‘The Minneapolis Reckoning:’ New book traces the city’s journey to the brink of police reform

MPR News with Angela Davis

Four years ago this week, a movement to defund and abolish the Minneapolis Police Department ignited across the city and the world.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man and St. Louis Park resident, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in the Powderhorn neighborhood of Minneapolis.

In those four years since his murder, everything — and nothing — has changed.

The Minneapolis Police Department was not defunded. And the city is still struggling to come to terms with what safety and accountability look like in the aftermath.

A new book traces how Minneapolis arrived at the brink of police abolition, and why true reform is so hard to come by.

It’s called “The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence and the Politics of Policing in America.”

MPR News host Angela Davis talked with the book’s author, sociologist Michelle Phelps.

Guest: 

• Michelle Phelps is an associate professor in the department of sociology at the University of Minnesota and the author of the new book, “The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America.”