Tag: police brutality

Police Veteran Charged in George Floyd Killing Had Used Neck Restraints Before

New York Times logo

Derek Chauvin, the officer who is charged with second-degree murder in Mr. Floyd’s death, is expected to go to trial next year.

MINNEAPOLIS — The former Minneapolis police officer charged with murder after pressing his knee into the neck of George Floyd for more than eight minutes had used neck and upper body restraints during at least seven previous arrests, prosecutors said in court documents filed this week.

In four of the earlier arrests over the last six years, prosecutors say that the former officer, Derek Chauvin, used those restraint techniques — which have been the subject of much debate in recent months — “beyond the point when such force was needed under the circumstances.”

Neck restraints were banned this summer in police departments in Minneapolis and other cities following the death in May of Mr. Floyd, a Black man who repeatedly said “I can’t breathe” as Mr. Chauvin’s knee pinned him to the pavement. The searing image of Mr. Floyd’s final moments, captured on video, fueled anger and protests across the country. Continue reading.

Officer Who Pressed His Knee on George Floyd’s Neck Drew Scrutiny Long Before

New York Times logoIn more than 19 years on the Minneapolis police force, Mr. Chauvin had a reputation as a rigid workaholic with few friends. He sometimes made other officers uncomfortable.

MINNEAPOLIS — The four teenagers drove around playing a game of Nerf Gun Assassin on a May evening before graduation in 2013. One of them randomly fired an orange dart out the window.

It was a stupid teenager move. What happened next was deadly serious: Two Minneapolis police officers pulled up, pointed their guns at the teenagers and shouted orders laced with expletives, two of them later recalled.

Kristofer Bergh, then 17, said he kept telling himself not to move suddenly or give the police any reason to shoot him. The youth who had fired the dart was steered into their cruiser for what seemed like an hour, and the officers seized everyone’s Nerf guns. One officer made a lasting impression; in fact, Mr. Bergh and another passenger said they would never forget him, nor what he said as he gave them back their guns. Continue reading.

George Floyd warned police he thought he would die because he couldn’t breathe, according to body camera transcripts

Washington Post logoMINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd repeatedly begged police officers not to
shoot him and complained of being claustrophobic as they tried to place him in a squad car in the minutes before he was killed on a South Minneapolis street corner in May, according to transcripts of police body camera footage from the scene released Wednesday.

The transcripts make clear that Floyd was trying to cooperate with police but was deathly afraid of them, at times telling them that he had had covid-19 and was worried that he was going to die because he couldn’t breathe while in their custody. As one of the officers — Derek Chauvin — pressed a knee into his neck and held Floyd on the ground, he told Floyd that he must be okay because he was able to speak, saying that he was using up a lot of oxygen pleading for help.

“They going to kill me,” Floyd said as officers sat atop him in the street, according to the transcripts. “They’re going to kill me man.” Continue reading.

“In One Day, We Became the Worst Things in the Country”

How cops are talking about George Floyd’s killing and the protests sweeping America.

This country is changing its mind about the police. Over the past few years, Americans have watched countless videos of police brutality against Black people. They’ve witnessed, or participated in, the formation of a massive social movement dedicated to the preservation and celebration of Black lives. And their perception of police forces has shifted: A Monmouth University survey conducted at the end of May found, for the first time in polling history, that a majority (57 percent) of Americans and a plurality (49 percent) of white people think police officers “faced with a difficult or dangerous situation” are “more likely to use excessive force if the culprit is black.” That’s an increase of 24 points among all Americans and 23 points among white people since Monmouth’s 2014 poll in the wake of NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo’s killing of Eric Garner.

Police officers have been watching those cameraphone videos too. They’ve witnessed, or participated in, the formation of a movement for “blue lives” in response to the movement affirming Black ones. More recently, they’ve been confronting Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s killing of George Floyd, the widespread protests against racism and police brutality, and the calls to defund or abolish police that have entered mainstream policy discourse as never before.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a cop who thinks his job ought to be bound for obsolescence. But law enforcement officials are processing this moment in American history in a wide variety of ways. Some officers are beating protesters and journalists in the streets. Some are beseeching their colleagues to listen to what the demonstrators have to say. Some are defending their profession on social media to strangers who reject the idea of a “good cop.” Some are considering a career change. Some police officers are drawing on their experiences as Black Americans to explain the protesters’ grievances to their co-workers. Many remain convinced that, in most cases that aren’t as cut-and-dry as Floyd’s killing, civilians who end up injured or killed by police could have avoided their fate if they’d simply followed officers’ orders. Continue reading.

U.S. Watched George Floyd Protests in 15 Cities Using Aerial Surveillance

New York Times logoFrom Minneapolis to Buffalo, Homeland Security officials dispatched drones, helicopters and airplanes to monitor Black Lives Matter protests.

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The Department of Homeland Security deployed helicopters, airplanes and drones over 15 cities where demonstrators gathered to protest the death of George Floyd, logging at least 270 hours of surveillance, far more than previously revealed, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

The department’s dispatching of unmanned aircraft over protests in Minneapolis last month sparked a congressional inquiry and widespread accusations that the federal agency had infringed on the privacy rights of demonstrators.

But that was just one piece of a nationwide operation that deployed resources usually used to patrol the U.S. border for smugglers and illegal crossings. Aircraft filmed demonstrations in Dayton, Ohio; New York City; Buffalo and Philadelphia, among other cities, sending video footage in real time to control centers managed by Air and Marine Operations, a branch of Customs and Border Protection. Continue reading.

