Minneapolis police routinely used excessive force and discriminated against Black, Native American people: DOJ

The Minneapolis Police Department routinely used excessive force and unlawfully discriminated against Black and Native American people, according to a Justice Department report released Friday following the agency’s two-year investigation in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

The police department and the city of Minneapolis engaged in conduct that violated the First and Fourth amendments, as well as the Civil Rights Act and Americans with Disabilities Act, the investigation determined.

Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died in May 2020 after white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes. Videos of the incident, in which Floyd can be heard repeatedly saying he is unable to breathe, sparked nationwide protests over police brutality and racial injustice.

“As I told George Floyd’s family this morning, his death has had an irrevocable impact on the Minneapolis community, on our country and on the world,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference Friday.

“His loss is still felt deeply by those who loved and knew him and by many who did not,” Garland added. “George Floyd should be alive today.”

The investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department found that officers routinely used excessive force, often when no force was necessary; disregarded the safety of people in their custody; and failed to intervene when fellow officers used unreasonable force.

There were numerous incidents in which officers dismissed claims from people in their custody that they could not breathe, as occurred in Floyd’s deadly encounter with police, according to the report.

“The patterns and practices we observed made what happened to George Floyd possible,” Garland said Friday.

The report also found that Minneapolis police officers stopped, searched and used force against Black and Native American people at disproportionate rates. 

Black people were stopped by police at 6.5 times the rate of white people in Minneapolis, while Native American people were stopped at 7.9 times the rate of white people, the Justice Department estimated.

The Minneapolis Police Department also violated the rights of people engaged in protected speech, including retaliating against protesters and members of the press, and both the city and police department discriminated against people with behavioral disabilities when responding during a crisis, the report found.