City Council should use its leverage on police contract to end MPD ‘coaching’ secrecy (6-27-2024) - "Recruitment and retention of police officers will require turning the page on a legacy of a failed police discipline system. As a career prosecutor, I have worked with many suburban officers and supervisors. They have told me that the tarnished image of the MPD was a key factor in their decision to work elsewhere. Minneapolis citizens and critics are frequently cynical about the department. In truth, a relatively small number of officers are besmirching the reputation of their colleagues. No public relations campaign or expensive police monitors can fix this. Minneapolis residents must know that serious misconduct will be exposed to the public and that consequences will result. "

Minneapolis City Council delays final police contract vote (6-26-2024) - "After the public hearing, Ward 5 Council Member Jeremiah Ellison stated he had more questions that needed answering before sending the contract to a final vote. "I'm left wondering if we're really getting our true value in this negotiation," Ellison said. "The truth is that today, I don't know." "

Journalist shot by Minneapolis police at George Floyd protest in hospice care (6-24-2024) - "Tirado was photographing demonstrations during the 2020 unrest in Minneapolis when a police officer shot a projectile at her face. Tirado, who was wearing protective goggles and press credentials, suffered a traumatic brain injury and was blinded in one eye. “I was lining up a photo when I felt my face explode,” she wrote in an NBC op-ed. “My goggles came off and my face was suddenly burning and leaking liquid, the gas mixing with the blood. "

A journalist shot by police while covering the 2020 protests is dying of her injuries (6-21-2024) - "Tirado was covering the protests on the night of May 29 when police officers fired "nonlethal" foam plastic bullets into the crowd. One of them hit her in the eye — even though she was wearing protective goggles and press credentials."

The Minneapolis Cop Who Beat Him Pleaded Guilty. He Still Fears the Department Won’t Change. (6-16-2024) - "Stallings was also smiling because he believed that once all the facts were out, he’d be released, and this would feel like a bad dream. Surely the justice system, flawed as it is, would see that this was all just a misunderstanding. Instead, officers wrote reports that differed substantially from what video cameras recorded, according to court documents, and prosecutors tried to put Stallings away for over a decade. "

Despite years of denial, Minneapolis police used secretive process for serious misconduct (5-29-2024) - "The lawsuit, filed in June 2021, alleges Minneapolis willfully misinterprets Minnesota public records laws by labeling coaching documents as private data. This practice has promoted a culture of secrecy, allowing the Minneapolis Police Department to operate without accountability to the people it serves, according to the civil complaint. "We're not telling the city it has to stop coaching officers," said attorney Leita Walker. "What we are saying is that if it looks like discipline and quacks like discipline — and if it's for serious misconduct — then it's discipline and it's public. It doesn't matter what made-up word the city uses to describe it." "

Four years after George Floyd, are reforms building trust in Minneapolis police? (5-23-2024) - "Federal lawsuits and investigations have highlighted past problems with MPD supervisors. In one case, body camera footage showed former officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on a 14-year-old’s neck and beating him with a flashlight, three years before George Floyd. The victim’s lawsuit said "MPD supervisors failed to discipline" Chauvin. Another lawsuit filed this week by a city worker accuses Chauvin of excessive force and again evading discipline. Last year, the Justice Department found "MPD Does Not Adequately Supervise Officers.""

Minneapolis police officers reprimanded for misconduct in aftermath of George Floyd's murder (4-5-2024) - "A sergeant was fired for pepper-spraying a Vice reporter as he lay prone on the pavement, waving his press credential. Another was terminated for brutally beating Jaleel Stallings, a 29-year-old Army veteran out past curfew. Eight were suspended for using excessive force on protesters, failing to de-escalate encounters or turn on their body-worn cameras. Supervisors also faced steep penalties for not completing use-of-force reviews on their staff. Dozens more voluntarily left the embattled department before investigations could be completed."

I watched ‘The Fall of Minneapolis’ so you don’t have to (1-11-2024) - "Cops rarely get charged with, much less convicted of, crimes, and the fact that George Floyd had health problems and drugs in his system when he died was sure to be used by the defense at trial, as I wrote a few weeks before the murder trial began. Alpha News Reporter Liz Collin, in her documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis,” pretends that these complicating factors about Floyd’s murder never came up at trial and weren’t reported by the hundreds of journalists who covered the case. Collin’s claim serves two self-serving purposes: It inflates the value of the supposed “bombshells” of her documentary, and makes the rest of the media complicit in an alleged conspiracy to cover up the real story of Floyd’s death. Just one problem: She’s wrong. "

Inmate who stabbed Derek Chauvin 22 times is charged with attempted murder, prosecutors say (12-1-2023) - "Floyd, who was Black, died on May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed a knee on his neck for 9½ minutes on the street outside a convenience store where Floyd was suspected of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Bystander video captured Floyd’s fading cries of “I can’t breathe.” His death touched off protests worldwide, some of which turned violent, and forced a national reckoning with police brutality and racism."

Small business owners say they’re pressured to hire off-duty MPD cops for security (10-17-2023) - "MPD officers would usually sit in their squad cars, fully uniformed, and do crossword puzzles or chat with their girlfriends or spouses. Sometimes they’d leave to go help MPD with calls. “They were gone half the time,” Santamaria said. “They were on my payroll but they were gone.” She sold the club in 2019. When Santamaria saw Chauvin pinning George Floyd on the pavement in the video that shocked the world, she recognized both, because Floyd worked as a bouncer inside the club in 2019. "

Former Officer Gets More Than 4 Years in Final Sentencing for Police Killing of George Floyd (8-7-2023) - "In May, after Mr. Thao waived his right to a jury trial, a judge in Minneapolis ruled that he was guilty of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Mr. Thao was sentenced to a four years and nine months in state prison on Monday. He will serve the state sentence concurrently with his federal sentence. Mr. Thao appealed his federal convictions, but last week an appellate court denied his appeal and upheld the conviction."

Minneapolis Police tried to hire another former officer with a controversial past. Even he was surprised (7-20-2023) - "Included in that search was a 1997 incident, where Storlie shot a Black teenager in the back. He claimed the boy aimed a handgun at his partner. The weapon turned out to be a BB gun. But the most high-profile story was from 2003 when Storlie shot and critically wounded fellow MPD officer Duy Ngo. Ngo, who was undercover, radioed for help after being shot by a suspect. Storlie arrived at the scene and shot Ngo with a submachine gun. The shooting set off turmoil within the department, resulting in multiple internal affairs investigations and a civil lawsuit that the city settled for $4.5 million. At the time, it was the largest police settlement in the department’s history. "

Minneapolis Police Used Illegal, Abusive Practices for Years, Justice Dept. Finds (6-16-2023) - "The Justice Department said on Friday that the Minneapolis police routinely discriminated against Black and Native American people, used deadly force without justification and trampled the First Amendment rights of protesters and journalists — damning findings that grew out of a multiyear investigation and may lead to a court-enforced overhaul. "

A critical view of the Minneapolis Police Academy – Letter to the Editor (7-4-2022) - "One of my role models since the second grade was a St. Louis Park police officer. He came into the room of second graders and said, “How many people do you think I have shot?” An odd question, right? The kids yelled out numbers ranging from one to 25. The officer said, “Zero, I have never had to shoot anyone.” This has always stuck with me as how a police officer is supposed to do their job. However, coming to Minneapolis, I was being trained by officers who had been involved in deadly force situations. One officer had allegedly shot and killed two people, but he was still training us despite protests from the community. Some of the officers training us were recently on TV for incidents of misconduct, yet they were still training us. "

Minneapolis police under fire for no-knock warrants after Amir Locke's death (2-4-2022) - "It seems that these no-knock warrants, where the police don't have to identify themselves until they are inside a building, seems to run headlong into the Second Amendment, which grants the right of people to have guns to defend themselves. I mean, if the police suddenly appear in your home, and you don't realize you're in the middle of a sleep, as it seemed to be in this case, I mean, there seems to be a real conflict there."

Body camera video shows Minneapolis officers shooting Black man during no-knock warrant. Attorneys say he wasn't the target (2-4-2022) - "Some touted as an 'accomplishment' that Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey banned no-knock warrants. But the city did not ban no-knock warrants, and like most police department policies, its policy gave wide leeway to field supervisors to make decisions based on conditions they encounter and allows for no-knock warrants in certain situations. Frey announced Friday night that he was temporarily banning police from seeking and executing no-knock warrants, though like the policy change 14 months ago, it still allows for no-knock warrants in certain situations."

Amir Locke was respectful and curious, parents say: 'My heart ripped out of my body' to see shooting (2-4-2022) - "Amir Locke was a week away from moving to Dallas to pursue his music career and other endeavors when Minneapolis police fatally shot him while executing a search warrant unrelated to Locke, said his parents, who called his death an 'execution.' Karen Wells and Andre Locke said Friday that their son was a respectful and curious entrepreneur who was mentored by relatives who are law enforcement officers with a sheriff's office in Illinois and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His father said Locke, 22, had a permit to carry a gun for protection in part because of his job as a DoorDash food delivery driver and the dramatic spike of violent carjackings across the metro. Wells called for the firing and criminal prosecution of the officer, Mark Hanneman, who shot her son. '[Amir Locke] was respectful of law enforcement,' said Wells, who lives in Dallas. 'I was overjoyed with Amir as my son. Amir was loved by all, hated by none.'"

Officer who shot Locke has almost seven years with Minneapolis police (2-4-2022) - "When he was still in Hutchinson in 2012, Hanneman was one of six officers in a narcotics training course who refused to be interviewed by state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigators looking into whether one of them gave marijuana to an Occupy Minnesota protester."

Minneapolis police insisted on 'no knock' warrant that led to Amir Locke's shooting death; city announces moratorium (2-4-2022) - "St. Paul police applied for a standard search warrant for the predawn raid Wednesday that ended in the shooting death of 22-year-old Amir Locke, but were overruled by Minneapolis police, who wanted to carry out a no-knock operation in connection with an ongoing homicide investigation, according to a source."

Amir Locke police shooting: What we do and don't know 2 days later (2-4-2022) - "Did the SWAT team announce itself before entering? Based on bodycam footage, no. The SWAT team can be seen opening the apartment door with a key, but not announcing its presence prior to doing so, in fact the lead officer turns the door handle slowly and quietly. Sources told Bring Me The News the St. Paul Police Department requested a standard warrant, but the Minneapolis Police Department insisted a no-knock warrant be issued. Interim MPD Chief Amelia Huffman on Thursday night said both types of warrants were obtained, so officers could make that decision on the ground. It's unclear why MPD wanted the option of a no-knock warrant. The department has not responded to requests for comment."

Amir Locke Fatal Shooting By MPD: What We Know (And Don't Know) So Far (2-4-2022) - "Sources tell WCCO-TV that Minneapolis police would not serve the search warrant that ended in the death of Amir Locke unless it was a 'no-knock' warrant. St. Paul police originally asked for a 'knock-and-announce warrant,' but only went back to get the 'no-knock' warrant after Minneapolis police said they would not serve the first one, the sources said. On Friday, St. Paul police also confirmed that the search warrants in the incident were signed by a Hennepin County judge and will remain sealed until a court determines otherwise, as is standard practice in homicide investigations and per Minnesota law."

Minneapolis Police Kills Sleeping Black Man While Executing No-Knock Warrant (2-4-2022) - "A controversial police shooting in Minneapolis is under review after a team of SWAT officers killed Amir Locke on Wednesday seconds after they burst into an apartment to serve a no-knock warrant. 'Amir Locke's life mattered,' Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement sent to NPR. 'He was only 22 years old and had his whole life ahead of him.' "

Who was Amir Locke, 22-year-old shot dead by Minneapolis police (2-4-2022) - "His parents, Andre Locke and Karen Wells, said on Friday that their son was 'executed' by the Minneapolis SWAT team, when they woke him from a deep sleep. They added that he reached in confusion for his gun, for which he had a concealed carry permit, to protect himself. They described the 22-year-old as respectful, including towards police officers, and said some of their relatives work in law enforcement. Ms Wells said the couple coached their son on how to act and do 'what they needed to do whenever they encountered police officers' because of the danger to 'unarmed Black males'."

