The Justice Department accused Minneapolis police on Friday of engaging in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discriminating against blacks and Native Americans following an investigation prompted by the killing of George Floyd.
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The Department of Justice has found that Minneapolis police engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discriminating against blacks and Native Americans.
The findings came Friday after an investigation prompted by the killing of George Floyd
The two-year civil rights investigation concluded that systemic problems in the Minneapolis Police Department “made what happened to George Floyd possible,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
The investigation found that Minneapolis officers used excessive force, including “unjustified deadly force,” and violated the rights of people engaging in constitutionally protected speech.
The sweeping two-year civil rights investigation found that Minneapolis officers used excessive force, including “unjustified deadly force,” and violated the rights of people engaging in constitutionally protected speech. The investigation also found that both the police and the city discriminated against people with “behavioral health disabilities” when asking officers for help.
“We observed many MPD officers who did their difficult job with professionalism, courage and respect,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference in Minneapolis. “But the patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible.”
The report included allegations that police for years “used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who committed at most a minor infraction and sometimes no crime at all.” The officers “used force to punish people who angered the officers or criticized the police.”
Police also “patrolled neighborhoods differently based on their racial makeup and discriminated by race when searching, handcuffing, or using force against people during stops,” the report said.
As a result of the investigation, the city and police department agreed to a settlement known as a federal consent decree, which will require the renovations to be overseen by an independent monitor and approved by a federal judge. This agreement is similar to reform efforts in Seattle, New Orleans, Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri.
Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who led Newark, New Jersey police through a consent decree, said the Minneapolis department was committed to creating “the kind of police department that every Minneapolis resident wants they deserve it.”
Mayor Jacob Frey acknowledged the work ahead.
“We understand that change is not negotiable,” Frey said. “Progress can be painful, and the obstacles can be great. But we haven’t stopped in the three years since George Floyd’s murder.”
The investigation began in April 2021, one day after former officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the May 25, 2020, killing of Floyd, who was black.
Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe before 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 part of a wider national reckoning with racial injustice.
The report found that the city sent officers to 911 calls related to behavioral health, “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 were based on document reviews and incident files; watching videos from body-worn cameras; data provided by the city and the police; and walks and conversations with officers, residents and others, the report says.
Federal investigators acknowledged that the city and Minneapolis police have already begun reforms.
The report noted that police are now prohibited from using neck restraints like the ones Chauvin used to kill Floyd. Officers can no longer use some crowd control weapons without permission from the boss. And “do not touch” orders were banned after Amir Locke’s death in 2022.
The city has also launched a “promising” behavioral health response program in which trained mental health professionals respond to some calls instead of the police.
The Justice Department is not alone in its findings of problems.
A similar investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights led to an “executive settlement agreement” to address the long list of issues identified in the report, with input from residents, officers, city staff and others. Frey and state Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero signed the agreement in March.
The state investigation, which concluded in April 2022, found “significant racial disparities in officers’ use of force, traffic stops, searches, citations and arrests.” And he criticized “an organizational culture where some officers and supervisors use racist, misogynistic and disrespectful language with impunity.”
Lucero said the legally binding agreement requires the city and police department to make “transformational changes” to fix the force’s organizational culture, noting that it could serve as a model for how cities, police departments and police and community members elsewhere to stop the race. based police
The report recommends 28 “corrective” measures to improve policing as a prelude to the consent decree. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the steps “provide an initial framework for improving public safety, building community trust, and complying with the constitution and federal law.”
The federal investigation could have led to a separate but similar court settlement, known as a consent decree, that would overlay the settlement with the state.
Several police departments in other cities operate under consent decrees for alleged civil rights violations. A consent decree requires agencies to meet specific goals before federal oversight is removed, a process that often takes years at a cost of millions of dollars.
Floyd, 46, was arrested on suspicion of passing a fake $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 even though he was already handcuffed, they forced him to the ground.
As Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck, Officer J. Alexander Kueng held Floyd’s back, Officer Thomas Lane held Floyd’s feet and Officer Tou Thao held back bystanders.
Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years for murder. He also pleaded guilty to a federal charge of violating Floyd’s civil rights and was sentenced to 21 years in that case. He is serving concurrent sentences in Tucson, Arizona.
Kueng, Lane and Thao were convicted of federal charges in February 2022. All three were convicted of depriving Floyd of his right to medical care, and Thao and Kueng were also convicted of failing to intervene to stop Chauvin during the ‘murder Lane and Kueng have since pleaded guilty to one state count of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. In return, charges of aiding and abetting murder were dropped.
Lane, who is white, is serving his 2 1/2-year federal sentence at a facility in Colorado. At the same time he is serving a three-year state sentence. Kueng, who is black, is serving a three-year federal sentence in Ohio while also serving a 3 1/2-year state sentence.
Thao, who is Hmong American, received a federal sentence of 3 1/2 years. In May, the judge in the state case found him guilty of aiding and abetting the murder. Thao had said it “would be a lie” to have pleaded guilty, and agreed to let the judge decide the case. The judge set sentencing for August 7.
