With the United States confronting a persistent reckoning spurred by George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Seattle’s City Council moved to cut some police funding and reduce the number of officers.

Here are some significant developments:

  • The Seattle City Council voted on a number of proposals to reduce the city’s police force and trim the department budget.
  • A move to disband the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of George Floyd’s killing faced an uncertain future after a commission blocked the City Council from putting a necessary initiative on the November ballot.
August 6, 2020 at 8:49 AM EDT

Federal officers may be leaving Portland, but federal charges will linger for many

PORTLAND, Ore. — More than 70 people have been charged with federal crimes and citations related to the nightly clashes between U.S. agents and Portland protesters, according to the Justice Department.

Among them: two local lawyers, a middle-class mother from the suburbs, teenagers accused of lobbing explosive fireworks, a yoga instructor on a road-trip from Denver and a grocery store worker who allegedly wielded a laser pen as a weapon.

The federal officers who battled for weeks with protesters in downtown Portland — firing tear gas and stun grenades as some protesters targeted them with fireworks and lasers — pulled back last week from guarding the federal courthouse at the center of the conflicts.

Even as the hostilities have calmed and federal agents have withdrawn, the legal repercussions for many protesters have lingered in the form of federal charges, including assaulting a federal officer, arson, damaging federal property and operating a drone in a restricted area.

Among the charges are 24 felonies, 45 misdemeanors and five citations. Federal officials have declined to prosecute at least 23 cases, according to the Justice Department.

By Adam Taylor
August 6, 2020 at 7:51 AM EDT

Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush defeats longtime House incumbent in Missouri primary

Cori Bush, a nurse, pastor and prominent figure in St. Louis’s Black Lives Matter movement, defeated longtime incumbent Rep. William Lacy Clay in a Democratic primary on Tuesday, tallying another victory for the party’s left.

Bush, 44, looked to politics after fighting for racial justice on the front lines of protests in Ferguson following the death of the Black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot by a White police officer in 2014.

Her victory ended a 50-year political dynasty. Clay was elected in 2000, succeeding his father, who had served for 32 years. This was Bush’s second time facing Clay, to whom she lost in 2018.

By Jessica Wolfrom
August 6, 2020 at 7:26 AM EDT

Seattle City Council votes to trim police budget and reduce officer numbers

The Seattle City Council voted on a number of proposals Wednesday to reduce the city’s police force and trim the department budget.

Up to 32 police patrol positions were cut by unanimous vote. The council also removed funds for implicit-bias training, eliminated $800,000 in recruitment and retention money, and cut $50,000 in travel costs. It set a cap on the salaries of high-ranking police officers.

Members of the City Council voted to curb police participation in Seattle’s Navigation Team, a group of outreach workers and officers who aid the city’s homeless. Amendments passed Wednesday cut 14 police officers from the team and redirect $1.4 million in funds from policing to outreach efforts.

Overall, the approved amendments would shrink the department by as many as 100 police.

A proposal to slash the department’s budget by $54 million failed, and council member Teresa Mosqueda said earlier this week that smaller trims would set the stage for deeper cuts next year of more than 40 percent of the budget.

A crowd of protesters gathered Wednesday at the county’s juvenile detention center and planned to march to City Hall in support of the budget cuts, the Seattle Times reported.

Some demonstrators were collecting signatures to recall Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan (D), who on Tuesday said that “cuts of 100 officers between now and the end of the year is really not the way to proceed,” according to KOMO News.

The city’s police chief and the Seattle Police Officers Guild opposed the cuts. The union launched an online petition to “stop the defunding of the Seattle Police Department” ahead of the full City Council vote on this legislation on Aug. 10.

By Ben Guarino
August 6, 2020 at 7:23 AM EDT

Plan to disband Minneapolis police halted in city commission vote

A move to disband the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of George Floyd’s killing faced an uncertain future Wednesday after a commission blocked the City Council from putting a necessary initiative on the November ballot.

The proposal would replace the police department with a new public safety agency, but the Minneapolis Charter Commission voted 10 to 5 to delay consideration of a ballot measure to eliminate the city charter requirement that Minneapolis maintain a certain number of police officers per capita.

The commission, a court-appointed board of volunteers, passed a 90-day delay, which prevents the Minneapolis City Council from meeting an Aug. 21 deadline to get the proposal on the Nov. 3 ballot — a move that effectively kicks the issue to 2021.

The proposal, backed by a majority of the City Council, would allow Minneapolis to replace its troubled department, which has long been accused of racism and use of excessive force, with a new agency focused on a “holistic, public health-oriented approach” to public safety.

By Holly Bailey