Minneapolis police 'executed' Amir Locke, parents say (2-4-2022) - "Locke's parents spoke at a news conference organised by civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who said the family was 'just flabbergasted at the fact that Amir was killed in this way' and disgusted at how the Wednesday morning raid was conducted. They said he was law-abiding, with no criminal record, and had a permit to carry a gun. 'They didn't even give him a chance,' Crump said, adding that it was shocking that Minneapolis police had not learned from the death of Breonna Taylor, who was killed in a botched raid at her home in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2020, leading to calls for an end to no-knock warrants nationwide."

Minneapolis police kill a Black man while executing a no-knock warrant (2-4-2022) - "Seconds before police killed him Wednesday morning, Locke appeared to be asleep on a couch, under a blanket. The video from an officer-worn camera shows that Locke, who is Black, had a gun in his hand. But both the authorities and Locke's attorneys agree that he was not the subject of the warrant that police were attempting to execute."

Amir Locke: Minneapolis police demanded no-knock warrant, sources say (2-4-2022) - "The Minneapolis Police Department insisted the St. Paul Police Department obtain a no-knock warrant for the raid on a Minneapolis apartment that resulted in an officer fatally shooting 22-year-old Amir Locke. Law enforcement sources told Bring Me The News on Friday the warrant that SPPD originally secured a 'knock warrant' but the MPD, who was asked to execute the warrant on behalf of SPPD, insisted they be allowed to go into the apartment without knocking, so a no-knock warrant was then secured."

'Didn't even give him a chance': Minneapolis police 'executed' Amir Locke during no-knock raid, family says (2-4-2022) - "Andre Locke told reporters Friday that his 22-year-old son was 'startled' and did what 'any reasonable law-abiding citizen would do to protect themselves.' 'They didn't even give him a chance,' said civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Locke's parents. He said Locke was a licensed gun owner. 'We were just flabbergasted at the fact that a man was killed in this way.'"

St. Paul sought 'knock and announce' warrant, but Minneapolis wanted 'no knock,' sources say (2-4-2022) - "After Minneapolis police told St. Paul police that they would not execute the search warrant unless it was 'no knock,' St. Paul rewrote it and a judge signed off on it, according to law enforcement sources. A Minneapolis police spokesman said Friday he couldn't comment."

Amir Locke Bodycam Video Appears To Contradict Minneapolis Police Claim (2-4-2022) - "Video footage of the fatal police shooting of Amir Locke appears to contradict a Minneapolis police claim that armed officers 'loudly and repeatedly announced their presence' before entering the apartment where he was killed. Amir Rahkare Locke, 22, was fatally shot by Minneapolis Police Department officer Mark Hanneman on Wednesday morning at the Bolero Flats apartment building as police carried out a search warrant, according to documents made publicly available by police. Following public outcry, MPD released body-camera footage of the incident, which showed a man lying on a couch wrapped in a blanket when the department's SWAT team entered the apartment shortly before 7 a.m."

Minneapolis Police Video Shows Officer Killing Armed Man on Couch (2-3-2022) - "Tony Romanucci, another lawyer representing Mr. Locke's family, said Mr. Locke had 'no idea' who was in his apartment. 'Had they announced who they were and why they were there, this tragedy could have been averted,' Mr. Romanucci said."

Calls For MPD Officer To Be Disciplined After Video Of Arrest Goes Viral (12-4-2021) - "Racial Justice Network, a grassroots organization led by former president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NCAAP Nekima Levy-Armstrong, says 'It is clear that Officer Lange's excessive force escalated a situation that called for de-escalation.' The group is demanding that 'immediate disciplinary action against Officer Christopher Lange' is taken, whether that be putting him on administrative leave until the situation is investigated, or firing him."

MPD officer takes down, arrests man at Aldi; case is now dismissed (12-3-2021) - "The nearly five-minute video at the store on 14th Avenue South and East Franklin Avenue begins mid-exchange with the man saying, 'Don't put your hands on me.' The uniformed officer then says, 'You're out,' while grabbing the man's jacket and taking him down to the floor within around 15 seconds. During the takedown, a bystander is heard saying 'What are you doing? You're supposed to deescalate. How is this deescalating?' While the officer attempts to secure the man's arms behind his back, the bystander asks, 'Why is he under arrest?' The man being arrested also asks, 'For what? For what?' 'It's two people having a conversation with each other and you decided to escalate the situation by shoving him,' the bystander says to the officer."

VIDEO: Sheriff Deringer unloads on Minneapolis PD (12-2-2021) - Finally someone in this state wearing the uniform has the guts to say this.

'Absolutely Disgusted!' Local Sheriff Rips Minneapolis Police Over Protester 'Hunting' Scandal (12-2-2021) - "Noting that two of his own officers were currently on leave, Deringer recognized that there are 'issues' in every department in Minnesota. But 'generally speaking,' he insisted, 'law enforcement across the state hold themselves to such a much higher standard.' Referring to the 'hunting' videos, he added: 'All 160 of my cops understand that they did something like that, they would fully anticipate that they would be fired.'"

Minnesota sheriff bashes MPD, 'disgusted' by officers' actions (12-2-2021) - "'I'm telling you, from the top down, that agency needs an overhaul,' Deringer said. 'We are absolutely disgusted.' Deringer said the Minnesota Sheriffs Association is 'ready to write a letter saying 'We absolutely denounce whatever is going on with the Minneapolis Police Department.'' 'I'm appalled at the lack of leadership in that agency,' Deringer said, adding: 'I am so upset with the lack of leadership, and those other agencies throughout the state that truly do an unbelievable job serving our communities yet we are all cast in the same barrel of crap coming out of Minneapolis proper.' The actions of the officers in the Stallings case were defended by MPD Chief Medaria Arradondo, who said the should be seen in the context of the riots that had preceded it."

Minneapolis officer reprimanded for not reporting use of force in aftermath of George Floyd killing (11-24-2021) - "Macias is the second officer to be formally disciplined by the chief for misconduct tied to the department's response to protests last summer. The first, Colleen Ryan, was issued a letter of reprimand for speaking to the press for an article about the Police Department's 'toxic culture' without permission. Though he has been investigated for six previous misconduct complaints, the recent reprimand is the first disciplinary action for Macias, who has been with the department for more than a decade. It was the lowest available disciplinary action for Arradondo to issue."

International law firm quietly becomes key player in Minneapolis police reform effort (11-24-2021) - "An international law firm based in Ohio is playing an increasingly large role in how the city of Minneapolis handles a variety of controversial police issues, from investigating police misconduct to representing the city as its police force is investigated by state and federal officials. What started out as free work representing the city in negotiations with the police union has expanded to a contract worth up to $1 million. The firm, Jones Day, is closely connected to Republican party politics, employing numerous former Trump administration lawyers, including former White House counsel Don McGahn. The firm, the fifth largest law firm in the country, also represented the Pennsylvania GOP in challenging an extension to the deadline to return mailed ballots in 2020, and has earned more than $20 million from Trump-affiliated groups since 2015, according to Fortune. The work for Minneapolis was arranged in part by a partner based in Minneapolis, Andrew Luger, who served as U.S. attorney for Minnesota under President Barack Obama, and was recently nominated to the post again by President Joe Biden. The firm's partnership with a progressive city like Minneapolis seems odd to Paul Ostrow, a prosecutor and former Minneapolis City Council president. He said it's 'remarkable' that the city is paying a million dollars - at hourly rates of $300 to $1,000 per hour - to a Trump-connected law firm."

Debates on police funding, legal costs loom over Minneapolis budget negotiations (11-23-2021) - "'The costs of our broken policing system just keeping adding up,' Elianne Farhat, executive director of progressive organization TakeAction Minnesota, said in a virtual news conference. 'If the city has the money to pay off the police settlements that are driving our budget crisis, we have the money to fund things we know keep people safe.'"

Second Minneapolis officer disciplined for conduct during George Floyd unrest (11-23-2021) - "The case underscores how slow and inconsistent discipline is in the Minneapolis Police Department, even as the mayor and police chief promise swift, transformational change."

People in Minneapolis Are Calling Each Other Instead of the Cops (11-22-2021) - "Instead of relying on coercive violence from police and prisons, REP advocates a vision of public safety where communities solve their own problems by showing up for each other, using the skills and resources they truly need."

Federal appeals court: Minneapolis cop who shot service dogs won't be shielded by qualified immunity (11-17-2021) - "The lawsuit alleges Mays violated the Constitution when he and his partner responded to an alarm call at a north Minneapolis home in July 2017, where Jennifer LeMay and Courtney Livingston lived with LeMay's two children. Livingston accidentally set off the burglar-alert system. She called in the false alarm, though it's not clear if Comcast, the security company, relayed the message to police, according to the federal appeals decision written by Circuit Judge Leonard Steven Grasz. While his partner knocked on the front door, Mays jumped a 6-foot privacy fence in the backyard. A police report said the dogs 'charged at [the] officer,' but surveillance footage told a different story. One of the dogs, a 60-pound male called Ciroc that served as a support dog for one of LeMay's children, 'walked toward Mays wagging his tail in a friendly manner to greet Mays,' according to the lawsuit. Mays then shot Ciroc in the face. The other dog, 130-pound Rocko, 'presented himself to Mays in a non-threatening manner,' according to court documents, and Mays shot Rocko multiple times in the body. Both dogs survived, but they were rendered unable to perform their service functions, according to the lawsuit. "

Residents Seek Role in Federal Probe Into Minneapolis Police (11-15-2021) - "Terrance Jackson remembers driving down Lake Street in 2002 when he saw police arresting his cousin for driving with an invalid license. When he pulled over and offered to take his cousin's car home to keep it from being towed, things went badly. One officer grabbed his hand and bent it back 'to try to get me to react,' Jackson said. When his shoe came off as he was being restrained, another officer threw it across the parking lot. Jackson, 63, is one of more than a thousand people who have recounted their run-ins with Minneapolis police to activist groups that plan to share their stories with U.S. Justice Department officials conducting a civil rights investigation into the police force. The effort is aimed at making sure community members have a say in the probe launched the day after former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd."

Court allows Minneapolis dog shooting suit to proceed (11-15-2021) - "A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit agreed with U.S. District Judge John Tunheim's decision last year denying the city's request to dismiss the case. In his ruling, Tunheim said he would not 'approve a declaration of open season on dogs who merely walk towards police.' Mike Padden, Livingston's attorney, said neither animal put Officer Mays in danger. 'When you watch the video, it's just obvious that what he did was just inappropriate,' Padden said. 'The dog is wagging its tail. The dog presented no threat to him whatsoever. And then of course the second dog ran out of the house because it heard its companion yelp, and he shot that dog too.'"

With cops down and shootings up, Minneapolis residents frustrated by police inaction (11-9-2021) - "A Minneapolis police officer recently told a local Indigenous leader MPD has taken a 'hands-off' approach to crime control, including out-in-the-open drug dealing. After the Floyd protests, many residents began reporting slow responses or no response to their calls for help, leading City Council members to openly question whether the police were deliberately pulling back."

