The Justice Department on Friday issued a scathing investigation into the Minneapolis policewhich says that racial discrimination and excessive force went unchecked before the killing of George Floyd due to inadequate oversight and an ineffective process for investigating complaints.
The investigation began in April 2021a day after former officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of murder and manslaughter. on May 25, 2020, killing Floyd, a Black man. Floyd, who was handcuffed, repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe before he passed out as Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 1/2 minutes. The killing was recorded by an onlooker and sparked months of mass protests as part of a broader national reckoning with racial injustice..
Here are six takeaways from the report:
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE INVESTIGATION?
The focus of the investigation is to examine whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing by the Minneapolis Police Department. It examines officers’ use of force, including during protests, and whether the department engaged in acts of discrimination. It also looks at the handling of allegations of misconduct, treatment of people with behavioral health issues and accountability systems.
WHAT ARE THE KEY FINDINGS?
Investigators found numerous examples of excessive force, unlawful discrimination and First Amendment violations. They analyzed 19 police shootings and determined that officers sometimes fired without first determining whether there was an immediate threat of harm to the officers or others.
In 2017, for example, an officer fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond, an unarmed white Australian-born woman who “frightened” him when he approached her squad car, according to the report. She called 911 to report a possible rape in her backyard. The city paid $20 million to settle with his family.
In another case, officers shot a suspect after he began stabbing himself in the neck in an interview room at the police station.
Officers also used neck restraints like the one Chauvin used on Floyd 198 times between January 1, 2016, and August 16, 2022, including 44 times that did not require an arrest. Some officers continued to use neck restraints even after they were banned in the aftermath of Floyd’s killing, the report said.
In protests, it is known, people are sometimes shot with rubber bullets when they have committed no crime or disperse. According to the report, a journalist was hit by a rubber bullet and lost his eye, while another was pushed onto the pavement while filming and pepper sprayed in the face. One protester was pushed so hard that he fell backwards, hit the pavement and lost consciousness for three minutes.
WHAT DO INVESTIGATORS FIND ABOUT RACIAL BIAS IN POLICING?
The report documented rampant racism and racial profiling in the department, with black drivers more than six times more likely to be stopped than whites.
Racism also extended to the arrests.
When a Black teenager was held at gunpoint for allegedly stealing a $5 burrito, the teenager asked the plainclothes officer if he was a real police officer. “Really?” the officer responded, according to a video recording. “How many white people in the city of Minneapolis have you come across with a gun?”
In another case, a woman reported that an officer told her that the Black Lives Matter movement was a “terrorist” organization. “We will make sure that you and all the supporters of Black Lives Matter are wiped off the face of the Earth,” she recalled him saying. Her complaint against the officer was closed by the department with a finding of “no merit.”
HOW DOES THE DEPARTMENT TREAT PEOPLE WITH HEADACHE?
Mental health crises are often worse when police respond, investigators have found.
In 2017, for example, officers encountered an unarmed man in the midst of what neighbors described as a mental health episode. He wandered around his yard, shouting. After obeying orders to sit on his front steps, an officer fired his taser without warning.
In another case, a mother called 911 to report that her adult daughter, a Black woman with bipolar disorder, tried to hurt herself by lying on the street. When the officers got there, the woman was calmly walking in a park. The officers however arrested him, and he started screaming and ran away. The girl was then placed in a neck restraint as her mother pleaded, “Don’t strangle her like that!”
HOW DID THE OFFICERS CONSENT?
Investigations into police misconduct took months and sometimes years, according to the report. And those conducting the inquiries often failed to see the video that corroborated the public’s complaints.
Supervisors are also quick to support their subordinates. In one case, an officer watched a man eight times without stopping even though the man protested that he was doing “exactly” what he was told. The supervisor found no policy violations and told the man after the fact that if he hadn’t resisted, “they shouldn’t have hit you.”
The report also highlighted the case of John Pope, who was just 14 years old when Chauvin hit him in the head with a flashlight several times and pinned him against a wall by his throat. He then brought the Black teenager to his knees, while his mother pleaded, “Please don’t kill my son.” Chauvin, the report found, kept his knee on the teenager’s neck or back for more than 15 minutes.
But because of mismanagement and a botched internal investigation, commanders didn’t learn what happened to Pope until three years later, after Chauvin killed Floyd, the report said. The city eventually agreed to settle a lawsuit for $ 7.5 million.
WHAT HAPPENED NOW?
The report says that the department has made some improvements, such as banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, training officers on the duty of intervention and sending mental health workers to some incidents. But said that there is still work to be done.
As a result of the investigation, the city and the police department agreed to an agreement known as a federal consent decree, which would require reforms to be overseen by an independent monitor and approved by a federal judge. That arrangement is similar to previous interventions in cities such as Seattle, New Orleans, Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri.
