Story at a glance
- Mayor Jacob Frey (D) is working to change how the Minneapolis police department trains its officers.
- He does not support abolishing the police department outright, but calls for change are mounting in the city.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) says the city is reforming its police mentorship program to ensure that new officers are paired with the “right individuals” for field training.
“We need to make sure that those who are in a supervisory role, those that are riding with new officers with new cadets, are the right individuals to be role models,” Frey told The Associated Press (AP) in an interview published Tuesday.
“You learn from who your role models are, and that can be a good thing and that can also be a bad thing.”
The efforts come after the death of George Floyd in May, in which a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes despite Floyd’s pleas that he could not breathe.
Video shows the senior officer rejected a younger colleague’s question to change how Floyd was being restrained. Floyd’s death was ruled a homicide by the local medical examiner.
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Floyd’s death sparked widespread Black Lives Matters protests across the U.S., with demonstrators and activists demanding an end to police brutality and systemic racism. Some have floated ideas such as wholly defunding police departments and removing weapons from police officers on traffic patrol duty.
Following Floyd’s death, the four officers involved in his arrest were fired from the force. An independent autopsy report concluded he died from asphyxiation after then-officer Derek Chauvin, a white man, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite Floyd begging for air. The Hennepin County medical examiner reported Floyd’s cause of death was heart failure.
Chauvin is charged with second degree murder, and the other three officers — Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Kueng — are charged with aiding and abetting.
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The lawyers for two of the former officers, Lane and Keung, are reportedly portraying their clients as young, newly employed officers who deferred action to the more senior officer Chauvin.
Lane, as recorded on video, asked Chauvin during the arrest whether the officers should turn Floyd from his stomach to his side. Chauvin responded that they would keep Floyd how he was.
Calls for change are mounting within the city, with the majority of the Minneapolis City Council in favor of eliminating the police department entirely and replacing it with a new public safety unit, according to the AP.
Minneapolis’ charter commission is expected to hold a vote on Wednesday on whether to advance a proposal that could ultimately send the idea to voters in November, the outlet reported.
Frey is not yet in agreement, and will work on restructuring prior to abolishing.
“We should not go down the route of simply abolishing the police department,” Frey said. “What we need to see within this department, and within many departments throughout the country, is a full-on culture shift.”
“We have officers in our department who wear the badge that they do, wear the uniform that they do, because they want to make the city a better place,” Frey said.
Some changes to prevent police violence against civilians have already been implemented; Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and Frey have instilled new policies requiring officers to document their attempts to de-escalate encounters and state whether force is used or not. Frey also supports the idea of reparations to Black Americans, noting to the AP that Black people have been disenfranchised from building wealth for various reasons, including unequal access to higher education and home mortgages.
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Published on Aug 04,2020