Minneapolis Police Allegedly Told Man Who Called 911 About Shooting to Ask for More Funding (11-9-2021) - "A Minneapolis man who called 911 to report a shooting was allegedly told by police that he should call the mayor and ask for more police funding. The man, Mike Rhodes, said he heard two men firing guns near 3 p.m. local time on May 12 outside of his north Minneapolis house. He dropped to the floor and urged his 15-year-old son upstairs to do the same. Rhodes then called 911. The gunmen had left by the time the police arrived. But when the two gunmen returned, walking through his neighborhood near 7 p.m., Rhodes called the police again. The police never showed up. The men then entered Rhodes' yard and began searching the lawn, as if looking for bullet casings. So Rhodes called 911 three times, about 15 minutes apart. The 911 dispatcher told him there weren't enough police to respond, Minnesota Reformer reported. He then called the police department three times. "(The people who answered the calls) told me that if I wanted the police to be more responsive in my neighborhood then I needed to call the mayor's office and ask for more money to fund them," Rhodes told Minnesota Reformer."

Minneapolis police officer charged in fatal July crash appears in court (11-9-2021) - "Just before reaching the intersection of 41st Avenue North and Lyndale Avenue North, Cummings was driving at 90 miles per hour. At the same time, Frazier's Jeep was entering the intersection on a green light, which gave him the right of way. The Kia and Cummings both had a red light as the Kia drove through the intersection at nearly 100 miles per hour, 'barely' missing Frazier's Jeep, a criminal complaint states. Cummings' squad car entered the intersection against the red light and hit Frazier's Jeep on the driver's side. Investigators say Cummings slammed into Frazier's Jeep at about 78 miles per hour."

Former Minneapolis police officer convicted in drug stealing scheme (11-3-2021) - "Prosecutors say between 2017 and 2019 Jindra used his job as an MPD officer to obtain drugs by 'not reporting, logging, placing into evidence, or informing his partner or other officers on scene about the controlled substances that he had confiscated.' They allege he would find a way to search a person, vehicle or residence so he could confiscate drugs without his partner knowing about it. Investigators who worked the case say those drugs included methamphetamine, oxycodone, fentanyl, tramadol, and other illegal substances. Prosecutors alleged that at times Jindra conducted searches that were well beyond what evidence or circumstances warranted, a violation of the subject's civil rights."

Federal jury convicts ex-Minneapolis police officer for stealing drugs during traffic stops (11-3-2021) - "Some of the traffic stops violated the Constitution's Fourth Amendment barring unreasonable searches, the jury found. He pulled over three Black males whose car slowly rolled through an intersection without making a complete stop. The driver did not have a license, and Jindra handcuffed him. The former officer then searched the vehicle and found a small baggie of what appeared to be marijuana and a small baggie of pills. He confiscated the drugs but never filed a report. Jindra was a field training officer, assigned to train new recruits. In another case, a trainee found a container of oxycodone pills in a driver's sock. Jindra siphoned off a portion of the pills before placing the remainder in evidence, while his trainee was busy with legitimate police work, according to the indictment."

Ex-Minneapolis cop convicted of stealing drugs during searches (11-2-2021) - "'Ty Jindra failed to uphold his oath as a peace officer, he failed the community he was sworn to serve, and he failed his fellow officers,' Acting United States Attorney W. Anders Folk said in a statement. From September 2017-October 2019, while he was an officer with Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), Jindra obtained methamphetamine, oxycodone, fentanyl, tramadol and other drugs by conducting unconstitutional searches and seizures, and then didn't report, log or put the drugs into evidence, the release said. Jindra, on some occasions, would search a person, vehicle or home so he could secretively recover drugs without his partner seeing him, the release said. And at times, he conducted searches that were beyond what was warranted in an attempt to recover drugs."

Fmr. Minneapolis Police Officer Ty Jindra Convicted Of Stealing Drugs While On Duty (11-2-2021) - "Former Minneapolis police officer Ty Jindra was convicted Tuesday of stealing drugs from suspects while on duty. The United States Attorney's Office says Jindra, 29, 'abused his position in order to obtain controlled substances including methamphetamine, oxycodone, fentanyl, tramadol, and other drugs by deception and by conducting unconstitutional searches and seizures.' "

Ex-Minneapolis cop found guilty for illegal searches, stealing drugs (11-2-2021) - "Prosecutors say Jindra intentionally created opportunities to search people and vehicles to steal drugs including methamphetamine and oxycodone, and that he conducted these searches without reasonable suspicion or probable cause."

The problem with painting Derek Chauvin as a 'bad apple' (4-9-2021) - "The rare testimony from several officers has led viewers to question whether the 'blue wall of silence' - an unwritten gag rule among officers to band together and stay silent when one of their own is under fire for misconduct - was beginning to crumble, a moment of hope that signals a shift that more officers may now be willing to intervene when they observe their colleagues engaging in wrongdoing. But a different reality is likely at play. While the officers' testimony can be interpreted as a changing tide in an opaque culture, it's likelier that the high-profile nature of the trial is forcing them to cast Chauvin as the bad apple - the one officer who doesn't represent the broader department and system of policing, the one they need to throw out - as a way to avoid greater examination of police. 'They're throwing Chauvin under the bus because that keeps the bus intact,' Howard University law professor Justin Hansford told Vox."

Minneapolis police chief's historic testimony reveals latest crack in 'blue wall of silence' (4-6-2021) - "Some critics on social media said that Arradondo's testimony was self-serving and that by painting his former officer as an outlier, or 'bad apple,' he was deflecting attention from the aggressive tactics that the department trains its officers on. Others pointed out that Arradondo disciplined an officer who spoke as an anonymous source for a GQ magazine article criticizing the department's 'toxic culture.'"

Day 19 of Derek Chauvin's trial: Outside expert testifies about numerous signs that George Floyd was no longer resisting (4-6-2021) - "Stiger, a member of the nation's largest police force with roughly 9,000 sworn officers, was hired by the prosecution to review relevant video from the scene, court records and training and policy material in preparation for his testimony. Asked to sum up his analysis of what he learned about Floyd's arrest, Stiger said, 'My opinion is that the force was excessive.' 'Initially, when Mr. Floyd was being placed in the back seat of the vehicle, the officers were justified in trying to have him comply and sit in the back seat of the vehicle,' the sergeant said. 'However, once he was placed in the prone position on the ground, he slowly ceased his resistance and the officers - or ex-officers, I should say - should have slowed down or stopped their force.' Besides Floyd backing off his resistance, Stiger said other factors the officers should have considered when weighing use of force includes the nature of the original alleged offense, in Floyd's case the passing of a counterfeit $20 bill at Cup Foods at 38th and Chicago on May 25. 'Typically, in a normal situation' for what the sergeant said called low-level offense, 'you wouldn't expect to use any force.' "

Minnesota police association, not Minneapolis police union, is paying for Chauvin's defense (4-5-2021) - "'The Federation is not paying for Chauvin's defense... or any other expenses,' Sherral Schmidt, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said. Instead, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association confirms they are paying Chauvin's legal fees. Brian Peters, the executive director of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, told the VERIFY team that it's his organization that is paying for Chauvin's defense. He said Chauvin is getting the same treatment any other member of the MPPOA would get. 'We can't pick and choose which cases we're going to defend or not defend,' he said. That's because all members of the MPPOA are entitled to its legal defense fund. That fund includes 'legal representation in any civil or criminal action brought against him or her arising from any act or omission of the Participant within the scope of his or her employment.' Since Chauvin was a member of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis and it is part of the MPPOA, he is a member of the MPPOA and receives those benefits. Even though he has been fired since the incident, he still gets support from the MPPOA because his charges are for acts he committed as a police officer."

Derek Chauvin trial expected to cast spotlight on Minneapolis Police Department's training program (4-4-2021) - "Genevieve Hansen, an off-duty firefighter who came on the scene as she was out for a walk, said she immediately recognized Floyd was in trouble and tried to offer help. Instead, Officer Tou Thao ordered her to stay on the sidewalk. Hansen, who was mostly stoic while testifying, was overcome as she recalled her frustration. 'There was a man being killed,' she said. 'I would have been able to provide medical attention to the best of my abilities. And this human was denied that right.' "

Chauvin Trial Again Casts Spotlight on Minneapolis Police Department's Training Program (4-3-2021) - "Revelations about Chauvin's history and his conduct on the day Floyd died have drawn further scrutiny of his training role even though his superiors were aware of his at-times questionable decisionmaking. Former Minneapolis police officials said in interviews that the problem is that there are no hard and fast rules about who can be a training officer. Those selected for the duty have to complete a week of training, officials say, but then tend to stay in those jobs for years with little oversight and less accountability. Several new hires have quit the force in recent months because they could not take the harassment they endured from their training officers, according to a department source knowledgeable about the departures. Over the past decade, only four Minneapolis officers have been removed as trainers because they were unfit, according to department records. Three officers were stripped of their training duties in 2018 - two for disciplinary reasons and another in 2014 who was deemed a 'Poor Instructor.'"

Chauvin case shines spotlight on Minneapolis police history of mistreatment of handcuffed suspects (4-2-2021) - "The murder trial of Derek Chauvin is not the first time a Minneapolis police officer has gotten into trouble for using force on a handcuffed suspect. In 2017, a Minneapolis cop was convicted of assault and sentenced to six months in the county workhouse after he shattered a suspect's jaw with a kick during an arrest. The year before, two officers were caught on camera punching a handcuffed and apparently intoxicated man. In the latter case, both were fired but won their jobs back through arbitration. The trend is not recent."

Chauvin didn't immediately tell supervisor that he knelt on Floyd's neck, or for how long (4-2-2021) - "Fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin did not initially tell his supervisor that he knelt on George Floyd's neck, and when he did, the ex-officer failed to report that the restraint lasted more than nine minutes as Floyd pleaded for his life, according to testimony in Hennepin County District Court on Thursday. Recently retired supervisory Sgt. David Pleoger spoke to Chauvin on a cellphone May 25 after receiving a call from a 911 dispatcher about a possible use of force by officers seen on city surveillance cameras. A body-worn camera captured Pleoger's initial cellphone conversation with Chauvin, who downplayed what had happened, saying, 'Not really, but had to hold the guy down, he was going crazy ... wouldn't go in the back of the squad.' Under questioning from prosecutor Steve Schleicher, Pleoger said Chauvin didn't say anything about putting his knee on Floyd's neck. Schleicher then pressed Pleoger on whether Chauvin's force was appropriate. 'When Mr. Floyd was no longer offering up any resistance to the officers, they could have ended their restraint,' Pleoger said. Schleicher asked if that was when Floyd was handcuffed and on the ground, Pleoger replied, 'Yes.' Asked whether Chauvin initially mentioned any use of force, Pleoger said, 'I don't believe so.'"

Patterns emerge among witnesses called for Chauvin trial (4-2-2021) - "The jury also saw body camera footage of Lt. Richard Zimmerman, with the homicide unit, arriving on scene. He told the court he's seen both the bystander video and body camera footage. 'First of all, pulling him down to the ground face down and putting your knee on a neck for that amount of time is just uncalled for,' Zimmerman said in response to state questioning. 'I saw no reason why the officers felt they were in danger if that's what they felt and that's what they would have to feel to use that kind of force.' Zimmerman testified that kneeling on a suspect's neck is the top tier of use of force. He said, 'that can kill them' and told the court once a person is handcuffed, they should be moved out of the prone position 'as soon as possible because it restricts their breathing.'"

Lieutenant: Kneeling on Floyd's Neck 'Totally Unnecessary' (4-2-2021) - "'Once you secure or handcuff a person, you need to get them out of the prone position as soon as possible because it restricts their breathing,' Zimmerman said, adding 'you need to turn them on their side or have them sit up.' He also testified that officers have a duty to provide care for a person in distress, even if an ambulance has been called. Officers kept restraining Floyd - with Chauvin kneeling on his neck, another kneeling on Floyd's back and a third holding his feet - until the ambulance arrived, even after he became unresponsive. One officer asked twice if they should roll Floyd on his side to aid his breathing, and later said calmly that he thought Floyd was passing out. Another checked Floyd's wrist for a pulse and said he couldn't find one. The officers also rebuffed offers of help from an off-duty Minneapolis firefighter who wanted to administer aid or tell officers how to do it."

