By JIM SALTER and MARK VANCLEAVE (Associated Press)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Justice Department accused Minneapolis police Friday of participating in a sample of violating constitutional rights and discriminating towards Black and Native American individuals following an investigation prompted by the killing of George Floyd.
The sweeping two-year civil rights investigation concluded that systemic issues within the Minneapolis Police Department “made what happened to George Floyd possible.”
The investigation discovered that Minneapolis officers used extreme pressure, together with “unjustified deadly force,” and violated the rights of individuals engaged in constitutionally protected speech.
The probe additionally discovered that each Minneapolis police and the town discriminated towards individuals with “behavioral health disabilities” when officers are referred to as for assist.
As a consequence, the town and the police division agreed to a deal often known as a federal consent decree, which would require reforms to be overseen by an impartial monitor and accredited by a federal decide. That association is much like reform efforts in Seattle, New Orleans, Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri.
“For years, MPD used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who committed at most a petty offense and sometimes no offense at all,” the report stated. Police “used force to punish people who made officers angry or criticized the police.”
Officers “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 stated.
The “pattern or practice” investigation was launched in April 2021, a day after former officer Derek Chauvin, who’s white, was convicted of homicide and manslaughter within the May 25, 2020, killing of Floyd, who was Black.
Floyd repeatedly stated he couldn’t breathe earlier than going limp as Chauvin knelt on his 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 report discovered that the town despatched officers to behavioral health-related 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.”
The findings have been based mostly on critiques of paperwork and incident information; statement of body-worn digicam movies; information offered by the town and police; and ride-alongs and conversations with officers, residents and others, the report says.
Federal investigators acknowledged that the town and Minneapolis police have already begun reforms.
The report famous that police are actually prohibited from utilizing neck restraints just like the one Chauvin utilized in killing Floyd. Officers are not allowed to make use of some crowd management weapons with out permission from the chief. And “no-knock” warrants have been banned after the 2022 demise of Amir Locke.
The metropolis additionally has launched a “promising” behavioral well being response program by which educated psychological well being professionals reply to some calls relatively than police.
The Justice Department will not be alone in its findings of issues.
An identical investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights led to a “court-enforceable settlement agreement” to handle the lengthy listing of issues recognized within the report, with enter from residents, officers, metropolis employees and others. Frey and state Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero signed the settlement in March.
The state investigation, which concluded in April 2022, discovered “significant racial disparities with respect to officers’ use of force, traffic stops, searches, citations, and arrests.” And it criticized “an organizational culture where some officers and supervisors use racist, misogynistic, and disrespectful language with impunity.”
Lucero stated the legally binding settlement requires the town and the police division to make “transformational changes” to repair the organizational tradition of the pressure, noting it might function a mannequin for the way cities, police departments and neighborhood members elsewhere work to cease race-based policing.
The report recommends 28 “remedial” steps to enhance policing as a prelude to the consent decree. Attorney General Merrick Garland stated the steps “provide a starting framework to improve public safety, build community trust and comply with the constitution and federal law.”
The federal investigation might have prompted a separate however comparable court-enforceable settlement, often known as a consent decree, that might overlap the settlement with the state.
Several police departments in different cities function beneath consent decrees for alleged civil rights violations. A consent decree requires businesses to satisfy particular targets earlier than federal oversight is eliminated, a course of that usually takes a few years at a value of hundreds of thousands 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 automobile, and although he was already handcuffed, they compelled him on the bottom.
As Chauvin pressed his knee towards Floyd’s neck, officer J. Alexander Kueng held Floyd’s again, officer Thomas Lane held Floyd’s toes and officer Tou Thao saved bystanders again.
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 the sentences concurrently in Tucson, Arizona.
Kueng, Lane and Thao have been convicted of federal prices in February 2022. All three have been convicted of depriving Floyd of his proper to medical care, and Thao and Kueng additionally have been convicted of failing to intervene to cease Chauvin in the course of the killing. Lane and Kueng have since pleaded responsible to a state rely of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In trade, counts of aiding and abetting homicide have been dropped.
Lane, who’s white, is serving his 2 1/2-year federal sentence at a facility in Colorado. He is serving a three-year state sentence on the identical time. Kueng, who’s Black, is serving a three-year federal sentence in Ohio, whereas additionally serving a 3 1/2-year state sentence.
Thao, who’s Hmong American, obtained a 3 1/2-year federal sentence. In May, the decide within the state case discovered him responsible of aiding and abetting manslaughter. Thao had stated it “would be lying” to have pleaded responsible, and he agreed to let the decide resolve the case. The decide set sentencing for Aug. 7.
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Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri.
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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”