George Floyd’s family filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him.
MINNEAPOLIS — George Floyd’s family filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force. The civil rights lawsuit, filed in U. S. District Court in Minnesota, was announced by attorney Ben Crump and other lawyers representing Floyd’s family members.“This complaint shows what we have said all along, that Mr. Floyd died because the weight of the entire Minneapolis Police Department was on his neck,“ Crump said in a statement. „The City of Minneapolis has a history of policies, procedures and deliberate indifference that violates the rights of arrestees, particularly Black men, and highlights the need for officer training and discipline.“Crump said the lawsuit seeks to set a precedent „that makes it financially prohibitive for police to wrongfully kill marginalized people – especially Black people – in the future.“A message seeking comment from the city attorney’s office was not immediately returned. Floyd, a Black man who was handcuffed, died May 25 after Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe.