Lieutenant: Kneeling on George Floyd's neck 'totally unnecessary' (4-2-2021) - "'Did you see any need for Officer Chauvin to improvise by putting his knee on Mr. Floyd for 9 minutes and 29 seconds?' Frank later asked Zimmerman. 'No, I did not,' said Zimmerman, who said that based on his review of police body camera footage, the officers did not appear to be in danger from Floyd or about 15 onlookers. Nelson has suggested that the bystanders - many of whom were shouting at Chauvin to get off Floyd - may have distracted officers and affected their response. The prosecution, however, noted that officers on the scene did not call for backup. 'The crowd, as long as they're not attacking you, the crowd really doesn't, shouldn't, have an effect on your actions,' Zimmerman said."

Eric Nelson isn't working alone to defend Derek Chauvin: A police legal fund is backing him up with a dozen lawyers and $1 million (3-30-2021) - "For some, including Peters, Chauvin is due such a robust defense - particularly from the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association's legal fund, which Chauvin paid into as a member during his 19-year policing career. The American Civil Liberties Union agrees, to a degree. But it worries that the appearance of a police organization paying to defend a fired officer - something Peters said Chauvin is entitled to since he was on the job when Floyd died - sends the wrong message. 'Chauvin is certainly entitled to a rigorous defense,' said Somil Trivedi, senior staff attorney at the ACLU's Criminal Law Reform Project. But 'I don't think the union can simultaneously bring credibility to discussions about meaningful reform and then push ... defending Derek Chauvin's conduct. Police unions have have shown their cards, and so I hope that people can see things like what they're doing in Derek Chauvin's case and take their opinions on reform with a grain of salt.'"

Witness: Derek Chauvin purposely shifted weight to add pressure on George Floyd's neck (3-29-2021) - "A crucial witness for the state was Donald Williams II, who saw much of Floyd's time on the pavement and who implored with Chauvin to let the handcuffed Floyd get up. His voice was strongest one among the witnesses heard in the now-famous bystander video of the arrest. Williams, who is a longtime mixed martial arts fighter, said he was familiar with how Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement in what Williams recognized from his training as a 'blood choke.' He said it can lead to someone falling unconscious."

Recent police misconduct in St. Paul and Minneapolis have raised alarm (3-26-2021) - "The timing of the actions has led some to suspect that these are provocations and that the officers may purposely be attempting to provoke young people into returning violence for violence. 'The police are trying to get us to do something so they will have an excuse to shoot us. Yeah, I think it's a provocation; I think they are trying to set us up to do something stupid. They keep pushing us,' said Cameron Clark, cousin of Jamar Clark who was killed by Minneapolis police officers Mark Ringgenberg and Dustin Schwarze in November of 2015. ... The officer doing the punching has been identified by activists as Minneapolis police officer William Gregory who has six complaints on his record and no reprimands. Incidentally, the sergeant on the scene was one of the officers holding the youth down and he never intervened or tried to get his fellow officer to stop striking the youth."

Minneapolis police investigate officer's punch of Black teen (3-26-2021) - "The Racial Justice Network circulated the nearly 4-minute Facebook video of the incident. The group contends it shows that while one Black teenager was being arrested, 'five officers surrounded another Black teenager, with two of them holding him, and another large white male police officer winding up and taking a full swing punch to the teenager's head.'"

Minneapolis Activists Could Put Police Reform Directly on the Ballot (3-26-2021) - "By proposing an amendment through a petition, the City Council, mayor, and Charter Commission have less power to block or slow down the proposal. Under Minnesota law, the Charter Commission and City Council generally provide oversight that the petition was legally submitted and help craft the language of the ballot question but cannot change the substance of the initiative as long as the petition met all the legal requirements."

Woman wrongfully accused of assaulting Alpha News journalist sues Minneapolis, police detective (3-26-2021) - "A woman who was wrongfully charged with attacking a journalist in downtown Minneapolis last fall has sued the city, claiming that the misidentification forced her to pay legal fees and led to a torrent of online abuse. The woman, Lauren P. Peterson of St. Anthony, alleged that a Minneapolis police detective misidentified her based on 'tips' culled from social media, where amateur sleuths tried to identify the person who allegedly assaulted Alpha News video­grapher Rebecca Brannon at an anti-police brutality protest. The suit names the city of Minneapolis and Dean Christiansen, the detective who filed a sworn affidavit in support of the criminal complaint against Peterson. The City Attorney's Office initially charged Peterson last September on counts of assault, riot and disorderly conduct but later dropped the charges after, the office said in a statement, 'additional evidence showed that Ms. Peterson was not in Minneapolis at the time this offense took place.' Peterson's lawsuit said she was camping hundreds of miles away at the time of the alleged attack. Furthermore, Peterson says she has a tattoo on the inside of her left wrist that proves she was not the person in the video, who has no such marking."

Minneapolis Police investigating officer's punch during clash with civilians (3-25-2021) - "Jalyne Murry told KARE 11 that suddenly he and his 15-year-old brother noticed a lot of Minneapolis officers in the area where they were walking. 'Out of nowhere all these police just came,' said Jalyne. 'It was like a million police out of nowhere.' The video shows a Minneapolis Police Officer punching a teenager, who Jalyne identified as his 15-year-old brother. Jalyne told KARE 11 that officers approached his younger teenage brother moments before the punch, which he himself caught on camera. The elder brother claims they had just shaken hands and split up before his little brother was approached by officers. He believes his brother was mistaken for being involved in the carjacking. 'Why are you around us,' said Jalyne. 'You are supposed to be serving and protecting in our community.'"

Frey: Internal investigation underway after alleged use of force incident by officer, 1 in custody (3-25-2021) - "'Yesterday was a normal day in Minneapolis, and I'll explain why,' CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein said. 'It's a normal day in Minneapolis because the law enforcement here in the city of Minneapolis show up in our community because they have been trained to be warriors, not peace keepers.' He later added, 'Yesterday was a normal day because our law enforcement showed up and targeted our youth, as they do all the time.' The group of activists spanning multiple organizations in the metro called for the firing of the officers involved in the incident, as well as the release of any body camera footage of the incident. 'Every last single one of you saw what we saw, you saw it,' Elizer Darris, of the Minnesota Freedom Fund, said. 'You saw him go down on the ground, you saw them get on top of him. Now we demand an immediate termination.' He added, 'We need to crack and destroy that blue line. That blue line is murderous, it is dangerous and it is time.'"

Minneapolis police shot driver with projectile, knocked her out at wheel, lawsuit says (3-21-2021) - "In a lawsuit filed this week, Autumn Larson said she was stuck on the entrance ramp to Hwy. 55 on May 30, a few nights after the death of George Floyd, when police shot a tear-gas canister at the side of her car. The gas wafted into her open window, choking and blinding her. Foot on the brake, she moved her head to the window for air, and a projectile hit her on the bridge of the noise, knocking her out. Her sister, in the passenger's seat, helped pull the car over. The police gave her no chance to surrender or be placed under arrest before they fired, according to the civil complaint. 'Instead, [police] instructed Autumn to leave the scene, and when she attempted to do just that, they shot her in the face without a verbal warning and then left her to bleed in the street.'"

Judge allows ACLU lawsuit against Minneapolis police to continue (3-12-2021) - "U.S. District Judge Susan Nelson denied motions by the city of Minneapolis and Lt. Bob Kroll, former Minneapolis police union president, to dismiss the suit. The suit, filed in July by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-MN) and several law firms, has five plaintiffs: Twin Cities attorney and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, Marques Armstrong, Terry Hempfling, Rachel Clark and Max Fraden. The court found that the case 'plausibly alleges that an unofficial custom regarding the use of unconstitutional force against peaceful protesters existed at the time of the George Floyd protests, and that the custom was either tacitly authorized by municipal policymakers or policymakers were deliberately indifferent to it,' according to the ruling."

KARE 11 Investigates: Minneapolis police misconduct payouts top $70 million (3-12-2021) - "The wrongful death case involving David Smith cost the city nearly $3.1 million. Smith died under a police officer's knee in 2010 in a case with stark similarities to George Floyd's death. Smith had committed no crime, but he battled mental illness. His erratic behavior at the Downtown YMCA prompted a call to police. That encounter escalated to a struggle - and ended with the 28-year-old Smith face-down with officers kneeling on his back for about four minutes. In video of the incident an officer can be heard saying, 'I don't think he's breathing.' An autopsy showed he died due to 'mechanical asphyxia' caused by 'Prone restraint' - a police tactic where a suspect is held face down with pressure on the back. Part of the settlement in that wrongful death lawsuit mandated Minneapolis 'require its sworn police officers to undergo training on positional asphyxia...' 'When David was killed, we wanted to make sure this never happened to anybody else,' Smith's sister Angela told KARE 11. 'We wanted to make sure that no one else died the same way that he died.' So, she says her family was outraged when they saw the video of George Floyd being held face down for more than twice as long as her brother. "

Minneapolis residents demand transparency after police inflate carjacking charges (3-9-2021) - "Police and the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office said that aggressive enforcement and helicopter surveillance netted 87 arrests and dozens of felony charges during carjacking crackdowns this winter in south Minneapolis. But a Star Tribune analysis of Hennepin County jail rosters on the days the helicopter was in use could not verify authorities' claims that the operations 'resulted in 41 felony-level arrests' in December and 46 arrests with '69 felony-level charges' in January. When pressed on the issue, city officials later acknowledged that just 15 of those cases were actually charged, though police say many remain under investigation. The enforcement campaign's inflated success is deeply concerning to many south Minneapolis residents who endured days of low-flying helicopter operation that now has them questioning the value of the surveillance and wondering what other information authorities were collecting."

'Intimidation tactic': Advocates on edge amid stepped-up security for Derek Chauvin trial in George Floyd's death (3-7-2021) - "Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Binder [sic] pointed out during a briefing by officials on security planning this week that city leaders haven't, to her satisfaction, adequately acknowledged during preparations the 'pain and suffering' the city has endured over the 'horrific way' Floyd died. She alleged that 'law enforcement escalated' last summer's violence and 'created the conditions for folks to come from outside our community to cause more harm.' "

Ex-Minneapolis cop Mohamed Noor asks state Supreme Court to hear murder appeal (2-25-2021) - "Noor's petition says a ruling from the Supreme Court is needed to differentiate between third-degree murder and manslaughter. The outcome has implications in the case against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the man seen kneeling on Floyd's neck in the video from May 25. Prosecutors in Chauvin's case are seeking to reinstate a third-degree murder charge against him based on the Court of Appeals' ruling in Noor. Jury selection is scheduled to start in Chauvin's trial on March 8 in Hennepin County District Court."

Federal prosecutors convene grand jury for civil rights investigation into ex-Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin (2-24-2021) - "One of the cases in Chauvin's past being examined by the grand jury occurred on Sept. 4, 2017. A description of the encounter, introduced in a motion in the state case, says Chauvin and another officer responded to a woman who said her juvenile son and daughter assaulted her. The officers found the son lying on the floor inside the house and ordered him to get up because he was under arrest. When the boy refused, Chauvin struck the teen on the head with his flashlight, then grabbed him by the throat and struck him again with the flashlight. In November, prosecutors in the state case against Chauvin filed a memorandum to introduce the footage, which they said showed, similarly to the Floyd case, that 'when faced with a suspect who does not immediately comply with his demands, Chauvin intentionally uses a level of unreasonable force to accomplish subdual and restraint.'"

