MINNEAPOLIS: The Murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police and fervent protests around the world in response, seen by many observers as the necessary catalyst for a nationwide reckoning on racism in security work.
For more than nine minutes, a white officer put his knee on Floyd’s neck, a Black man who, out of breath, said, “I can’t breathe,” echoing Eric Garner’s last words in 2005. 2014. The video of Floyd May 25, 2020, murder is painful to watch as demands for change come from across the country.
But amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic, economic turmoil and a divisive US presidential election, 2020 has ended without the major police reforms many hoped for and others feared. will happen. Then the years 2021 and 2022 also did not make much progress.
Now, three years since Floyd’s murderAdvocates of federal actions — such as chokehold bans and knock-on-doors bans, and changes to so-called qualified immunity protections for law enforcement — are still waiting. signs of change.
“When people casually, and I think too often, say there’s some sort of racism that we’re in the middle of, I see no evidence of that,” said the US Democrat. Ky Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, said in a press conference. recent press conference convened by the Black Lives Matter collective.
Clearly, racial justice activists and their supporters in elected office have not slowed down. But the beating death of Nichols Tire at the hands of Memphis police officers in early January highlighted how long it would take to achieve meaningful change.
“I don’t play with words like ‘calculate’,” says Pressley. “It needs to be something of epic proportions. And we certainly haven’t seen a reaction to the hanging, the suffocation, the brutality, (and) the killing of the Da life. black.”
Since 2020, what has happened in Minneapolis?
Shortly after Floyd’s murder, Minneapolis adopted a number of changes, including banning strangulation and restraining the neck, and required police to try to prevent fellow officers from using inappropriate force. Minnesota lawmakers approved statewide police accountability packages for 2020 and 2021, as well as tight restrictions on the ban just this month.
The city is still awaiting the results of a federal investigation into whether its police engaged in a “pattern or practice” that is unconstitutional or illegal. A similar investigation by the state Department of Human Rights led to what was called a “court enforceable settlement” in March to reform policy in the city.
The federal investigation could lead to a similar but separate settlement with the city known as a consent ordinance. Police in several other cities have operated under such scrutiny for civil rights violations.
Activists say Minneapolis has already begun making significant changes, but the work needed to transform policy must continue.
There are also immediate calls to reduce police funding – and instead fund public housing, infrastructure and mental health services. But a ballot measure rooted in that movement failed, even in some Negro neighborhoods.
An AP review of police funding found that some municipalities elsewhere have made modest cuts, failing to respond to calls from activists.
What’s happening in Minneapolis this week?
Minneapolis activists plan to mark the anniversary with a candlelight vigil Thursday night at George Floyd Square, the corner where Floyd died. A festival in the square on Saturday will celebrate change in Minneapolis.
What happened to the officers?
Derek Chauvin, the white officer who killed Floyd, and three other officers who failed to stop Chauvin at the scene, are all in prison. Chauvin was sentenced by a state court to 22 and a half years for second-degree murder. Two of the other three officers pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting manslaughter and received shorter sentences, while a third officer was found guilty on that charge by a judge and is awaiting sentencing.
Chauvin also pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges, admitting that putting his knee on Floyd’s neck resulted in his death. In that case, he received a concurrent sentence of 21 years. Three others were also found guilty of violating Floyd’s rights and received much shorter sentences.
What happened after the protests?
Around the world, protests against racial violence and police brutality broke out in the wake of Floyd’s murder, sparking the Black Lives Matter movement. Videos circulating on social media of US police officers using tear gas and less-lethal ammunition such as rubber bullets have prompted calls for accountability. That accountability to date has largely come from civil settlements.
New York City found 146 officers engaged in misconduct during protests including excessive force and violence such as an officer who drove a car into protesters. Independent reviews in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles also found that those departments mishandled their responses.
In some cities, a small number of officers were fired. Some face criminal charges: In Austin, Texas, 19 officers were indicted by grand jury. But few have been convicted.
