Attitudes in America toward police forces and police tactics have been mixed and confusing in the past year. So it has been in Minneapolis this past year.

Since the killing of George Floyd a year ago, there has been a push to defund the police, to dissolve the police force and replace it with some kind of community safety force. We understand why people, especially minorities, feel this way after they’ve seemingly been profiled and targeted.

But the recent spate of shootings and violence in Minneapolis, including the shooting of three innocent children who were bystanders, including the death of one, has pointed to the need for better, more focused law enforcement, nut just to track down and bring to justice those who have shot and killed people on the streets, but to focus on the criminals, the gangs and drug dealers to make the community safe.

Poeple in Minneapolis are angry, they want to organize, to march and “take back” their streets. Their efforts might be more effective if a partnership between community members and the police department could be strengthened. Defunding and dissolving police departments sounds like the right thing to do in the aftermath of police misconduct, but when innocent people are being shot down in the streets, police become a necessity.