Protests in Trump country test his hold in rural white areas

In the lake country 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, hundreds danced, prayed and demanded racial justice in Cadillac, a Michigan town that was long home to a neo-Nazi group.

It was not an isolated scene. In eastern Ohio, even more demonstrated in rural Mount Vernon, a town with its own current of racial intolerance, just as others did in Manheim, Pennsylvania, a tiny farming town in Lancaster County, with its small but active Ku Klux Klan presence.

The protest movement over racial injustice has quickly spread deep into predominantly white, small-town America, notably throughout parts of the country that delivered the presidency for Donald Trump. Across Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, more than 200 such demonstrations have taken place, many in cities with fewer than 20,000 residents, according to local media, organizers, participants and the online tracking tool CrowdCount. Continue reading.

GOP struggles to confront racial issues

The Hill logoLess than five months before the election, congressional Republicans are struggling to confront a host of thorny racial issues that have been unexpectedly thrust into the 2020 campaign spotlight.

They’re still scrambling to craft a response to nationwide protests against police brutality following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, divided over whether to rename Army bases named after Confederate leaders and resistant to banning all Confederate statues from the Capitol.

The resistance to remove the Confederate statues — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) argue states should decide which figures represent them in the hallowed building — is even creating friction in the party. Continue reading.

Scant evidence of antifa shows how sweeping the protests for racial justice have become

Washington Post logoIn the two weeks that saw an uprising against racial injustice and police brutality spread from the streets of Minneapolis to cities across America, the specter of violent, left-wing militants invoked by President Trump and a chorus of conservative voices has yet to materialize.

Instead, multiracial crowds have appeared in every corner of the United States, as the president sent more than a dozen tweets blaming clashes with police on antifa, the label associated with anti-fascist protesters who infamously sparred with far-right figures after his election in 2016. He went so far as to say he would designate antifa as a “terrorist organization,” though he does not have the legal authority to apply that label to a domestic group.

The nation’s top law enforcement officials joined the president’s attacks. FBI Director Christopher A. Wray directed blame for violence tinging the protests over the killing of George Floyd at “anarchists like antifa and other agitators.” Attorney General William P. Barr claimed, but did not offer, “evidence that antifa and other similar extremist groups, as well as actors of a variety of different political persuasions, have been involved in instigating and participating in the violent activity.” Continue reading.

Following George Floyd’s killing, Minn. House Public Safety Division discusses criminal justice and police accountability reforms

House DFL logoSAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Today during a public hearing lasting over seven hours, the Minnesota House Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Division considered a series of criminal justice and police accountability reforms. The legislation – the Minnesota Police Accountability Act of 2020 – was developed following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer and is aimed at reimagining and reforming public safety in the state.

“While people across the planet have their eyes on Minnesota, our state must seize this opportunity to lead the way by enacting reforms to prevent people of color from losing their lives at the hands of police, the very people charged with serving and protecting our communities,” said Rep. Carlos Mariani (DFL – Saint Paul), division chair and chief author of the legislation. “This was a long hearing out of necessity, both because of the number of proposals and the number of voices – from Black, people of color and Indigenous Minnesotans – who are calling on us to fundamentally shift the role of policing in our state to be more community-focused. We must ensure everyone – no matter where they live or what they might look like – can experience true public safety.”

The series of legislation – proposed by the Legislature’s People of Color and Indigenous (POCI) Caucus – is contained in three distinct packages. The Reclaiming Community Oversight Act includes the following proposals:

  • Data Practices Modifications for Peace Officers (Her)
    • Retroactive Repeal of Statutes of Limitations (Vang)
    • Warrior Training Prohibited (Richardson)
    • Choke Hold Ban (Moran)
    • Duty to Intercede (Becker-Finn)
    • Police Residency Reform (Hassan)
    • Data Collection and Regulatory Reform/etc. (Mariani)
    • Arbitration Reform (Her)
    • Law Enforcement Oversight Council Reform (Gomez)

The Reforming Accountability Act includes:

  • Use of Force Reform (Moran)
  • Prosecutorial Reform (Becker-Finn)
  • Investigatory Reform (Mariani)
  • Cash Bail (Noor)

Finally, the Re-imagining Public Safety Act:

  • Public Safety Peer Counseling Debriefing (Noor)
    • Police Officer Critical Incident Review (Kunesh-Podein)
    • Community Led Public Safety (Gomez)
    • Mental Health Training (Richardson)
    • Autism Training (Richardson)
    • Restore the Vote (Moran)

Votes on the legislation and consideration of potential amendments to the legislation will be taken up in a public hearing on Monday.

A research memo on the legislation can be accessed here. Introductory remarks from Rep. Mariani and Rep. Rena Moran (DFL – Saint Paul), chair of the POCI Caucus, can be accessed here. Video of the hearing will be available on House Public Information Services’ YouTube channel and Facebook page. Supporting documents – including bill language – can be found on the division webpage.

 

McEnany: We ‘need to’ be asking whether police brutality caught on video is real

Trump recently promoted a conspiracy theory suggesting a 75-year-old protester attacked by police was faking it.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday defended Trump’s smear of a 75-year-old peace activist who was brutalized by police, saying Trump’s baseless accusation that the man was a member of antifa and possibly faked his injuries was “legitimate.”

“The president was raising questions based on a report that he saw. They are questions that need to be asked,” McEnany said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

The man had “some very questionable tweets, some profanity-laden tweets about police officers,” she said. Continue reading.