Minneapolis City Council Member Jeremiah Ellison on Chauvin trial, police reform

boy joining us only on cbs this morning is minneapolis city council member jeremiah ellison his father by the way is minnesota attorney general keith ellison who is leading the prosecution's case against derrick chauvin we welcome you councilman ellison to to the table virtually you know it is hard to watch this trial i can't imagine what it's like for minneapolis residents how painful this must be but i think many people are feeling this you know we hear excruciating it's dramatic it's traumatic it's very hard to watch so how are you processing it along with your residents and what stood out to you this week you know uh thank you for having me on the show i really appreciate it and i appreciate the the attention that minneapolis is getting for you know what we're going through it is traumatic i think that i'm trying to keep my ear to the ground talk to my constituents and talk to my neighbors about what they're feeling um and be responsive in this moment i think um you know people are looking for a little bit of leadership on the outside of the trial of course the people who are in it uh need to be focused on the trial um uh but that doesn't mean that it's not having ramifications out in the community and that people aren't really feeling the weight of it yeah did anything in particular stand out to you this week as you were watching you know i think that there's been some really riveting testimony um obviously you know watching uh somebody like donald williams who's my age uh uh you know who um who we we've actually crossed paths growing up here in the city um and you know playing sports against each other and that kind of thing and so um you know watching that and seeing just how close and how this thing is it really is uh it really does feel very close it's not some distant thing that we're watching on tv we're seeing our neighbors up there you know councilman people always say that people who've looked at it so far say oh man this is a slam dunk you look at that video you hear the testimony but as you know you've got 12 jurors with different life experiences there's no such thing as a slam dunk even if what you're seeing seems very obvious do you think about the outcome of this jury of this verdict and what that could mean to your city because the world really is watching this you concerned you know i think it's not my place to be concerned you know the folks who are the you know the prosecution and the folks in that room are are are going to make the best decisions that they can i think that no matter what you know here in minneapolis and i think across the country we can't look at what happens with this criminal trial or what happens on the civil side as the totality of justice right we've got to be focused beyond that because no matter what the outcome is you know we still have issues here in our city and we've got to be working really hard to make sure that this doesn't happen again i think that justice is going to come in the form of some really needed change and that no matter what the outcome is we've got to be ready to fight for that councilman after george floyd's death the city council voted to reform the police department especially in terms of funding where does that stand now and how do you think this trial might impact that effort yeah well you know the minneapolis city council we we we took eight million dollars from uh the police department and really in an effort to expand uh how it is that we keep our neighbors safe i think for so long the police have been synonymous with safety and we're finding not only in this case but but also in other instances around the city that they're not the most appropriate response to every emergency we do have emergencies here in our city and folks don't want us spending less money on their safety people want us making those in those investments uh but they i think that folks are recognizing that the police can't handle every single every single crisis and so uh that's kind of where things stand you know we've got those budget allocations were expanding the office of violence prevention which is a program that we just started in 2018 and that work has gone from roughly half a million dollars to 2.5 million dollars it's a lot of expansion but it's not enough that we'll we're going to need to continue those programs and we're investing in a in mental health response um and uh and also looking to take away some of those non-emergency calls uh from mpd uh you know things like fender benders that that that often cops will respond to we just have more appropriate you know uses of of uh we have more appropriate responses to those things what kind of impact do you think councilman that do you think that this case will have on your city going forward you know we we keep hearing that feelings sometimes matter as much as facts in a situation like this what are your thoughts on that you know the people of minneapolis don't feel any different um right now than the people of new york when witnessing um you know eric gardner's uh kill or not not not face charges and i i think folks don't feel any different than it than folks in chicago felt watching jason van dyke's trial i think that what we're experiencing here in minneapolis is not unique to minneapolis uh i think unfortunately every single city uh uh you know some some big cities some some small cities like ferguson uh have experienced what we're experiencing emotionally here in minneapolis i think that we're going to need to you know learn from the past to learn from that history and also continue to learn in real time you know how to be in solidarity with those cities who who have experienced what we're experiencing here uh but i don't think that we can really just take this as a local issue um uh what we're experiencing here goes far beyond uh minneapolis and and i think that the questions that we're asking ourselves here about how we keep our neighbors safe moving into the future are the same questions that folks are asking themselves all over the city and you know you've got examples of uh you know the mayor up in ithaca is doing some great work uh up there and and uh and i could sort of name folks around the country who are sort of asking this question how can we better keep our neighbors safe how can we better keep each other safe uh you know law enforcement's probably gonna be a part of that uh but it doesn't need to be the only way jeremiah ellison you make a very good point unfortunately you are your city is not alone in this we thank you for your time this morning

Channel: CBS Mornings

Views: 12,417

Keywords: minnesota, trial, minneapolis, minneapolis police, killed, george floyd death, george floyd, reactions, derek chauvin trial, city council, heal, chauvin trial, cbs, cbs this morning, derek chauvin, minneapolis trial, black lives matter, community, police officer, minneapolis police department, jeremiah ellison, cbs news this morning, first week

Id: BPrUfETiYn4

Length: 6min 13sec (373 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 02 2021