Lawsuit claiming Minneapolis police targeted photojournalist during riots allowed to proceed (2-23-2021) - "U.S. District Chief Judge John Tunheim denied motions for dismissal filed by the city and former police union leader Bob Kroll on Monday, calling Tirado's account of officers firing a foam bullet at her, blinding her in one eye, 'serious and troubling.' Tirado, who is based in Tennessee, is one of several journalists with accounts of being injured by 'less lethal bullets' fired by police while covering the civil unrest that followed George Floyd's death. Her lawsuit alleges that police purposely fired the foam bullets at her, despite being clearly identified as a journalist, and that city officials failed to intervene when told about similar incidents in the days before Tirado's injury. It also alleges that Kroll promoted the use of force. 'That numerous other journalists experienced similar, seemingly unjustified incidents involving less-lethal munitions and other measures is even more troubling, as the allegations plausibly suggest an unconstitutional custom carried out by MPD officers of targeting journalists for unlawful reprisals,' Tunheim wrote in his decision."

Judge in lawsuit calls Minneapolis police violence against journalists during George Floyd protests 'serious and troubling' (2-22-2021) - "A freelance journalist who was injured in May while reporting on the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis has scored an early win in her lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and police union leader Bob Kroll. The lawsuit filed in June by Linda Tirado, who was blinded by a rubber bullet, claimed police were targeting reporters with violence and that city officials knew about it but failed to stop them. Kroll, who has since retired, is accused of conspiring with officers to encourage the abuse. U.S. District Chief Judge John Tunheim on Monday found Tirado has made a plausible case, rejecting motions by Kroll and the city to dismiss the lawsuit. The suit now advances to the evidence collection stage."

Report: Chauvin agreed to plead guilty to 3rd-degree murder, former AG Barr blocked it (2-10-2021) - "Less than a month before the trial for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is set to begin, a new report states Chauvin was prepared to plead guilty to murder and avoid a trial before his agreement was blocked by federal officials. A report published by The New York Times on Wednesday night states that Chauvin believed the case against him in George Floyd's death was so bad that he agreed to plead guilty to third-degree murder and was willing to go to prison for more than 10 years."

Minneapolis police tapped Google to identify George Floyd protesters (2-6-2021) - "The search warrant compelled Google to provide police with the account data on anyone who was 'within the geographical region' of the AutoZone store when the violence began on May 27, two days after Floyd's death. These so-called geofence warrants - or reverse-location warrants - are frequently directed at Google in large part because the search and advertising giant collects and stores vast databases of geolocation data on billions of account holders who have 'location history' turned on. Geofence warrants allow police to cast a digital dragnet over a crime scene and ask tech companies for records on anyone who entered a geographic area at a particular time. But critics say these warrants are unconstitutional as they also gather the account information on innocent passers-by."

Video: Weeks before pinning George Floyd, three of the same officers roughly detained the wrong man (2-2-2021) - "Adrian Drakeford was no hostage taker. The 27-year-old had no connection to the 911 call, other than living across the hall from where the woman said she was being held. The policemen never found the 911 caller or determined whether she was still in danger. Instead, they detained Adrian and arrested one of his brothers, Terrance, who arrived on the scene and protested their treatment of Adrian. Lee - the one recording - ran away when they tried to detain him, too. Adrian was released with no charges. Terrance was charged with obstructing the legal process. After reviewing the case, the Minneapolis City Attorney dropped the misdemeanor 'in the interest of justice.' 'It's not the style of policing you want to see any law enforcement practice,' said Andrew Gordon, deputy director for community legal services at Minneapolis nonprofit Legal Rights Center, who represented Terrance. 'Their interest is not necessarily about investigating a crime. ... Their interest is to put these kids in their place.' ... 'The timeline here is troubling,' said Gordon. 'The same officers are involved in the murder of George Floyd, using some of the same techniques and the need and desire to control people.' Gordon wonders why the wrongful detainment of the Drakefords and failure to investigate the 911 report - in addition to the litany of misconduct complaints leveled against Chauvin throughout his career - didn't raise red flags and lead someone in a position of power to intervene on how these officers approached their jobs. "

Chief makes Minneapolis Police Department's body camera policy 'more transparent' (2-1-2021) - "The Minneapolis Police Department's body camera policy will now prevent officers from turning off their camera to have private discussions on scene. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced the change on Monday, and it goes into effect on Thursday. According to the mayor's office, officers will no longer be allowed to deactivate their cameras while on scene to talk privately while the call is still in progress. The mayor's office noted that any 'conversations about performance or tactics' can still be redacted before any video is released to the public. But the new policy is intended to increase accountability and transparency."

Minneapolis makes big bet on violence prevention effort to stem crime surge (1-23-2021) - "Cotton hopes people will be patient and that city leaders will continue to support her office. She cautions against rushing out the new programs for those seeking a 'quick solution.' She noted that in the late 1990s - the last time the city experienced similar levels of violent crime - Minneapolis used a group violence intervention model, and violent crime fell over the course of one summer. 'Then, city officials and others felt like, 'Oh, we've got the magic bullet, we don't need anything else, and we've solved that problem.''"

Proposed ban on use of facial recognition technology by police advances in Minneapolis (1-22-2021) - "The Star Tribune found that local, state and federal agencies have run nearly 1,000 searches through the Sheriff's Office's facial recognition system since 2018. More than half of those searches came in the first nine months of 2020 alone. The Minneapolis Police Department, by far the agency's biggest client, has for years deflected questions about its use of the technology. In 2018, a spokesperson told the Star Tribune that the department had no plans to use the technology. But the county records now show that MPD personnel have accessed facial recognition software hundreds of times over the past five years. The records show that between Oct. 1, 2015, and Sept. 28, 2020, MPD investigators used the system's software 237 times - a number dwarfed by other big city departments across the country."

Minneapolis police union chief Bob Kroll goes out with a whimper (1-19-2021) - "Kroll devoted his 25 years on the board of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis to blocking every effort at reform and any effort to discipline or weed out the unfit, the corrupt, the violent, the bigoted from the force. On his way out the door, he sat down for a chat with WCCO Radio. In this safe space, podcast host Roshini Rajkumar - a good friend of the Kroll family - tossed softball after softball. But it's never a good sign when even your friends open the exit interview with a question like, 'Are you a member of the KKK?' Instead of recoiling in horror at the idea of being linked to a vile hate group or condemning the Ku Klux Klan and everything it holds dear, Kroll chuckled. No, I'm not, he said, there is no evidence to back up that claim."

Study: 'Less lethal' weapons used by police during George Floyd protests 'not appropriate,' caused significant injuries (1-14-2021) - "The police use of less-lethal weapons for crowd control during the George Floyd civil unrest in the Twin Cities led to a significant number of head, neck and face injuries, violating United Nations guidelines for such weapons, according to a study published Wednesday. The study published in the New England Journal of Medicine said that the findings indicate 'that under current practices, projectiles are not appropriate for crowd control.' Conducted by an interdisciplinary team from the University of Minnesota, the study was peer reviewed and published as a letter in the highly respected medical journal."

Controversial head of Minneapolis police union announces retirement (1-11-2021) - "Mayor Jacob Frey and Kroll skirmished over several issues, including when Frey told officers they could not appear in uniform at political events. That prompted Kroll to make T-shirts supporting President Donald Trump; Kroll and other officers also appeared alongside Trump at a Minnesota rally in 2019. 'Good riddance,' Frey tweeted Monday."

Minneapolis police union president Bob Kroll announces intent to retire (1-11-2021) - "Although it makes no mention of recent events, Kroll's retirement announcement comes less than a week after a mob of pro-Donald Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in attempts to disrupt Congress' certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory. Kroll was an outspoken Trump supporter. He appeared on stage with him at a Minneapolis campaign rally in late 2019."

Bob Kroll to retire as Minneapolis police union chief (1-11-2021) - "Kroll was under huge pressure to resign last spring and summer following the death of George Floyd during his arrest by Minneapolis Police Department, with Kroll issuing a statement a week later in which he criticized Floyd's 'violent criminal history,' criticized local leaders for not giving police enough support, and praised officers responding to the subsequent civil unrest and riots."

Police union head Bob Kroll says he'll retire at end of January (1-11-2021) - "Community activists including Communities United Against Police Brutality President Michelle Gross welcomed news of Kroll's early departure on Monday. 'This is a guy who literally thinks that police brutality is fine and has basically developed that culture in the police department and as long he's there we can have no hope of chaning that culture,' Gross said."

Minneapolis police chief reprimands officer who anonymously detailed department's 'toxic culture' (1-8-2021) - "Much like corporate America, image-conscious police departments began hiring public relations staff to get their message out as law enforcement became professionalized in recent decades, according to media critic David Brauer. 'As a citizen, I am just really glad that somebody breached the blue wall of silence. I mean the big problem we have in this city is we can't separate the cops who want to do good and want to do good stuff internally, from the cops who want to fight stuff,' said Brauer, a retired longtime journalist who last worked as a media critic for the MinnPost news site. 'As a citizen, I want to know if there's a toxic culture within the department.'"

Black protesters in Minneapolis have encountered tear gas, rubber bullets, and batons. White pro-Trump crowds took selfies with U.S. Capitol police. (1-7-2021) - "After Minneapolis police killed George Floyd this summer, police used rubber bullets and tear gas against peaceful protesters for days, even as they failed to stop fires and looting. During the protests, police made 570 arrests. Seven months later, the sound of police helicopters over the city has grown familiar. Since Floyd's death, the governor has called in the National Guard three times to address real or anticipated civil unrest. None of these measures seemed to apply to the overwhelmingly white, pro-Trump insurrectionists."

Protesters question police shooting of Dolal Idd (1-5-2021) - "In fact Reid Rossell, a glass expert who has worked with glass for over 40 years, took to social media to explain, 'The bodycam video doesn't prove what they say it proves. Car glass is tempered. It is molded and heat treated to create tremendous inner force and pressure, over 10,000 psi. Any projectile damage coming from outside or inside causes the glass to expand and explode outside the radius of the curve. Outside the car.' Others who have watched the video wondered aloud why there was no muzzle flash from inside the car if a weapon was fired and why, though the police's guns can be heard, his was not."

Police raided the home of an older Somali couple, bound their wrists, and yelled at their small children. Then the police told them their son was shot dead. (1/1/2021) - "Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, an advocate for transforming traditional policing, said he hoped the demonstrations stayed peaceful and that the family got space to mourn. He also said he felt concerned about what he'd learned so far about the police shooting. 'I'm frustrated that the police don't seem to have any strategy to preserve life during a tense situation,' Ellison told Sahan Journal. 'I'm concerned that any Black person with a gun seems especially vulnerable to being killed by police. And I'm troubled by the knee-jerk escalations our police have to any and all demonstrations against them.' "

Minneapolis police announce disciplinary process changes (12/29/2020) - "Frey said the new process will improve the likelihood of any disciplinary actions being upheld by an arbitrator. 'In Minnesota, more than 50% of all disciplinary and discharge decisions are reduced or overturned completely through this arbitration process,' Frey said. 'Arbitrators will often cite due process concerns, including faulty investigations as the reason for overturning those decisions. That's unacceptable.'"

Fired Minneapolis officer invoked 'Black Hawk Down' in stop of Somali teens, records say (12/18/2020) - "The allegations against Weber stemmed from a March 18, 2015, stop in which he was caught on cellphone video going on a profanity-laced tirade against the teen, Hamza Jeylani, threatening to break the 17-year-old's legs - all within earshot of other officers. What the video didn't capture was what Weber said to the teenagers next, according to the investigative report: 'Hey, you know what? ... Do you remember what happened in Blackhawk Down? ... Killed a bunch of you folk. ... I'm proud of that. ... We didn't finish the job over there, cause if we'd finished the job you guys wouldn't be over here right now.' Weber's taunts were apparently in reference to 'Black Hawk Down,' a blockbuster movie based on a book of the same name by journalist Mark Bowden, about an ill-fated 1993 U.S. Special Forces mission in Mogadishu, Somalia. The film has drawn criticism in some quarters for its depiction of Somalis and its uncritical view of America's involvement in the civil war that engulfed the east African nation. The comments came to light only after Internal Affairs investigators reviewed audio from another officer's lapel microphone; Weber's own mic was turned off, in violation of department policy."

