46-year-old George Floyd died in police custody on Monday after being pinned to the ground by the neck and strangled to death by a Minneapolis police officer. His death…
Communities United Against Police Brutality (CUAPB), a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based organization dedicated to fighting police brutality, says city authorities and senior police officials are directly to blame for the conditions of systemic lack of accountability which caused George Floyd’s death.
The Minneapolis Police Department has a poor record of keeping officers accused of abusing their authority to account, CUAPB says. “To take just one example: in October of 2012, the city dismantled the Civilian Review Authority, and replaced it with the Office of Police Conduct Review (OPCR). While by no means perfect, civilian review was sustaining public complaints against police at a rate of 7-8%, while the OPRC had an abysmal 0.36% sustain and discipline rate from 2012-2017. This institutional failure to discipline police officers has very real consequences. »
« The MPD officers who killed Terrance Franklin in 2013 had 19 prior complaints against them, but received no discipline. The MPD officers who killed Jamar Clark in 2015 had 3 complaints filed against them, but again, zero discipline. The MPD officers who killed Justine Damond in 2017 had 6 complaints filed against them, but once again, they received no discipline. Now we are learning that those who killed George Floyd, former officers Chauvin and Thao, also have multiple complaints filed against them. Chauvin has had 7 complaints since 2012, but no discipline; and Thao has had 5 complaints dismissed while one remains still open,” the group added.
