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
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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 |
Labels: Black Community, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd Murder, Minneapolis Police, U.S. Justice Department
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