'We’re doing it anyway': Minneapolis bucks Trump DOJ’s directive on police reform

22 May

Mayor Jacob Frey speaks at the 2018 City of Minneapolis inauguration after being sworn in as mayor, Image via Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.

Leaders of the city of Minneapolis say they’re staying the course for police reform despite White House plans to abandon oversight of police violence.

MPR Reports Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said the reforms will continue regardless of a Department of Justice motion to dismiss department improvements.

“We’re doing it anyway,” Frey said. “We will implement every reform outlined in the consent decree — because accountability isn’t optional. Our independent monitor has lauded the meaningful progress we’ve made under the state settlement agreement, and the public can count on clear, measurable proof that our reforms are moving forward.”

A two-year federal investigation into the city’s police found the department cultivated “systemic problems” that led to the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. The DOJ determined MPD routinely used excessive force and “unlawfully discriminates against Black and Native American people.” In addition to violating the Constitutional rights of city residents, it determined the department routinely violated the Americans with Disabilities Act in its response to calls related to people with mental health problems.

The city welcomed the federal consent decree and settlement last December in the aftermath of the media firestorm surrounding the recorded footage of Floyd’s murder. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and three other officers were found guilty in Floyd’s death, and city leaders welcomed the opportunity to rehabilitate the city’s image under federal guidance.

But MPR News reports President Donald Trump opposes consent decrees calling them a “war on police.” His administration halted all civil rights litigation when he assumed his second term. On May 21 federal attorneys determined “after an extensive review by current Department of Justice and Civil Rights Division leadership, the United States no longer believes that the proposed consent decree would be in the public interest.”

Civil rights lawyers Nekima Levy-Armstrong said the city still needs the agreement and the guidance it provided.

“As far as I'm concerned, that federal consent decree is written in blood — the blood of those who have been brutally murdered at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department,” Levy-Armstrong told MPR News.

Read the full MPR News report at this link

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