Damaging police report leaves Minneapolis reeling 3 years after Floyd’s murder
Minneapolis’ wounds are far from healed.
TJ Johnson, a South Minneapolis resident of 40 years, says he is applying for a gun license after long since giving up on police to protect him.
Veterans of the city’s police force, which has lost more than 300 officers, say they are running on fumes, tired of patrolling under a cloud of suspicion.
Elected officials are grasping for a glimmer of optimism.
Three years after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, a Justice Department report released Friday concluded that the city’s police department was plagued by unlawful conduct, discrimination and mismanagement. In some ways, it was meant to be an answer to Mr. Floyd’s death and to years of complaints about policing in this city of 425,000. But the devastating report seemed to bring little closure to Minneapolis, where many remain traumatized and torn by distrust.
The report — which found that Minneapolis police officers used excessive force for years, disproportionately targeted black and Native American residents, and suppressed the rights of protesters and journalists — likely ended up differently in different parts of the city, said Senator Tina Smith, a Democrat who has lived in Minneapolis since 1984.
“There are probably a lot of people reading this report, especially people living in black and brown communities, who are saying, ‘This is terrible, but it’s not news to me,'” she said. “I think there are probably also people who live in more affluent parts of the city who might be surprised to see how pervasive the violations have been.”
Mr. Johnson, the South Minneapolis resident, said his brother spent his career with the Chicago Police Department, so his view of the police force is nuanced.
But Mr. Johnson said his confidence in the Minneapolis police department was irrevocably shaken after viewing footage of Mr. Floyd’s death, footage that sparked outrage and protests across the country in the spring of 2020. The video showed Mr. Floyd, a black man, gasping for air as Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, knelt on his neck for nearly nine and a half minutes as fellow officers watched. Mr. Johnson, who, like 18 percent of Minneapolis residents, is black, said he has come to the conclusion that the city’s police department can no longer be reformed.
“I stay as far away from them as I can,” says 63-year-old Johnson, who runs an electronics recycling company and has attended the same church for 28 years. “White men and women, they don’t worry like we do.”
Mr Johnson said he inherited a gun after his brother died, and recently filed paperwork to get a firearms licence. For him, he said, this was the best security measure in Minneapolis, a city where carjackings and auto thefts have been a major problem and where he is concerned about interactions with the police.
“I plan to never go out without my gun again,” he said.
Many Minneapolis police officers viewed the report as a damning indictment that delivers yet another blow to a department beset by low morale and understaffing. The officers’ union, the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, said in a statement that the federal report had glossed over vital and heroic work.
“The report will only be used by those inclined to have an anti-police bias to justify their beliefs, while those more pro-police will question the report’s findings,” the union said. “As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.”
In interviews, longtime police officers said they welcomed calls for sweeping changes in training and accountability. But they also said many of the most egregious incidents in the report involved officers who left the force, including Mr Chauvin, who was convicted of the murder of Mr Floyd.
“Police are tired of being called racist,” said Sgt. Andrew Schroeder, a member of the department’s firearms unit and a Minneapolis officer since 2014. “The cops that are still here on the department are good cops, they want to do a good job and legitimately want to improve the community. ”
Sergeant Schroeder said officers “don’t focus on color,” noting that city statistics 2022 shows that the vast majority of gunshot victims in Minneapolis are black men, as well as suspects in the shooting in cases where descriptions are given to police. “We focus on crime.”
Mook Thomas, 27, sees things differently. Shortly after moving to the north side of Minneapolis with her husband and five young children in December 2022, she first encountered officers one night around midnight as her husband was driving home. She said they saw a police car behind them on West Broadway Avenue, a major thoroughfare, and were eventually apprehended. They were told they were pulled over due to a broken headlight, she said, though she said both headlights worked.
“He’s harassing us by telling us we don’t belong here,” said Ms Thomas, who is black, and said the officer used racial slurs.
Afterward, Ms. Thomas said she was determined to avoid the Minneapolis police officers. She wouldn’t call them, she said, even if her life was in danger. If they ever try to pull her over again, she’ll say, “I’d keep going.”
Ms. Thomas said she has never seen a black police officer in her part of town, where many residents are African Americans.
The burden of restoring trust with people like Mrs. Thomas will fall heavily on Cmdr. Yolanda Wilks, one of six black female officers on the Minneapolis Police Department. She was recently tasked with overseeing sweeping changes the city agreed to as part of a court-ordered agreement with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. Following the release of the Justice Department report, the city and federal government began negotiations for a court-mandated review of policies and procedures similar to the one already initiated with the state.
In an interview, Commander Wilks acknowledged that rebuilding trust and resolving long-standing institutional problems will take years. But she said she hopes residents will also recognize how difficult the past few years have been for officers who stayed on the force.
“We forget that there are big-hearted, passionate people who work every day for the community they signed up for,” she said.
Commander Wilks herself said she was about to quit in the tumultuous and painful days following Mr. Floyd. She stayed, she said, because she felt the city could recover.
“It will take a while,” she said. “An open wound takes time to heal internally.”