Minneapolis PD charged with years of civil rights violations after George Floyd death

Minnesota’s Department of Human Rights has filed a civil rights charge against the Minneapolis Police Department in the wake of George Floyd’s troubling death, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced Tuesday.

Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in police custody last week, leading to national protests against police brutality and excessive use of force in cities across the U.S. A video shows Derek Chauvin, a now-fired Minneapolis police officer, pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck as he begged for air, saying “I can’t breathe.”

Chauvin, who is white, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter, according to John Harrington, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

The three other officers involved were fired but have not been charged.

Waltz tweeted: “Our Minnesota Department of Human Rights today filed a civil rights charge against the MPD. @mnhumanrights will investigate the department’s policies, procedures, and practices over the past 10 years to determine if they engaged in systemic discriminatory practices.”

The charge filed against the Minneapolis Police Department is for alleged discrimination on the basis of race and violating Minnesota’s Human Rights Act.

“This incident, and others similar to it since at least January 1, 2010 and continuing to the present, require investigation into whether the respondent’s training, policies, procedures, practices, including but not limited to use of force protocols, and any corresponding implementation, amounts to unlawful race-based policing, which deprives people of color, particularly Black community members, of their civil rights under the Minnesota Human Rights Act,” according to the charge.

The Department of Justice said last week that Chauvin and the other officers involved are being investigated for whether they violated federal civil rights laws, The Hill reported.

Since Floyd’s death on May 25, tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets, from Minneapolis to Dallas to Los Angeles, and the vast majority of the protests have been “peaceful demonstrators calling for change,” law enforcement officials told ABC News.

But there have been instances of violence and looting, which authorities say is being done by much smaller groups.

This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Minneapolis PD charged with years of civil rights violations after George Floyd death."