Minneapolis council pledges to dismantle police department

June 8, 2020

A majority of Minneapolis City Council has pledged to dismantle the local police department, a significant move amid nationwide protests sparked by George Floyd’s death last month.

Nine of the 13 councillors said a “new model of public safety” would be created in a city where law enforcement has been accused of racism.

Mayor Jacob Frey earlier opposed the move, drawing boos from the crowds.

Activists, who for years have demanded such a step, called it a turning point.

But commentators say Minneapolis can now expect a long and complex debate over policing, and it remains unclear what form structural reform will take.

Mr Floyd’s death in police custody triggered mass protests against racism and police brutality.

Officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes, has been dismissed and charged with second-degree murder. He will make his first court appearance later on Monday.

Three other officers who were at the scene have also been sacked and charged with aiding and abetting.

What did Minneapolis City Council members say?

The nine councillors read a statement to hundreds of protesters on Sunday.

“We are here because here in Minneapolis and in cities across the United States it is clear that our existing system of policing and public safety is not keeping our communities safe,” City Council President Lisa Bender was quoted as saying.

“Our efforts at incremental reform have failed. Period.”

Ms Bender said details of the overhaul plan needed to be discussed further, adding that she would try to shift police funding towards community based strategies.

Meanwhile, councillor Alondra Cano tweeted that “a veto-proof majority” in the council had agreed that the city police department was “not reformable and that we’re going to end the current policing system”.

Last week, Minnesota launched a civil rights investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department, with Governor Tim Walz saying he wanted to root out “systemic racism that is generations deep”.

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The city council later voted for a number of policing changes, including the ban on chokeholds and neck restraints by police officers.

What has the reaction been?

The reform plan in Minneapolis sets up what is likely to be a complicated discussion over new ways of policing across the US. But the process of setting up a new system will probably take months, and is not guaranteed because of the mayor’s opposition.

Reacting to the announcement, Kandace Montgomery, the director of the Minnesota-based campaign group Black Vision, said: “It shouldn’t have taken so much death to get us here. We’re safer without armed, unaccountable patrols supported by the state hunting black people.”

On Monday, Democrats in Congress are expected to present sweeping legislation on police reform.

What’s happening elsewhere?

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had already said he would divert money from the city’s police department to social services.

“Defund the police” was a rallying cry during the latest street protests, that occasionally spilled into violence and looting.

“Defunding” advocates have for years been condemning what they describe as the aggressive militarised policing in the US.

They argue that police departments’ budgets should be slashed and funds diverted to social programmes to avoid unnecessary confrontation and heal the racial divide.

Entire city police departments have been disbanded before in the country: in Compton, California, in 2000, and 12 years later in Camden, New Jersey. In both cases they were replaced with bigger new forces that covered local counties.

What’s the latest on the protests?

Demonstrators gathered again on Sunday in US cities including Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles – where a local broadcaster estimated 20,000 people had rallied down Hollywood Boulevard.

Republican Senator Mitt Romney tweeted pictures of himself marching towards the White House with Christian protesters, with the caption “Black Lives Matter.”

The protests were mostly peaceful, and security measures across the US were lifted as unrest started to ease. However, Seattle Police Department said a man drove a car into a demonstration there on Sunday night, before shooting and wounding a 27-year-old bystander.

The UK also saw sizeable weekend protests in support of Black Lives Matter, with demonstrations in cities including London, Manchester, Cardiff, Leicester and Sheffield.

What happened in the final moments of George Floyd

June 1, 2020

The US has been convulsed by nationwide protests over the death of an African-American man in police custody.

George Floyd, 46, died after being arrested by police outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Footage of the arrest on 25 May shows a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck while he was pinned to the floor.

Mr Chauvin, 44, has since been charged with murder.

The key events that led to Mr Floyd’s death happened within just 30 minutes. Based on accounts from witnesses, video footage and official statements, here’s what we know so far.

A report was made on the evening of 25 May, when Mr Floyd bought a pack of cigarettes from Cup Foods, a grocery store.

Believing the $20 bill he used to be counterfeit, a store employee reported it to police.

Mr Floyd had been living in Minneapolis for several years after moving there from his native Houston, Texas. He had recently been working as a bouncer in the city but, like millions of other Americans, was left jobless by the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Floyd was a regular at Cup Foods. He was a friendly face, a pleasant customer who never caused any trouble, the store owner Mike Abumayyaleh told NBC.

But Mr Abumayyaleh was not at work on the day of the incident. In reporting the suspicious bill, his teenage employee was just following protocol.

In a call to 911, made at 20:01, the employee told the operator he had demanded the cigarettes back but “he [Floyd] doesn’t want to do that”, according to a transcript released by authorities.

The employee said the man appeared “drunk” and “not in control of himself”, the transcript says.

Shortly after the call, at around 20:08, two police officers arrived. Mr Floyd was sitting with two other people in a car parked around the corner.

After approaching the car, one of the officers, Thomas Lane, pulled out his gun and ordered Mr Floyd to show his hands. In an account of the incident, prosecutors do not explain why Mr Lane thought it necessary to draw his gun.

Mr Lane, prosecutors said, “put his hands on Mr Floyd, and pulled him out of the car”. Then Mr Floyd “actively resisted being handcuffed”.

Once handcuffed, though, Mr Floyd became compliant while Mr Lane explained he was being arrested for “passing counterfeit currency”.

It was when officers tried to put Mr Floyd in their squad car that a struggle ensued.
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At around 20:14, Mr Floyd “stiffened up, fell to the ground, and told the officers he was claustrophobic”, according to the report.

Mr Chauvin arrived at the scene. He and other officers were involved in further attempt to put Mr Floyd in the police car.

During this attempt, at 20:19, Mr Chauvin pulled Mr Floyd out of the passenger side, causing him to fall to the ground, the report said.

He lay there, face down, still in handcuffs.

That’s when witnesses started to film Mr Floyd, who appeared to be in a distressed state. These moments, captured on multiple mobile phones and shared widely on social media, would prove to be Mr Floyd’s last.

Mr Floyd was restrained by officers, while Mr Chauvin placed his left knee between his head and neck.

“I can’t breathe,” Mr Floyd said repeatedly, pleading for his mother and begging “please, please, please”.

For eight minutes and 46 seconds, Mr Chauvin kept his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck, the prosecutors’ report says.

About six minutes into that period, Mr Floyd became non-responsive. In videos of the incident, this was when Mr Floyd fell silent, as bystanders urged the officers to check his pulse.

One of the other officers, JA Kueng, did just that, checking Mr Floyd’s right wrist, but “couldn’t find one”. Yet, the officers did not move.

At 20:27, Mr Chauvin removed his knee from Mr Floyd’s neck. Motionless, Mr Floyd was rolled on to a gurney and taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center in an ambulance.

He was pronounced dead around an hour later.

On the night before his death, Mr Floyd had spoken to one his closest friends, Christopher Harris. He had advised Mr Floyd to contact a temporary jobs agency.

Forgery, he said, was out of character for Mr Floyd.

“The way he died was senseless,” Harris said. “He begged for his life. He pleaded for his life. When you try so hard to put faith in this system, a system that you know isn’t designed for you, when you constantly seek justice by lawful means and you can’t get it, you begin to take the law into your own hands.”