Minneapolis business owner says City Council has 'blood on their hands' after voting to defund police

A Minneapolis business owner said City Council members have "blood on their hands” after voting to cut funds to the Police Department last year, then voting to hire more officers after an increase in violence. 

"They saw a whole different kind of opportunity," Jay Ettinger said of council members in an interview with Fox & Friends Tuesday. "They saw an opportunity to take down a system, and they’ve got a lot of blood on their hands right now because of it. We had over 550 people shot in our city in 2020. We had over 80 murders, and the far majority of those people, those victims, were people of color.”

The Minneapolis City Council said it was working on “reimagining public safety” after George Floyd died while in police custody on Memorial Day. His death launched protests and riots across the country and sparked renewed calls to defund the police.