Arradondo announces new No. 2, other changes to Minneapolis police command staff (12/18/2020) - "The moves come at a time of upheaval for the state's largest police agency, which is under a human rights investigation while facing a wave of officer departures, rising crime and ongoing calls for its defunding and even disbandment. The changes will go into effect in the coming weeks."

A Minneapolis cop told Somali American teens he was proud U.S. troops killed 'you folk' during Black Hawk Down. The police union fought to keep his job anyway. (12/17/2020) - "For more than five years, the City of Minneapolis didn't publicly disclose the full events of that day. Now, Sahan Journal has obtained documents and recordings through a public records lawsuit against the city, which reveal for the first time that the Minneapolis officer subjected the teens to a litany of racist comments, within earshot of other officers and a police supervisor. No record has emerged to suggest any of these other officers intervened or reported their colleague to department leadership. The officer's newly discovered words-described as volatile, prejudiced, and horrific by police accountability advocates-highlight the Minneapolis Police Department's often tenuous relationship with people of color, and especially the Somali community. After an internal disciplinary investigation, the police department fired the officer. But the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis union fought to keep the officer's badge at an employment arbitration hearing over a year after the incident. This process led to a scathing ruling which upheld the firing, calling the officer's language 'about as bad as it gets.' "

The Bad Cops: How Minneapolis protects its worst police officers until it’s too late (12-15-2020) - "The next thing Luis Garcia remembers is feeling excruciating pain as an unfamiliar voice commanded him to get up. He was placed back in the squad car, dizzy and his mouth so full of blood he couldn’t speak. Garcia’s account can be found in the 26-page investigative report of the incident, one of 195 police disciplinary files obtained by the Reformer through lengthy and ongoing freedom-of-information litigation with the city of Minneapolis. The officer remembers the incident differently. Lehner told investigators Garcia was just “bleeding from his lip a little bit” and “was talking with us just fine” as they drove him in their squad car to the emergency room, according to the disciplinary file. Doctors would find he had a broken jaw, several facial fractures and two missing front teeth. "

Minneapolis approves cuts to police budget, not staffing (12/10/2020) - "Supporters call the City Council's plan 'Safety for All,' the latest version of the 'defund the police' movement that Minneapolis and other cities have considered since Floyd's death ignited mass demonstrations against police brutality and a nationwide reckoning with racism. The plan cuts nearly $8 million from Frey's $179 million policing budget and redirects it to mental health teams, violence prevention programs and other initiatives. "

Virginia, MN Police Praise Use Of New BolaWrap Tool (12/3/2020) - "While it won't work in every situation, Young-Mattson likes that it doesn't rely on pain for compliance. 'Everyone goes home safe, unharmed, it's minimal pain compliance, minimal injury, it's another tool I feel every officer should have on their duty belt,' said [Virginia Police Chief Nicole] Young-Mattson. Minneapolis police have tested BolaWraps and do not plan to use them going forward. According to a police spokesperson, the device was was deployed twice in testing and failed both times. All of the department's BolaWraps have been returned to the manufacturer."

Minneapolis police restrict use of 'no-knock' search and arrest warrants (11/25/2020) - "The change would, for the first time, establish clear expectations for MPD officers before crossing the threshold of a home. Surprise police raids have resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians and most recently came under harsh criticism after police in Louisville, Ky., fatally shot Breonna Taylor in her home last March."

Seeking to show pattern of excessive force by Chauvin, prosecutors cite incident with 14-year-old boy who couldn't breathe (11-17-2020) - "Footage from the incident in question shows Chauvin and another officer responding to a domestic assault Sept. 4, 2017, in which a mother said she was assaulted by her son and daughter, who were both minors. Shortly after arriving, the officers found the son lying on the floor in the back of the house, on his phone, and ordered him to get up because he was under arrest. When he refused, Chauvin grabbed him and, without saying anything, struck the teen in the head with his flashlight and then grabbed him by the throat, before hitting him again with the flashlight - all of which occurred less than a minute after the officers first encountered the boy, prosecutors said. According to prosecutors, the video then showed Chauvin applying a neck restraint to the boy, who briefly went unconscious, and then placing him in a prone position with a knee in his back for about 17 minutes until paramedics arrived. Chauvin held the position even after the child told him that he was in pain and couldn't breathe, and after the mother tried to intervene, prosecutors said. At one point, the boy started bleeding from his ear - from getting hit with the flashlight, he later told paramedics - and the boy asked to be put on his back, because his neck really hurt. He then began crying and again asked to be flipped over, prompting Chauvin to ask if the boy would be 'flopping around at all.' 'No,' the boy responded. 'Better not,'' Chauvin said, keeping his knee on the child's back."

Minneapolis police investigator admits to using 'deception' to question, arrest alleged murder accomplice (11/17/2020) - "Under questioning from a defense attorney Tuesday, a Minneapolis police investigator admitted that he used 'deception' to lure an alleged accomplice to police headquarters, where she was questioned and arrested in the 2019 New Year's Eve killing of Monique Baugh. Attorney Christa Groshek argued that police misled her client, Shante Davis, into appearing at headquarters two times this year under the guise that she could possibly retrieve her cellphone and laptop, which they had confiscated as evidence."

Minneapolis considering swapping police with mental health professionals for some calls (11-16-2020) - "Meanwhile, a growing number of small business owners and workers are pushing for the same concept - which they call a Mobile Mental Health Emergency Response Team. 'I'm really happy that Fair State and all of these small businesses banded together and added their voices to this conversation. They're saying, there's a lot of times that we're calling for help and the police doesn't give us the help we need,' Fletcher said. 'I think that perspective is really missing sometimes in the conversation.'"

Minneapolis City Council appoints new police oversight board members, following criticisms for letting it go dark (11-14-2020) - "The Minneapolis City Council voted to appoint four new members to a police watchdog commission Friday, following criticism that city leaders let the citizen oversight group go dark in a pivotal moment for the future of public safety in the city. The Police Conduct Oversight Commission serves as Minneapolis' primary mechanism for soliciting public input to be used in policy recommendations. In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, as the city grapples with how to reform its police department, elected officials have cited the commission as critical to ensuring that the public has a strong voice in the debate."

Minneapolis City Council narrowly approves plan to bring in outside police officers to help (11/13/2020) - "A divided City Council on Friday approved nearly $500,000 to contract with the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office and Metro Transit police for extra officers. Together, they would work on joint enforcement teams responding to 911 calls or targeting hot spots for violence around the city."

'It's outrageous': Over 600 protesters surrounded, detained and arrested on I-94 (11-6-2020) - "While Minnesota State Patrol tweeted that 'walking on the freeway is very dangerous for pedestrians and drivers,' Minneapolis officials and others criticized officers' decision to keep the freeway blocked for five hours when the march was just a few hundred feet away from the off-ramp. 'This overreaction from law enforcement is generating more disturbance and chaos than the protesters who went onto the highway,' tweeted Ward 5 Council member Jeremiah Ellison, who witnessed the situation. Many protesters called various city and state officials, including the governor and the mayor, while trapped. Law enforcement did not issue a dispersal order for protesters after surrounding them, but immediately announced that they were under arrest for public nuisance and unlawful gathering. Minnesota State Statute notes that public nuisance is an act that 'interferes with' or 'obstructs' any public highway, among other definitions. Minnesota State Patrol also tweeted that 'no force or chemicals' were used against protesters. However, Minnesota Public Radio photojournalist Evan Frost photographed an officer macing spectators gathered outside a nearby apartment building."

Charges: Ex-Minneapolis cop abused position to obtain illegal drugs (11/6/2020) - "According to a press release from the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Jindra abused his position with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) from September 2017 through October 2019, during which time he obtained or attempted to obtain 'controlled substances including methamphetamine, heroin, oxycodone, cocaine, and other drugs by deception, extortion, and conducting unconstitutional searches and seizures.' During the course of his duties as an MPD officer, the release says, Jindra conducted his scheme by 'not reporting, logging, placing into evidence, or informing his partner or other officers' about the controlled substances he confiscated on the job. He also obtained the drugs by finding ways to 'interact with' or search individuals, vehicles and residences 'so that he could surreptitiously recover controlled substances without his partner's knowledge,' according to the U.S. attorney's office. Some of these searches were conducted 'beyond the scope warranted under the circumstances,' prosecutors say, adding that he also turned off his body camera when he swiped some of the drugs."

Former Minneapolis police officer federally indicted on charges of extortion, drug theft - (11/6/2020) - "The Star Tribune reported in February that Jindra had been placed on paid leave while under federal criminal investigation the previous fall. Jindra came to the attention of department officials after being named in three excessive force complaints in a short span of time, sources familiar with the investigation said. In the process, the department also reviewed footage that appeared to show Jindra pulling a small quantity of what appeared to be drugs from his backpack, a source said. The charges say Jindra found ways to hide his behavior from his partner and other police officers, such as placing the contraband into his gloved hand, folding the latex glove over the drugs and then stashing them in his personal duty bag or some other location inside the squad car. Jindra turned off his body-worn camera at opportune moments during searches and failed to disclose key details in police reports, such as the seizure of pills he stashed away for personal use, according to the charges. He told his partner he planned to dispose of meth that he kept for his own use."

Police Response Slowed. The Community Stepped In. (10-30-2020) - "Locals have debated any number of reasons why such a slowdown in 911 response time might be happening, from an act of political retaliation in the face of scrutiny, to a reflection of depleted morale, to the aforementioned lack of personnel. Whatever the reasons, with rates for some violent crimes spiking in the city amid economic devastation from Covid-19, the trend illuminates another dimension of police accountability: Just as over-policing can have disproportionate adverse consequences for Black people, the impacts of withholding police response from communities can be harmful, too.' Despite our name, we have always considered lack of police service to be the flip side of police brutality, and sometimes just as damaging,' says Dave Bicking, an organizer with Minneapolis's Communities United Against Police Brutality."

At behest of Trump campaign official, Minneapolis police union calls for retired officers to act as 'eyes and ears' on Election Day (10-29-2020) - "In an e-mail Wednesday morning to Minneapolis Police Federation President Lt. Bob Kroll, Willingham asked the union president about recruiting 20 to 30 former officers to serve as 'poll challengers' to work either a four- or eight-hour shift in a 'problem area.' 'Poll Challengers do not 'stop' people, per se, but act as our eyes and ears in the field and call our hotline to document fraud,' the e-mail read. 'We don't necessarily want our Poll Challengers to look intimidating, they cannot carry a weapon in the polls due to state law. ... We just want people who won't be afraid in rough neighborhoods or intimidating situations.' Kroll then passed on the request to federation members, saying 'Please share, and e-mail me if you are willing to assist,'' according to a copy obtained by the Star Tribune. Neither Willingham nor Kroll responded to requests for comment Wednesday."

Off-duty cop sues Minneapolis police for accosting him in 2019, refusing body camera video (10-28-2020) - "A Minnesota law enforcement officer is suing the city of Minneapolis in federal court after he says three city police officers roughed up him and his friends while on a night out in downtown. When the officer, Andrew Johnson, asked the officers why they had confronted him with guns drawn, one of them responded, 'you don't know how we do [expletive] in Minneapolis,' according to the lawsuit, which names as defendants the city, Sgt. Jameil Mohammad and two officers, who are only identified by their last names, Vert and Weis. The lawsuit doesn't specify damages, nor does it say which agency Johnson works for, but public records list an Andrew Johnson working for the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. A spokesperson for the sheriff's office did not respond to a message left Tuesday."

