Report by Paula Antolini, June 9, 2020, 10:11AM EDT
“The Minneapolis City Council on Sunday voted to disband its police department and invest in community-based public safety programs following calls from activists to ‘defund the police,’ in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer,” reports Forbes on June 7th.
“The move comes as protesters and activists at protests across the country have been calling for their cities to ‘defund the police,’ declaring reform too piecemeal to achieve the desired results,” Forbes reports, “Protests against police violence and racism have erupted in cities across the country in the last two weeks in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Floyd was seen on video saying “I can’t breathe,” as a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes.” Read story in full HERE.
Since then a backlash has occurred in a Facebook group “Blue Lives Matter” whose intent it was to have a, “vision of honoring the lives of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty and celebrating the many acts of heroism, kindness and public service to our community.”
Blue Lives matter writes, “It has become impossible to manage the influx of others who have come here to spew racist comments and encourage violence. They have, quite frankly, destroyed the vision and intent of our media platform.”
They have responded to the public in a written statement. They intend on forming a new group under different protocol. “Our plan is to return on a separate platform, but with a new name, new controls on community moderation and a new focus on guardrails to allow for free but civil speech,” they stated in their message to the public. View their message in its entirety below:
“AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR AUDIENCE AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC
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“We launched Blue Lives Matter a few years ago with the vision of honoring the lives of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty and celebrating the many acts of heroism, kindness and public service to our community.
“The name of our site came to be interpreted by some as something it wasn’t intended. Additionally, our community forum — as the last two weeks painfully illustrated — has been overrun by people more focused on division and hate rather than constructive, civil conversation.
“We have millions of participants on our website each month who are respectful and committed to civil discussions, and our journalists have worked very hard, for years, to report fact-based stories that were not otherwise available. Unfortunately, especially with recent events, it has become impossible to manage the influx of others who have come here to spew racist comments and encourage violence. They have, quite frankly, destroyed the vision and intent of our media platform.
“Additionally, we joined Maven because we bought into the vision that diverse voices on the issues should come together into a civilized coalition of professionals, so consumers could participate in meaningful and respectful discussions and learn from reading stories from every possible point of view. Outside forces have ruined the opportunity for our community.
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“As a result, we are taking a temporary step back on the website and are making new plans and tactics to move forward and fulfill our original vision and mission. Our plan is to return on a separate platform, but with a new name, new controls on community moderation and a new focus on guardrails to allow for free but civil speech. To that end, we will need volunteers to help us moderate our community. Please submit your e-mail below if you are interested in helping.
“Hate has no place in the hearts of Americans, and we will continue to fight against it in all of its forms. Right now we believe it’s important to take a pause, but you’ll be hearing from us soon.
“Thank you.
“Blue Lives Team”
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