Minneapolis has agreed to multimillion-dollar settlements with people who say they were victims of excessive police force during the unrest following Floyd’s murder, including the burning of a police station. But very few officers face disciplinary action.
What is happening at the federal level?
In 2020, the George Floyd Justice in Policy Act, a federal law, has shown some signs of promise. It would ban chokeholds and injunctions, like the one that allows Louisville police to kill Breonna Taylor. It will also create a database that lists officers who have been disciplined for serious misconduct, among other measures.
The following year, the House of Representatives passed it but the Senate failed to reach a consensus.
Last year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order applying key elements of the bill to federal law enforcement. On Thursday, Biden reiterated his call for Congress to act to bring about “real and lasting change at the state and local level.”
“I urge Congress to enact meaningful police reform and send it to my desk. I will sign it,” he said in a statement. “I will continue to do everything in my power to fight for police accountability before Congress, and I remain open to working with Republicans and Democrats alike to find solutions. really.”
Meanwhile, Pressley, the Massachusetts congresswoman, has pushed for the Eligible Immunity Act to end, a measure she has reintroduced every year since 2020.
What about Floyd’s family?
Over the past three years, family members of George Floyd have appeared at protests and spoken out against police violence. Within days of his brother’s death, Philonise Floyd testified at a congressional hearing on police reform.
While relatives and reform advocates called for the law to be changed, George Floyd’s youngest daughter, Gianna Floyd, met Biden at the White House in 2021. Photo of a Marine holding the door for the boy 7 age has spread dizzy.
based in New York City Terrence Floyd, who became an activist after his brother’s death, planned to hold his third annual memorial event at a church in Harlem on Thursday night. He supported his efforts to win votes and promote music to pay tribute to his brother.
“You have to have faith that it’s going to happen, because it didn’t happen overnight for Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X. It didn’t happen overnight for Father Al Sharpton and Father Jesse Jackson,” he said of meaningful social change. “You can’t expect it to happen overnight for us, but it will.”
For more than nine minutes, a white officer put his knee on Floyd’s neck, a Black man who, out of breath, said, “I can’t breathe,” echoing Eric Garner’s last words in 2005. 2014. The video of Floyd May 25, 2020, murder is painful to watch as demands for change come from across the country.
But amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic, economic turmoil and a divisive US presidential election, 2020 has ended without the major police reforms many hoped for and others feared. will happen. Then the years 2021 and 2022 also did not make much progress.
Now, three years since Floyd’s murderAdvocates of federal actions — such as chokehold bans and knock-on-doors bans, and changes to so-called qualified immunity protections for law enforcement — are still waiting. signs of change.
“When people casually, and I think too often, say there’s some sort of racism that we’re in the middle of, I see no evidence of that,” said the US Democrat. Ky Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, said in a press conference. recent press conference convened by the Black Lives Matter collective.
Clearly, racial justice activists and their supporters in elected office have not slowed down. But the beating death of Nichols Tire at the hands of Memphis police officers in early January highlighted how long it would take to achieve meaningful change.
“I don’t play with words like ‘calculate’,” says Pressley. “It needs to be something of epic proportions. And we certainly haven’t seen a reaction to the hanging, the suffocation, the brutality, (and) the killing of the Da life. black.”
Since 2020, what has happened in Minneapolis?
Shortly after Floyd’s murder, Minneapolis adopted a number of changes, including banning strangulation and restraining the neck, and required police to try to prevent fellow officers from using inappropriate force. Minnesota lawmakers approved statewide police accountability packages for 2020 and 2021, as well as tight restrictions on the ban just this month.
The city is still awaiting the results of a federal investigation into whether its police engaged in a “pattern or practice” that is unconstitutional or illegal. A similar investigation by the state Department of Human Rights led to what was called a “court enforceable settlement” in March to reform policy in the city.
