A judge on Thursday ordered Minneapolis to hire more police officers after ruling in favor of a group that had sued the city council over a rise in crime in the city.
"Minneapolis is in a crisis," the eight plaintiffs connected to the conservative Upper Midwest Law Center wrote in their complaint, citing the rise in shootings and homicides and the violent George Floyd protests, FOX 9 in Minneapolis reported.
While the city is expected to have about 669 officers by next June, Hennepin County District Judge Jamie L. Anderson said the city needs to have at least 730 by June 30, 2022, or .2% of the population after the 2020 Census is published, the station reported.
The decision is a landmark victory for the Petitioners, eight black and white residents of Minneapolis’ Jordan and Hawthorne neighborhoods on its embattled North Side, against the City Council’s illegal attempts to “Defund the Police.” The Petitioners—Cathy Spann, Sondra Samuels, Don Samuels, Audua Pugh, Jonathan Lundberg, Aimee Lundberg, Georgianna Yantos, and Juliee Oden—are represented in the lawsuit by the Upper Midwest Law Center, American Experiment reports.
Officers in Minneapolis have been retiring and resigning in significant numbers as the city council defunded the police department and anti-police sentiment reached a fever point in the Twin Cities.
