MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Justice Department has found that Minneapolis police regularly violate constitutional rights and discriminate against blacks and Native Americans following an investigation sparked by the killing of George Floyd.
The comprehensive two-year civil rights investigation concluded that systemic issues in the Minneapolis police force “made possible what happened to George Floyd,” the report said.
The investigation found that Minneapolis officials used excessive force, including “unreasonable lethal force,” and violated the rights of individuals engaged in constitutionally protected speech.
The investigation also found that both the Minneapolis Police Department and the City of Minneapolis discriminated against people with “behavioural health disabilities” when officers called for help.
The “pattern-or-practice” investigation was launched in April 2021, a day after former white officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the May 25, 2020 killing of Black Floyd.
Floyd repeatedly said he could not breathe before going limp while Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 1/2 minutes. The killing was recorded by an bystander and sparked months of mass protests as part of a broader national confrontation over racial injustice.
“For years, MPD used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who committed at most a minor offense and sometimes no offense at all,” the report reads. “MPD has used violence to punish people who have upset officers or criticized the police. MPD patrolled neighborhoods differently based on their racial composition and discriminated based on race when searching, handcuffing or using force against people during stops.”
The report noted that the city sent officers on behavioral 911 calls “even when a law enforcement response was not appropriate or necessary, sometimes with tragic results.” These actions put MPD officers and the Minneapolis community at risk.”
Findings were based on review of documents and incident files; monitoring of body worn camera videos; data provided by city and police; and ridesharing and speaking with officials, residents and others, the report said.
Federal investigators acknowledged that the City and Minneapolis Police Department have already begun reforms.
The report notes that police policy now prohibits neck restraints like those used by Chauvin in the killing of Floyd. Officers are no longer allowed to use some crowd control weapons without permission from the boss. And no-knock warrants were banned after the death of Amir Locke in 2022.
The city has also launched a “promising” behavioral health response program, with trained mental health professionals responding to some calls instead of police.
The Justice Department is not alone in its findings on problems.
A similar investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights resulted in a “court-enforceable settlement agreement” to address the long list of issues identified in the report, involving residents, officials, city workers and others. Frey and State Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero signed the agreement in March.
The state inquiry, which concluded in April 2022, found “substantial racial disparities regarding officers’ use of force, traffic stops, searches, subpoenas and arrests.” And it criticized “an organizational culture in which some officials and supervisors use racist, misogynistic and disrespectful language with impunity.”
Lucero said the legally binding agreement commits the city and police to making “transformative changes” to improve police organizational culture, noting that it could serve as a model for how cities, police departments and community members elsewhere are working to stopping races. based policing.
The federal investigation could have resulted in a separate but similar court-enforceable agreement called the Consent Decree, which would overlap with the settlement with the state.
Several police departments in other cities operate on the basis of informed consent for suspected civil rights abusers. A consent decree requires agencies to meet certain goals before federal oversight is lifted. This process often takes many years and costs millions of dollars.
Floyd, 46, was arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 bill for a pack of cigarettes at a corner market. He struggled with police when they tried to put him in a squad car and although he was already handcuffed they forced him to the ground. As Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck, J. Alexander Kueng held Floyd’s back, Thomas Lane held Floyd’s feet and Tou Thao restrained bystanders.
Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years for murder. He also pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating Floyd’s civil rights, in which case he was sentenced to 21 years in prison. At the same time, he is serving his sentences at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona.
Kueng, Lane and Thao were convicted on federal charges in February 2022. All three were convicted for depriving Floyd of his right to medical care, and Thao and Kueng were also convicted for failing to intervene to stop Chauvin during the killing. Lane and Kueng have since pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter at arraignment. In return, the charges of being an accessory to murder were dropped.
Lane, who is white, is serving his two-and-a-half-year federal sentence at a Colorado facility. At the same time, he is serving a three-year state sentence. Kueng, a black man, is serving a three-year federal sentence while also serving a three-and-a-half-year state sentence in Ohio.
Thao, a Hmong-American, received a three-and-a-half-year federal sentence. In May the judge in the state case found him guilty of an accessory to manslaughter. Thao had said it would be “lying” to plead guilty and he agreed to leave the case to the judge. The judge set the sentence for August 7th.
Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri.
For AP’s full coverage of the killing of George Floyd, go to: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd