The police in Minneapolis, this city in the north of the United States in which George Floyd was killed by a member of the police force, “frequently uses excessive force”including lethal, and “unlawfully discriminates against black and Native American people”establishes an investigation report published Friday, June 16.
This report is the result of the official investigation launched by the United States Department of Justice a year after the death of George Floyd, on May 25, 2020, suffocated under the knee of Derek Chauvin, who remained leaning on his neck for more than nine minutes. The investigation was to determine whether, beyond individual acts, there were systematic problems among the police in this city of 425,000 inhabitants, among the most unequal in the United States.
For two years, its investigators pored over reports of incidents between 2016 and August 2022, studied footage from police cameras and heard from thousands of witnesses. And the conclusion of their report is final. “Many officers do their difficult jobs with professionalism, courage and respect. Nonetheless, our investigation concluded that systemic issues made what happened to George Floyd possible.”they write in the introduction.
“For years, the Minneapolis police have used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who have committed only minor offenses or no offenses”, they remark. Furthermore, they “patrol the neighborhoods in different ways depending on their ethnic composition”with “cowboys” volunteers to go to the predominantly African-American borough, according to this report.
The police also use force without reason against demonstrators, journalists or when intervening in crises of dementia, deplore the authors of the report. “To the credit of the police and city leaders, significant changes have been introduced”but “there is still work to do”, Justice Minister Merrick Garland told a press conference, presenting twenty-eight recommendations. The local authorities and the ministry will now negotiate an agreement on the reforms to be undertaken, the implementation of which will be subject to the supervision of a court.