As a Coach and a Cop in Minneapolis, Where Would He Draw the Line?(10-26-2020) - "He feared for himself. His uniform made him a target. The face shield and gas mask hid his identity from the angry crowds, obscuring the beloved figure he has been across large swaths of the city. Three days earlier, another Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, had used a knee to snuff the life from George Floyd, a Black man accused of trying to spend counterfeit money on cigarettes. The killing sickened Adams. He could see himself in Floyd, a broad-shouldered man who was a high school football and basketball star. Adams considered Floyd's death the result of an abuse of power that went against everything he stood for. The moment he watched the scene unfold on video, he knew the city would convulse."

A right-wing extremist shot up a Minneapolis police precinct during a BLM protest and screamed 'Justice for Floyd!' prosecutors say (10-24-2020) - "A member of the right-wing extremist group 'Boogaloo Bois' shot 13 rounds at a Minneapolis police department with an AK-47 style gun and yelled 'Justice for Floyd' during protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in May, according to a federal complaint cited by the Star Tribune on Friday. Texas resident Ivan Harrison Hunter, 26, a self-proclaimed member of the Boogaloo Bois, was charged with interstate travel with intent to incite, organize, or aid or abet the participation of a riot, according to the federal complaint. "

Minneapolis police union responds to 'white boys' controversy (10-21-2020) - "After all these years, Bob Kroll's police union finally found victims of racial injustice: white cops who read the Sunday paper."

Lawsuit seeks to block eviction of homeless people from Minneapolis parks (10-20-2020) - "Per MPR News, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, Henrietta Brown, says she was awoken at 4 a.m. in the rain in September by police officers 'shaking her tent and shining a bright light in her face,' with the officers telling her she had 30 minutes to get out despite not having received an eviction notice. She says she was evicted so quickly she wasn't able to grab all her belongings, including her ID, which prevented her from getting a spot at a shelter"

Top Minneapolis police official demoted over 'white boys' comment (10-20-2020) - "Meanwhile, Knight's backers, both inside the department and out, said privately that the backlash was rooted in 'white fragility' around having uncomfortable, but necessary, conversations about race, and risked overshadowing Knight's bigger point about the MPD's diversity problem."

Citing safety concerns, judge lets Derek Chauvin live outside Minnesota pending trial in killing of George Floyd (10-10-2020) - "Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has permission to leave Minnesota for any of four bordering states for his own safety following his release from jail, a judge ordered. Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill, who is presiding over the trial of Chauvin on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the death of George Floyd, modified his release conditions Thursday without a public hearing, citing unspecified safety concerns that were presented to him in secret. Until Wednesday, Chauvin was held at a state prison in Oak Park Heights but was released after posting bail on a $1 million bond. Initially, the conditions of his release barred him from leaving the state."

Release of Derek Chauvin again brings bail questions to the forefront in Minnesota (10-9-2020) - "The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits 'excessive' bail. Yet 34% of Americans charged with crimes linger in jail pretrial for no other reason than they can't afford to pay, according to a 2016 report by the Harvard Law School. Hennepin County judges say they've seen bail set as low as $10 and people still can't afford it."

After online backlash, Minneapolis police cancel 'Black Panther' movie night (10-9-2020) - "Some comments called the screening 'tone deaf,' while others criticized the choice of venue as well as the decision to show Black Panther. A number of users also questioned the safety of holding such an event in the middle of a pandemic. Others thought the timing of the move was poor, as it came the same week Derek Chauvin - the former officer who killed George Floyd in May - was released from jail on bond, a decision that led to a protest at the intersection where Floyd died."

Woman says Minneapolis police falsely identified her as assault suspect without contacting her (10-6-2020) - "But Minneapolis police had mistakenly identified Peterson as the assailant in a video recorded by the journalist and viewed nearly 900,000 times on Twitter. On Tuesday, Peterson and her attorney, Kelly Keegan, said police failed to take basic steps to verify the identity of the alleged attacker, putting Peterson, her husband and their four children in danger. 'I thought that it was some sort of hoax or fake news or something,' Peterson said. She said she didn't know if the charges against her were real until Keegan confirmed it, 'because no one from the Minneapolis Police Department ever reached out to me. No one asked where I was. No one came to see me and look at me to see that I'm clearly not the woman in the video,' Peterson said. The charges were gross misdemeanor third-degree riot and three misdemeanors - two counts of fifth-degree assault and one count of disorderly conduct. 'We truly have no idea how Lauren was pointed to as the person in the video,' Keegan said. 'When you meet Lauren, you can tell she's not the person.'"

New Book Analyzes 2013 Death Of Terrance Franklin By Minneapolis Police (10-4-2020) - "Instead, Padden laid out his case on the pages, taking readers through what he says happened, what his team learned, and how they built their case around two main themes, beginning with what he calls a cover up. 'The premise of the book is the blue code of silence. The blue code of silence is not just silence, it can also be active participation of other officers to protect the bad actors,' Padden said. And he says video evidence can change the narrative. In the Franklin case, a man captured video on his iPod touch that Padden says was central to his case. 'Often what happens is you see in video, you see a different story in reports than what the video shows,' Padden said."

Trouble signs showed up early in the career of fired Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao (9-26-2020) - "Even from the beginning of his career, his conduct showed signs of trouble. Thao was criticized by his field training officer eight times his first year for incidents in which he was dishonest or took shortcuts to avoid certain activities like intervening in incidents that required a police response. In 2012 and 2017, Thao tried to manipulate domestic-abuse victims to avoid writing reports, according to court filings. 'His expediency and dishonesty' were the subject of an Office of Police Conduct Review complaint in 2017, state prosecutors wrote. He has had six unspecified police conduct complaints filed against him, records show. Five were closed without discipline; one remained open at the time of his firing."

Two more federal lawsuits filed against Minneapolis over eye injuries caused by police after Floyd killing. (9-21-2020) - "About 5:40 p.m., Anne Marks went to help someone who required medical attention, according to the lawsuit. Her son walked over to help. He was unarmed and 'posed no threat to the officers or anyone at the scene,' according to the suit. Without warning, the suit alleges, Marks was struck in the right eye by a tear-gas canister fired by an officer. Bennett said the city attorney's office has told him they know who the officer is but have declined to give him the person's name and have yet to release body camera video to him. The city attorney's office said, without explanation, that the officer's name is not public data. Marks remembers the moment after impact. 'I was on the ground,' he said. 'No ambulance, no police were coming. I was bleeding out.' His mother added, 'I thought he was going to die. There was a lot of blood coming out of his nose and mouth and ears.' She couldn't figure out why they fired at him, she said, because it was not a riot. 'How could somebody shoot him and not help? It didn't make sense. There were police standing around and we were screaming for help.' A bystander drove them to the hospital."

Drop In Minneapolis Police Response Time May Be To Prove Political Point, Says City Council Member (9-21-2020) - "The Ward 3 representative says it's a false narrative that the council's desire to replace the Minneapolis Police Department is related to the crime surge and MPD's response. Fletcher says the only defunding of the department has been a 5% budget cut that was mostly due to COVID-19. 'The patrol numbers are just as strong as they were last year,' Fletcher said. 'The number of 911 calls has not changed, but we are seeing changes in response that really aren't explainable by budget cuts.' Since Memorial Day, violent crime in Minneapolis is up 25% compared to the same period last year. The number of service calls responded to in that timeframe is down 38% from 2019."

Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct Head To Business Owner: 'Reinforcements Aren't Coming Any Time Soon' (9-17-2020) - "A nearby business relayed a similar message to the inspector of the 3rd Precinct via email. They also sharing it's hard to find employees who want to work in the area, and they are asking for a long-term plan. Here is the response they received from Inspector Sean McGinty: As far as a long-term plan I don't have one. I have lost 30% of my street officers since the end of May. Budget cuts from COVID-19 and an additional 1.5 million from the council in August we have let go 17 CSO's and cancelled a recruit class of 29. A potential Cadet class slated for January of 2021 was also eliminated. I takes about a year to get a police Officer onto the streets with hiring, backgrounds and field training so reinforcements aren't coming anytime soon. We are doing everything we can with what we have. I hate to see great businesses like yours and the rest of your corridor being victimized and feeling unsafe. Please let me know if you have any more questions. 'It does erode the confidence in the neighborhood of the people and being able to feel safe coming down here,' Stamps said. The Stamps store was hit a year ago, too. They say they're not going anywhere, but lawlessness can't continue. 'Nothing changed before and nothing's changed now, except that these criminals have gotten more emboldened about doing this,' Stamps said."

Minneapolis traffic stops down 80 percent since George Floyd was killed (9-16-2020) - "The traffic stop in particular poses a unique problem, simply because it leaves so much discretion to the officer. Stanford University's Open Policing Project analyzed some 100 million stops and found that Black drivers were 20 percent more likely to be pulled over than white drivers. It's a trend that bears out in Minneapolis, too, where Black people represent only 19 percent of the population, but get pulled over more than white residents year after year. Unfortunately, even though stops are down, CityLab's data still found those disparities. Between the end of May and August, nearly half of all traffic stops recorded were of Black people; only about a quarter were white. Most of those stops took place in north Minneapolis, where Black residents make up a plurality of the population."

Minneapolis City Council members press police chief for response to rising crime (9-16-2020) - "Council President Lisa Bender described conversations with constituents who said responding patrol officers told them that they weren't enforcing laws and that the bloodshed would continue unless the city hired more police, an observation echoed by several of her colleagues. 'This is not new, but it is very concerning in the current context. So, I think there are a number of possible explanations for this. I think it's possible they are essentially campaigning ... because they don't support the council member or, in some cases, the mayor, or perhaps they think that they are making the case for more resources for the department,' said Bender, who represents the 10th Ward in south Minneapolis. 'I can tell you in my ward, it is having the opposite effect. It is making people even more frustrated with the department. ... How do we get this under control?'"

Minnesota Cops Seek Immunity in Hurt Journalist's Protest Suit (9-15-2020) - "Minnesota law enforcement officials sought to shake off a proposed civil rights class action brought by journalists injured while reporting on Black Lives Matter protests in Minneapolis, arguing qualified immunity protects them from any liability for claims of excessive force. Freelance journalist Jared Goyette claims a police officer shot him in the face May 27 with less-lethal ballistic ammunition while trying to make contact with an injured protester. In a separate case, photographer Linda Tirado alleges she lost an eye May 29 to foam bullets shot by police officers at the crowd of protesters."

With violent crime on the rise in Mpls., City Council asks: Where are the police? (9-15-2020) - "The meeting was slated as a Minneapolis City Council study session on police reform. But for much of the two-hour meeting, council members told police Chief Medaria Arradondo that their constituents are seeing and hearing street racing which sometimes results in crashes, brazen daylight carjackings, robberies, assaults and shootings. And they asked Arradondo what the department is doing about it. 'Residents are asking, 'Where are the police'?' said Jamal Osman, newly elected council member of Ward 6. He said he's already been inundated with complaints from residents that calls for police aren't being answered."

Memo: Minneapolis police pulled gun on teens who ran a stop sign (9-15-2020) - "A.C.'s mother Davis said she called MPD to make an excessive force complaint, but no one ever followed up with her. She said the internal memo - which would have helped her son's case - was never disclosed to her. Davis retained the Legal Rights Center, which represents juvenile defendants in Hennepin County pro bono. A hearing was scheduled for September 1 in A.C.'s case, but then charges were suddenly dropped, and the family did not have to report for court. The Minneapolis Police Department did not answer questions from City Pages for this story. Jindra has been the subject of a number of complaints, including one incident in April 2019 when he pulled his gun on people in handcuffs and asked if they 'wanna get shot.' He is reportedly under federal investigation for excessive force, but is still employed by MPD."

