THREAD: Today I witnessed one of the most undemocratic & offensive government maneuvers to suppress social change that I've ever seen in my 19 years of being a lawyer & organizer. It happened in the epicenter of our nation's struggle against police violence & racism: Minneapolis

The Black Lives Matter movement is the largest movement in American history. An inspirational 10% of Americans took to the streets to protest white supremacy and police violence, and to call for genuine systemic change, including a reimagining of policing in the United States.

The latest movement was sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, a department with a long history of violence. People demanded change in the city, and the Minneapolis City Council responded by passing unanimously a ballot proposal to reimagine policing.

The City Council proposal is ambitious, but it is not unreasonable. It would disband the police, yes, but in its place create a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention, charged w/ taking a holistic approach to safety. It was an example of what people are demanding

Yet in Minneapolis, there is an unelected body of 15 people that gets to screen all ballot initiatives. They don't have the power to unilaterally reject a ballot, but they can postpone it and delay it, in the hope of taking the steam out of it. And that's exactly what happened

In a 10-5 vote, this unelected body blocked the ballot from going to the voters in 2020. But even more disturbingly, it did so in a condescending manner that reeked with privilege, telling the City Council and people of Minneapolis that it does not trust them to make decisions.

The number of excuses for the delay were endless: the voters wouldn't understand the ballot; the city council only cares about its own powers; the ballot if passed would lower property values; the supporters of the ballot are naive, unsavvy and don't understand these issues

This unelected commission said it knew better than the people & gave itself 90 more days to "consider" the ballot. Every commissioner spoke against the ballot, but purposefully didnt reject it because that would have given the Council an opportunity to still move forward in 2020

Bottom line: when we talk about structural barriers to social change, this is it. Going through a legislative body & then directly to the voters is the most democratic process we have. 61% of voters support the ballot. But systems have been created 2 suppress democratic movements

Millions of people have taken to the streets demanding change, yet we have yet to see any substantial victory. This could have been one of them, but the power structures are doing everything they can to suppress it. This is a struggle for the soul of this nation. And we will win.