Reforming the Police

"Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Floyd grew up in Houston, Texas, playing American football and basketball throughout high school and college."

"Between 1997 and 2005, he was convicted of eight crimes."

"He served four years in prison after accepting a plea bargain for a 2007 aggravated robbery in a home invasion."

Wikipedia

 

"We observed many MPD [Minneapolis Police Department] officers who did their difficult work with professionalism, courage and respect."

"But the patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible."

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland

 

"[Minneapolis officers used excessive force, including] unjustified deadly force [and violated the rights of people engaged in constitutionally protected speech]."

"[Both police and the city discriminated against people with] behavioural health disabilities [when officers are called for help]."

"[Police for years] used dangerous techniques and weapons against people who committed at most a petty offence and sometimes no offence at all."

"[Officers] used force to punish people who made officers angry or criticized the police." 

"[Police also] patrolled neighbourhoods differently based on their racial composition and discriminated based on race when searching, handcuffing or using force against people during stops."

U.S. Justice Department civil rights investigation 

Getty Images

 

It has taken two years, but the Biden administration's Justice Department has finally issued the results of its investigation into the situation prevailing in Minneapolis with respect to the working strategies of the city's police department in addressing and apprehending crime. It is a damning report in its scope and conclusions, condemning the Minneapolis police of what the investigators claim is a pattern of constitutional rights violations, in particular discriminating against Black and Native American citizens.

 

The killing of George Floyd -- a petty criminal with a penchant for violence -- during an attempted arrest when he resisted the efforts of three police officers which led to a violent, ultimately lethal hold by one officer aided by two others, in an effort to subdue the man, was captured on video and broadcast widely horrifying the general public and enraging the Black community within the entire country. The result was a series of violent protests and the emergence of a movement: "Black Lives Matter".

 

BLM went on to become a mantra against the historical maltreatment of Blacks in the United States, one that was picked up globally, as individuals, groups and governments made haste to indicate their rejection of police violence perpetrated on minority groups. Black Lives Matter became a force to be reckoned with, their message echoing across the globe, and in the process George Floyd became an icon of rejection of racism. In their furious rampages across the United States, BLM boosters themselves exacted a ritualistic violence, looting, burning buildings, issuing threats, confronting their white counterparts.

 

Above all, a movement issued out of the maelstrom of angry blame and violent reactions, that the police, guilty of abusing their public trust and guilty of the use of deadly violence, were out of touch with the population, and governments at every level agreed. Two of the police officers who assisted Derek Chauvin the white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder and manslaughter were themselves minority ethnics. Police chiefs all over the United States were often Black themselves. 

 

But 'defund the police!' resonated and city councils began to vote down annual increases in police budgets and began slashing them. The predictable results have been chaotic. Crime has risen notably. There are fewer police  on the forces that once saw their goal as maintaining law and order. Drug use, homelessness, mental health failures have all contributed to a steep rise in crimes of all kinds. There are fewer police to be deployed with greater number of crimes committed; the legacy of the death of George Floyd.

Black Lives Matter, as a movement began to have a putrid odour of corruption; vast sums of donations were discovered to have been used for personal profit. Throughout the entire wild controversy the fact that Black populations themselves were bedevilled by high rates of crime, including Black-on-Black murder was never adequately addressed. The fact that out of the Black demographic the percentage of crimes of all types; gangs, drugs, home invasions, robberies were disproportionate to their numbers is politely set aside.

The police officers faced time over time with recognized faces of criminal offenders being re-arrested reacted with frustration and aggravation that often vented itself in inappropriate responses by the authority figures that they are; a reflection of  human nature, pushed too far. The investigation has led the city of Minneapolis and its police department to agree to a federal consent decree where reforms are required to be overseen by an independent monitor, approved by a federal judge.

Similar arrangements in reforms of other police departments have taken place in Seattle, New Orleans, Baltimore and elsewhere in the U.S. In the May 25, 2020 altercation which left George Floyd dead and the country in an uproar of violent reproach, George Floyd was seen to repeatedly say he was unable to breathe as Officer Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9-1/2 minutes. Such restraint techniques with their

predictably dangerous potential should never have been approved. They now no longer will be.

List of Floyd's charges, Office of Harris County District Clerk