Amid a growing chorus of calls for police departments across the country to be either disbanded or defunded, US President Donald Trump said Monday neither will happen.
“OUR POLICE HAVE BEEN LETTING US LIVE IN PEACE”
“There won’t be defunding. There won’t be dismantling of our police,” Trump said at a roundtable discussion with law enforcement officials. “Our police have been letting us live in peace and we want to make sure we don’t have any bad actors in there and sometimes we’ll see some horrible things like we witnessed recently but I say 99.9 – let’s go with 99% of them – great, great people and they’ve done jobs that are record setting,” he added.
The May 25 death of George Floyd has elicited widespread outrage against police brutality and racial injustice that has manifested in continuing nationwide protests that occasionally devolved into violence and looting.
In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the city where Floyd died, a majority of City Council members have said they support disbanding the local police department. Mayor Jacob Frey has voiced opposition to the proposal, however.