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Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday that a Justice Department investigation into the actions of the Minneapolis, Minnesota, police department following the May 2020 death of George Floyd has revealed evidence of the use of excessive force and racial discrimination.
Garland said there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the MPD and the City of Minneapolis have engaged in a pattern of conduct or practice that violates the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution.”
“We found that MPD and the City of Minneapolis engaged in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, unlawfully discriminating against Black or Native American people in enforcement activities, violating the rights of people engaging in protective speech, and discriminating against of people with behavioral disabilities in responding to them in a crisis,” Garland said.
The Justice Department’s “pattern of practice” investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department was launched in April 2021, one day after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of manslaughter in the May 25 death of George Floyd in the city of Minnesota . 2020.
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at a meeting with all U.S. prosecutors in Washington, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. (AP/Jose Luis Magana)
On Friday, Garland said, “As I told Goerge Floyd’s family this morning, his death has had an irrevocable impact on the community of Minneapolis, on our county and on the world. His loss is still deeply felt by those who loved him. and knew him and by many who didn’t. George Floyd should be alive today.”
During the federal investigation, Garland said, “We observed many MPD officers doing their difficult jobs with professionalism, courage and respect,” but added that the “patterns and practices we observed may have made what happened to George Floyd happened.”
“A review found numerous incidents where MPD officers responded to a person’s statement that they ‘couldn’t breathe’ with a version of ‘you can breathe, you’re talking now,'” Garland said.
Damarra Atkins pays respects to George Floyd at a mural in George Floyd Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 23, 2021. (AP/Julio Cortez)
He added that investigators also found several times that Chauvin used excessive force against others before killing Floyd. During those instances, MPD agents allowed and did not restrain Chauvin, according to Garland.
The attorney general also said the Justice Department found that MPD “frequently uses excessive force, often when force is not necessary, including unjust deadly force and unreasonable use of tasers. MPD officers discharged firearms at people without judging whether the person poses a threat, let alone one that would warrant deadly force.”
He cited a 2017 case in which an unarmed woman — who had called 911 to report a possible assault in a nearby alley — was shot and killed by an officer who said she “scared him.”
Garland said data also shows that MPD stopped black and Native American people “nearly six times more often than white people in situations that did not result in arrest or subpoena, given their share of the population.”
He said in one case it was discovered that after MPD officers stopped a car carrying four Somali-American teens, an officer told the teens, “Remember what happened at Black Hawk Down, when we got a bunch of your people I’m proud of that. We didn’t finish the job there, if we had you wouldn’t be here now.’
“Such behavior is deeply troubling and erodes community confidence in law enforcement,” he said.
In this frame of surveillance video, former Minneapolis police officers from left, Tou Thao, Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, attempt to take George Floyd into custody in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. (Court TV via AP, Pool, File)
Garland praised the Minneapolis police department and city leaders for implementing some reforms, such as banning all types of neck restraints and banning search warrants.
“But as the report outlines, there is more work to be done. The Justice Department is recommending 28 corrective actions that provide a starting framework for improving public safety, building community confidence and complying with the Constitution and federal law,” he said. “The City of Minneapolis and MPD have signed an agreement in principle with the Department of Justice. This agreement commits the city and MPD to work with the Department of Justice, the community, police officers and other stakeholders to address the issues we identified .”
“This agreement commits all parties … to negotiate a legally binding consent decree with an independent observer,” Garland also said.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
