By JIM SALTER and MARK VANCLEAVE (Associated Press)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday issued a withering critique of Minneapolis police, alleging that they systematically discriminated in opposition to racial minorities, typically violated constitutional rights and disregarded the protection of individuals in custody for years earlier than George Floyd was killed.
The report was the results of a sweeping two-year probe, and it confirmed most of the citizen complaints about police conduct that emerged after Floyd’s 2020 dying. The investigation discovered that Minneapolis officers used extreme power, together with “unjustified deadly force,” and violated the rights of individuals engaged in constitutionally protected speech.
The investigation additionally concluded that each police and town discriminated in opposition to Black and Native American individuals and people with “behavioral health disabilities.”
“We observed many MPD officers who did their difficult work with professionalism, courage and respect,” Attorney General Merrick Garland informed a information convention in Minneapolis. “But the patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible.”
Garland stated officers routinely disregarded the protection of individuals in custody, noting quite a few examples wherein somebody complained that they may not breathe, solely to have officers reply with a model of “You can breathe. You’re talking right now.”
Police “used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who committed at most a petty offense and sometimes no offense at all,” the report stated. Officers “used force to punish people who made officers angry or criticized the police.”
Police additionally “patrolled neighborhoods differently based on their racial composition and discriminated based on race when searching, handcuffing or using force against people during stops,” in keeping with the report.
As a results of the investigation, town and the police division agreed to a deal often called a federal consent decree, which would require reforms to be overseen by an impartial monitor and permitted by a federal decide. That association is much like reform efforts in Seattle, New Orleans, Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara stated his company was dedicated to creating “the kind of police department that every Minneapolis resident deserves.”
Mayor Jacob Frey acknowledged the work forward.
“We understand that change is non-negotiable,” Frey stated. “Progress can be painful, and the obstacles can be great. But we haven’t let up in the three years since the murder of George Floyd.”
The scathing report mirrored Garland’s efforts to prioritize civil rights and policing nationwide. Similar investigations of police departments have been undertaken in Louisville, Phoenix and Memphis, amongst different cities.
The Minneapolis investigation was launched in April 2021, a day after former officer Derek Chauvin, who’s white, was convicted of homicide and manslaughter within the killing of Floyd, who was Black.
Floyd repeatedly stated he couldn’t breathe earlier than going limp as Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes. The killing was recorded by a bystander and sparked months of mass protests as a part of a broader nationwide reckoning over racial injustice.
The Justice Department reviewed police practices relationship again to 2016, and located that officers generally shot at individuals with out figuring out whether or not there was an instantaneous risk.
Officers additionally used neck restraints just like the one Chauvin used on Floyd practically 200 occasions from Jan. 1, 2016 to Aug. 16, 2022, together with 44 cases that didn’t require an arrest. Some officers continued to make use of neck restraints after they had been banned following Floyd’s killing, the report stated.
The investigation discovered that Black drivers in Minneapolis are 6.5 occasions extra more likely to be stopped than whites, and Native American drivers are 7.9 occasions extra more likely to be pulled over. And police typically retaliated in opposition to protesters and journalists protecting protests, the report discovered.
The metropolis despatched officers to behavioral health-related 911 calls, “even when a law enforcement response was not appropriate or necessary, sometimes with tragic results,” in keeping with the report.
The findings had been primarily based on evaluations of paperwork, physique digital camera movies, information offered by town and police, and rides and conversations with officers, residents and others, the report stated.
The report famous that police at the moment are prohibited from utilizing neck restraints just like the one which killed Floyd. Officers are not allowed to make use of some crowd management weapons with out permission from the chief. “No-knock” warrants had been banned after the 2022 dying of Amir Locke.
The metropolis has additionally launched a program wherein educated psychological well being professionals reply to some calls somewhat than police.
The Justice Department will not be alone in uncovering issues.
An identical investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights discovered “significant racial disparities with respect to officers’ use of force, traffic stops, searches, citations, and arrests.” It criticized “an organizational culture where some officers and supervisors use racist, misogynistic and disrespectful language with impunity.”
The federal report recommends 28 “remedial” steps to enhance policing as a prelude to the consent decree. Garland stated the steps “provide a starting framework to improve public safety, build community trust and comply with the constitution and federal law.”
The mayor stated metropolis leaders need a single monitor to supervise each the federal plan and the state settlement to keep away from having “two different determinations of whether compliance has been met or not. That’s not a way to get to clear and objective success.”
Several police departments in different cities function below consent decrees, which require companies to satisfy particular targets earlier than federal oversight is eliminated, a course of that usually takes a few years at a price of tens of millions of {dollars}.
Floyd, 46, was arrested on suspicion of passing a counterfeit $20 invoice for a pack of cigarettes at a nook market. He struggled with police once they tried to place him in a squad automotive, and although he was already handcuffed, they compelled him on the bottom.
Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years for homicide. He additionally pleaded responsible to a federal cost of violating Floyd’s civil rights and was sentenced to 21 years in that case. He is serving these sentences in Tucson, Arizona.
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Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri. Associated Press Writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this report.
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Find AP’s full protection of the killing of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd
Source: www.bostonherald.com”