “current iteration.”

“The plan has to start somewhere,” he said. “We are not going to hit the eject button without a plan, so today was the announcement of the formulation of that plan.”

Speaking earlier during a community meeting, council President Lisa Bender called the city’s relationship with the department “toxic” and vowed to “re-create systems of public safety that actually keep us safe.”

Take a close look at that final statement from the President of the City Council. Calling the police department “toxic” is obviously just some red meat for the protesters. But she’s apparently speaking seriously of abolishing the police department as it now exists and “recreating systems of public safety.” This would imply that they want to create something new that replaces the need for a police department. Does anyone have a guess as to what that would look like? If you don’t have anyone arresting criminals perhaps you’ll establish a squad of “Karens” to publicly scold people who are seen committing crimes. In lieu of jail time, offenders could receive a series of strongly worded letters.

When Bender was talking to CNN she said, “the idea of having no police department is certainly not in the short term.” Okay… but that clearly implies that the idea is on the table in the long term. And the idea was pitched before the Council has held a single meeting to discuss what might replace the cops in the long term.

Can any of you think of a single thing that Democrats around the country could do to more effectively get Donald Trump elected to a second term? For those of you who may have missed it over the weekend, let’s take another look at that YouGov poll that AP referenced.

It’s obvious that the recent protests have resonated to a certain degree with a broad spectrum of Americans, at least in terms of police accountability. Additional training for the cops was a no-brainer. Body cameras? I’ve supported those myself for a long time. In the majority of cases, they will actually help the good cops by disproving claims made against them by suspects. Banning the use of neck restraints is a bit dodgier, particularly in cases where the police may be coming down to no other choices besides lethal force. A significant number of people are willing to vote for it, however.

But the idea of abolishing or even significantly defunding the police has no measurable support outside of a very small fringe element. Everyone knows this is insane. As I suggested yesterday on Twitter, if Joe Biden can be goaded into saying the words “defund the police” on camera just one time, the Trump campaign will have the only advertisement it needs between now and November. There’s a surge of gun sales going on at the moment, primarily driven by people who are unsure if the entire social fabric is going to hold together. Even the suggestion of anything that vaguely resembles weakening police protection will send them scurrying for the doors.

The Democrats are playing with dynamite here. And while it’s probably an uncomfortable analogy to choose during a time of unrest, the fuse is lit.