The U.S. Department of Justice will conduct a sweeping investigation into whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in a “pattern and practice” of illegal conduct, according to a source familiar with the inquiry.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to make the announcement Wednesday morning.
The investigation, coming one day after ex-officer Derek Chauvin’s murder and manslaughter conviction, will seek to establish whether the state’s largest police department is engaging in practices that promote or allow systemic wrongdoing. Over the next several months, the independent civil rights probe will bring Justice Department investigators inside the walls of the police department and out in the community to talk to potential victims.
The Justice Department has also called witnesses before a grand jury, signaling a possible round of federal civil rights charges for Chauvin. Sources familiar with those secretive proceedings say federal prosecutors are investigating Chauvin’s use of force on Floyd and a 2017 arrest during which Chauvin pinned a 14-year-old with his knee.
The decision to open a pattern and practice investigation in Minneapolis marks a reversal in strategy from the Trump administration, which effectively abandoned these types of far-reaching probes into police departments. In the weeks after George Floyd’s death last summer, then-Attorney General Bill Barr drew criticism from former Justice Department officials when he refused to order such an investigation of the Minneapolis department.
This investigation will focus on whether Minneapolis police engaged in a pattern of unlawful excessive force, discriminatory policing, using force against activities protected by the First Amendment and use of force not in compliance with laws protecting people with mental illnesses and disabilities.
The Justice Department will ultimately report its findings to the public. If the investigation finds a pattern and practice of unlawful policing in Minneapolis, the federal civil rights division will seek to work with Minneapolis police, with input from the community, to identify ways to address the deficiencies.
“This usually takes the form of a negotiated agreement that incorporates specific remedies and that becomes a federal court order overseen by an independent monitor,” according to the Justice Department’s website.
If the civil rights division can’t reach an agreement with Minneapolis on how to reform the police department, the Justice Department has authority to file a lawsuit to force changes.
The investigation in Minneapolis shares similarities with the Justice Department’s investigation into the Chicago Police Department. Both were instigated by police killings of Black men that were initially falsely characterized by police officials.
In Chicago, dash-camera footage showed officer Jason Van Dyke shooting and killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald as he walked away from the officer. The video, released by court order 13 months after the shooting, disproved the police department’s initial report that McDonald had been acting erratically and lunged at the officer with a knife. Many people were outraged, accusing Chicago police of trying to cover up a murder.
Similarly, in Minneapolis, a police department spokesman released a statement after Floyd’s death, titled: “Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction.” The news release described a suspected money forger who “physically resisted” police, during which time the officers “noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress.”
Cellphone footage recorded by a bystander and published online revealed Floyd died pleading for his life while being restrained by three police officers. Minneapolis police spokesman John Elder blamed the misleading news release on not having all the facts in a fluid situation.
In 2017, after an investigation lasting nearly two years into the Chicago department, the Justice Department announced it had found evidence of a pattern of illegal behavior, including deadly force. The civil rights investigation found that the conduct stems from “systemic deficiencies in training and accountability, including the failure to train officers in de-escalation and the failure to conduct meaningful investigations of uses of force.”
As a result, the city of Chicago signed an agreement to create a federal court-enforceable consent decree addressing the problems.
Andy Mannix
___
(c)2021 the Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Visit the Star Tribune (Minneapolis) at www.startribune.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland another systemic racism hack.
Can you imagine how more buggered up this nation may have gotten, had he GOT ONTO the scotus??
merrick garland of the kgb launching a probe on law enforcement.
just how much more ludicris can this get?
dont launch any probes into the clintons , obamas, eric holder and demoncrat party.
might as well probe george w bush as well the turncoat that he is.
folks our nation is over.
It’s just another muti-million dollar (that we don’t have) useless investigation that will go no were… get no results… just fade away and a large chunk of the money will launder it’s way into the communist occupier democrat coffer through scam organizations like black lies matter, advancement project, American institute for social justice, color of change…ect. ect. ect… to many to name. It’s …ALL… a giant out of control SWINDLE!! one option left
How about “Hunter Biden” investigation, and could you ask Durham WHAT is taking so long with finishing and presenting his report!
I wouldn’t be surprised to find the entity of that durham investigation, has already gotten flushed down the crapper.
What’s the betting, if you are a WHITE cop, this means “YOU will get a pink slip””>
He needs to be probed
Good job for you garland, you useless ***! Investigate All of Minnesota, it’s full of those nasty ol’ racists! BTW, tell us about the progress you are making on hunter biden’s investigation!
Biden?? WHAT investigation.. NONE o them did anything wrong…
QUICK Look the other way!
I’m sure the swelling of his bank account is progressing along very nicely … at remarkable speed!
If this man is dangerous in his current position, image how much worse he would be as a supreme court justice.
American dodged a bullet in 2016.
only to take 2 between 2018and 2020.
I have no doubts whatsoever that the Dep’t of Justice will find systemic racism, discrimination, police brutality, and etc. against persons of color by the Minneapolis Police Dep’t, because that’s what the corrupt leadership of the DOJ has told them to find. This is simply another witch hunt by the corrupt democrat leaders at the DOJ. Since the city of Minneapolis doesn’t have the resources to fight the Federal Government, they will do whatever the DOJ tells them to do. The fix is in…. again!
I agree. YOU CAN BET they’ve already been told ‘FIND IT, even if it doesn’t exist!”
The real focus sould be the city council and the mayor for letting things get out of hand as they have. They themselves have done much to diminish the effectiveness of the police and let the department become the scapegoat for what should have handled by the city in the first place. Given the anti-police bias of this current administration it is no mystery why Justice would go after the police instead of the root cause, city government itself!
How about a probe into why taxpayers have their businesses looted and firebombed by criminals and nobody is arrested and put in jail. Why are these taxpayers forced to pay taxes for protection and abandoned by these city governments?
Unfortunately, THAT PROBE will never happen..