The federal investigation could lead to a similar but separate settlement with the city known as a consent ordinance. Police in several other cities have operated under such scrutiny for civil rights violations.
Activists say Minneapolis has already begun making significant changes, but the work needed to transform policy must continue.
There are also immediate calls to reduce police funding – and instead fund public housing, infrastructure and mental health services. But a ballot measure rooted in that movement failed, even in some Negro neighborhoods.
An AP review of police funding found that some municipalities elsewhere have made modest cuts, failing to respond to calls from activists.
What’s happening in Minneapolis this week?
Minneapolis activists plan to mark the anniversary with a candlelight vigil Thursday night at George Floyd Square, the corner where Floyd died. A festival in the square on Saturday will celebrate change in Minneapolis.
What happened to the officers?
Derek Chauvin, the white officer who killed Floyd, and three other officers who failed to stop Chauvin at the scene, are all in prison. Chauvin was sentenced by a state court to 22 and a half years for second-degree murder. Two of the other three officers pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting manslaughter and received shorter sentences, while a third officer was found guilty on that charge by a judge and is awaiting sentencing.
Chauvin also pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges, admitting that putting his knee on Floyd’s neck resulted in his death. In that case, he received a concurrent sentence of 21 years. Three others were also found guilty of violating Floyd’s rights and received much shorter sentences.
What happened after the protests?
Around the world, protests against racial violence and police brutality broke out in the wake of Floyd’s murder, sparking the Black Lives Matter movement. Videos circulating on social media of US police officers using tear gas and less-lethal ammunition such as rubber bullets have prompted calls for accountability. That accountability to date has largely come from civil settlements.
New York City found 146 officers engaged in misconduct during protests including excessive force and violence such as an officer who drove a car into protesters. Independent reviews in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles also found that those departments mishandled their responses.
In some cities, a small number of officers were fired. Some face criminal charges: In Austin, Texas, 19 officers were indicted by grand jury. But few have been convicted.
Minneapolis has agreed to multimillion-dollar settlements with people who say they were victims of excessive police force during the unrest following Floyd’s murder, including the burning of a police station. But very few officers face disciplinary action.
What is happening at the federal level?
In 2020, the George Floyd Justice in Policy Act, a federal law, has shown some signs of promise. It would ban chokeholds and injunctions, like the one that allows Louisville police to kill Breonna Taylor. It will also create a database that lists officers who have been disciplined for serious misconduct, among other measures.
The following year, the House of Representatives passed it but the Senate failed to reach a consensus.
Last year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order applying key elements of the bill to federal law enforcement. On Thursday, Biden reiterated his call for Congress to act to bring about “real and lasting change at the state and local level.”
“I urge Congress to enact meaningful police reform and send it to my desk. I will sign it,” he said in a statement. “I will continue to do everything in my power to fight for police accountability before Congress, and I remain open to working with Republicans and Democrats alike to find solutions. really.”
Meanwhile, Pressley, the Massachusetts congresswoman, has pushed for the Eligible Immunity Act to end, a measure she has reintroduced every year since 2020.
What about Floyd’s family?
Over the past three years, family members of George Floyd have appeared at protests and spoken out against police violence. Within days of his brother’s death, Philonise Floyd testified at a congressional hearing on police reform.
While relatives and reform advocates called for the law to be changed, George Floyd’s youngest daughter, Gianna Floyd, met Biden at the White House in 2021. Photo of a Marine holding the door for the boy 7 age has spread dizzy.
based in New York City Terrence Floyd, who became an activist after his brother’s death, planned to hold his third annual memorial event at a church in Harlem on Thursday night. He supported his efforts to win votes and promote music to pay tribute to his brother.
“You have to have faith that it’s going to happen, because it didn’t happen overnight for Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X. It didn’t happen overnight for Father Al Sharpton and Father Jesse Jackson,” he said of meaningful social change. “You can’t expect it to happen overnight for us, but it will.”
