WHO YOU GONNA CALL, A SQUAD OF PSYCHIATRISTS? – OVERNIGHT:  The anti-police nuts are at it again.  Aren't you excited to welcome them?  From Fox: 

Minneapolis residents planning to vote in favor of a ballot measure next week that would replace the city's police department will be disappointed with the outcome, according to law enforcement experts.
Ballot question No. 2 will ask voters on Nov. 2 if they prefer to amend the city's charter to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety that would be responsible for "a comprehensive public health approach to safety."

It needs 51% of voter approval to pass.

"Frankly, I find it disingenuous," Betsy Smith, a spokesperson for the National Police Association who spent 29 years as a Chicago-area police officer, told Fox News. "I think there are going to be people who are going to vote for this thinking ‘Yay, we’re going to abolish the police' and that's not what's happening."

The measure was put on the ballot after Yes 4 Minneapolis, a coalition of businesses and organizations, gathered 22,000 signatures to do so.

The city became the epicenter of the police reform movement following the death of George Floyd, who died last year during an encounter with Minneapolis police officers. The event unleashed a racial reckoning on police tactics and social injustice.

Supporters of the measure have said it will not defund or abolish the police department but rather not have police officers respond to every call for service in cases where mental health counselors and other professionals are needed instead, citing police shootings that have stemmed from mental health-related calls.

The question was put on the ballot because thousands of residents recognize the Minneapolis Police Department has a "fundamental flaw and cultural problem that made the city of Minneapolis the epicenter of a global reckoning on race, " Yes 4 Minneapolis spokesman Javier Morillo told Fox News.

"What people tend to say, and especially voters of color, is: "What I want is something very simple. I want to be able to call for help when I need it and I want to be able to not fear that help when it arrives,'" he said. He said the group's vision is "public safety that prioritizes a public health lens so that we ensure that professionals who are trained in their fields are responding to calls that are relevant to those fields."

Smith said police departments already have social workers that respond to calls. She noted that the Minneapolis Police Department is one of the most progressive in the sense they have always had some of the best training and equipment.

In addition, changing public safety agencies will cost the city millions, she said.

COMMENT:  The voters had better read the fine print.  We certainly have no objection to well-trained specialists working with the police to reduce violence, but it's an illusion to think that street criminals can be successfully confronted by Dr. Percy Highthoughts.  When a crime is in progress, and life is on the line, it's the well-trained and well-equipped officer who makes the difference.

"Police reform" is perfectly reasonable when police conduct is below standard.  But "reformers" often end up making war on the good cops rather than on the criminals.

October 29,  2015