The Precipitous Drop of Police Traffic Stops in Minneapolis (9-14-2020) - "The incident exposed some of the most prominent criticisms of such stops: That technical violations like broken tail lights are often used as an excuse to stop someone and search them for weapons or drugs, and that the adverse consequences of these interactions fall disproportionately on African Americans. 'What we have now is police using those low-level equipment violations as a pretext,' says Teresa Nelson, the Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota. 'They're not stopping somebody because they care that their license plate light is out.'"

Derek Chauvin Had 7 Prior Incidents Of Neck Or Head Restraints On Arrestees, Court Docs Show (9-12-2020) - "Prosecution documents in the case against four former Minneapolis police officers charged in the death of George Floyd show the white officer who pressed his knee into Floyd's neck had seven prior incidents of using neck or head and upper body restraints on arrestees, including four in which prosecutors say he went too far."

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin booed at George Floyd court appearance (9-12-2020) - "'The only overdose that killed George Floyd was an overdose of excessive force and racism by the Minneapolis Police Department,'' lawyer Ben Crump said outside the courthouse. "

Lead cop in George Floyd case had record of overusing restraints, prosecutors reveal (9-11-2020) - "In a July 2019 arrest, prosecutors say, Derek Chauvin kicked an intoxicated man in the midsection, then applied a neck restraint until he fell unconscious. In June 2017, Chauvin restrained a woman by placing his knee on her neck while she was prone, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said in those cases and in two others he held the restraints 'beyond the point when such force was needed.'"

'The People's Floyd Commission': Weekly Public Forum Seeks To Spur Minneapolis Police Reform (9-11-2020) - "Complaints against police are filed with the Office of Police Conduct Review. Its website describes it as a neutral agency made up of civilians with the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights and officers from MPD Internal Affairs. From 2013 through 2018, less than 2% of complaints led to suspension, termination or demotion of an officer. About a third of the total complaints resulted in coaching or additional training, which doesn't go into an officer's personnel file. Derek Chauvin, the officer charged with murdering George Floyd, had 18 complaints filed against him during his career with MPD."

Police Veteran Charged in George Floyd Killing Had Used Neck Restraints Before (9-11-2020) - "Prosecutors rejected suggestions that Mr. Chauvin - or any of the other former officers - could shift blame away from the larger group. 'The defendants watched the air go out of Mr. Floyd's body together,' said Neal Katyal, a special assistant attorney general who is part of the prosecution team, led by the office of Keith Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general. 'And the defendants caused Mr. Floyd's death together.'"

Crowd swarms former Minneapolis police officers with shouts of 'Murderer!' (9-11-2020) - "'We have to stop the police from killing us with impunity,' said Jae Yates, who spoke several times. Protesters also delivered messages with their signs: 'No clemency for killer kkkops,' and 'Recall Freeman,' a reference to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, whose office has been criticized for its work on this case and earlier police killings. One woman carried a sign in the image of a blue Minneapolis police logo reconfigured to read, 'Murderous City of Lakes Police.' Another sign read, 'If you think they did it by the book, then we'll have to burn every page.'"

KARE 11 Investigates: Minneapolis police accountability boards have vacancies (9-3-2020) - "On the Police Conduct Oversight Commission, made up of eight appointed, volunteer commissioners is charged with 'restructuring, re-prioritizing, and reforming public safety' according to it's website. The watchdog panel is also responsible for helping formulate best practices and policy and auditing discipline. And yet, a time when city leaders from the mayor to the city council president are calling for a major overhaul of MPD, four of the seats on the PCOC are empty. Two are to be appointed by Mayor Jacob Frey and two by the Council. Commissioner Abigail Cerra says the lack of staffing both on the commission and in the Department of Civil Rights, which houses the Office of Police Conduct Review (OPCR) makes it hard to fulfill their mission. 'The vacancies within the civil rights department itself make it difficult to do this oversight work,' she told KARE 11 Investigates."

How Minneapolis police handled the in-custody death of a Black man 10 years before George Floyd (8-29-2020) - "On Oct. 22, 2010, Andrew Baker, the Hennepin County medical examiner, ruled the death a homicide. He cited Smith's prone position, medications in his system and the Tasering as 'other significant conditions,' but wrote that the homicide was caused by a heart attack brought on by 'mechanical asphyxia.' Richard Zimmerman, then the head of the homicide unit, said in a deposition that he did not believe additional investigation or questioning was necessary after the ruling. Zimmerman said that he did not feel it was important to ask why Smith was knelt on for more than four minutes, and that 'the county attorney didn't recommend that.'"

Practice Of 'Coaching' Minneapolis Police Officers Questioned By Conduct Oversight Commission (8-25-2020) - "Commissioner Abigail Cerra, head of the Minneapolis Police Conduct Oversight Commission, says she's found an anomaly where some action has been classified as something called 'coaching' instead of 'discipline.' 'So all of these coachings have been designated as private data, and the public has not been able to view them,' Cerra said. Data provided to WCCO shows from September of 2013 through 2019, there were more than 2,000 complaints against officers. Thirty-nine resulted in disciplinary action. There were 334 coaching decisions over that same time period. Another 99 were in the grievance process or pending discipline decision."

Proposal to unseal hundreds of misconduct allegations against Minneapolis police officers moves forward (8-25-2020) - "Matt Ehling, who advocates for open records as part of Minnesota Coalition on Government Information, said it's problematic that Minneapolis hasn't been releasing these records to the public. Based on the language in the statute, Ehling said, it's 'very very clear' that complaints that result in coaching should become public documents. Keeping these records private 'evades the intention of the Legislature,' he said in an interview."

Five takeaways from this week's Minnesota Poll on policing and race in Minneapolis (8-22-2020) - "While the public appears to have confidence in the police chief, only 25% of voters said they have a favorable opinion of the department he leads. Two in three voters view the police department unfavorably, and large majorities in nearly every demographic said Floyd's death was a sign of broader problems in how Minneapolis police treat Black people (58% of Republicans agreed with this view, the lowest of any demographic measured). "

CAIR-MN, police accountability groups call for firing of Minneapolis Police Federation President Bob Kroll (8-21-2020) - "'We call for the firing of Bob Kroll, a man who has repeatedly supported killer cops. He must recognize and be held accountable for his unjust and immensely harmful actions. The first step toward change within the Minneapolis Police Department starts with firing Kroll,' said CAIR-MN Executive Director Jaylani Hussein, in a statement Friday. Later Friday, Minneapolis Mayor Frey's spokesperson issued the following statement: 'Today's event underscores the extent to which Bob Kroll has exacerbated both the pain in our city and mistrust of the department. The mayor continues to believe that Bob Kroll has a negative impact on police-community relations in our city.'"

Bob Kroll, Minneapolis Police Union Head, Vows To Stick Around (8-20-2020) - "Kroll says he will plans to stick around because of the attacks on his job. 'Now these people are causing me to stay cause I can't make it look like they're chasing me out. I've never backed away from a fight in my life,' Kroll recently told The Mix Radio Network. 'I truly want to retire,' he continued, 'and let my wife's work get back to normal.' But Kroll says he doesn't want to hand his political opponents a victory by stepping down. 'The same people who want me gone so bad, from the protesters to the mayor to the City Council to the governor, now they're getting me stuck here longer, so the joke's on you.' Kroll is an outspoken conservative and supporter of President Donald Trump, which puts him in sharp contrast with the progressive city council and mayor in Minneapolis. Kroll rallied with Trump when he visited Minneapolis last year."

Minneapolis police officer fired for decorating racist Fourth Precinct Christmas tree gets job back (8-13-2020) - "The two officers were fired last fall after an internal affairs investigation found that they were responsible for decorating a tree in the lobby of the Fourth Precinct station with a pack of menthol cigarettes, a can of Steel Reserve malt liquor, police tape, a bag of Takis snacks and a cup from Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. An image of the tree was first posted on social media, where it sparked outrage and prompted Mayor Jacob Frey to call for the officers' dismissal. At the time, department officials described the incident as an ill-considered prank, but critics said the decorations played to racist stereotypes and reflected how the officers really felt about patrolling the mostly Black neighborhoods that make up the North Side. After the public outcry, Chief Medaria Arradondo placed the officers on leave. Arradondo later apologized publicly for the episode, saying that he recognized how it could cause harm at a time when the department was trying to build trust in minority communities."

FSU researcher finds links between police searches and race in Minneapolis (8-13-2020) - "The study was published in the July issue of the journal Public Performance & Management Review. It considers the effect of police officers' decisions when performing vehicle stops and conducting vehicle or person searches. In addition to mining demographic census data, Wright and his colleagues analyzed data from individual police stops in the segregated neighborhoods of Minneapolis on a block-by-block basis. Wright and his co-authors Dongfang Gaozhao, a public administration doctoral candidate at FSU, and Meagan A. Snow, the Geospatial Data Visualization Librarian for the Geography & Map Division of the Library of Congress, found that majority African American areas of high segregation have more vehicle or person searches than other parts of the city. Those findings also included that, as the percentage of African Americans and African immigrants in a neighborhood increases, so too does the likelihood that a vehicle or person will be searched during a police stop. "

Despite chief's withdrawal, city continues talks with Minneapolis police union (8-12-2020) - "Two months after Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo announced he was withdrawing from labor negotiations with the police union, the city continues to talk with them. Just without the chief involved. Arradondo made headlines across the country when he announced, a few weeks after George Floyd's death, that he was 'immediately withdrawing from the contract negotiations with the Minneapolis Police Federation.' However, negotiations have not ceased. The city, state and police federation met for another mediation session last week."

Lawsuits Filed Against Minneapolis, State Officials On Behalf Of Journalists, Protesters After George Floyd's Death (8-12-2020) - "Protester Nekima Levy Armstrong says she watched as conditions deteriorated and adds there were no warnings to disperse. 'They were exaggerated, militarized responses to what were largely non-violent peaceful protesters and I just found it to be unacceptable,' Levy Armstrong said. She said her voice hasn't returned to normal after being tear gassed, but that this protester class action lawsuit is about something larger. 'I urge people to stand in solidarity with those of us who are filing this lawsuit to protect all of our rights to freedom of speech,' Levy Armstrong said."

Black drivers make up majority of Minneapolis police searches during routine traffic stops (8-7-2020) - "Minneapolis police stop and search a disproportionate rate of Black and East African drivers and their vehicles during routine traffic stops compared with other races. The city is predominantly white, yet Black and East African drivers accounted for 78% of police searches that started as stops for moving or equipment violations from June 2019 through May 2020, according to Minneapolis police data. Whites made up 12% of searches during the same types of stops in that time frame. For Black and East African drivers, 26% of searches resulted in arrest, compared with 41% of whites, according to the data."

KARE 11 Investigates: Hundreds of complaints about Minneapolis police not counted (8-7-2020) - "Hundreds of people who started the complaint process since 2016 have had their information classified as a so-called 'inquiry' - not a formal complaint - a joint KARE 11 and NBC News investigation found. When a complaint is classified as an 'inquiry' it is not investigated and never listed in a police officer's complaint file. City records show there have been more than 100 cases classified as 'inquiries' each year since 2016 - a total of 791 through early June 2020. More than 230 of them came in the month after George Floyd was killed as people who watched the viral video called to complain and protests erupted. Even if you exclude that sudden flood of complaints, it means roughly one out of five people who tried to complain haven't been counted in the official complaint statistics."

Man sues Minneapolis police officer for allegedly shoving him to the ground near Floyd memorial (8-6-2020) - "Browne says in the lawsuit that he asked the officers why they had taken so long to respond. The officers said nothing and returned to their squad cars, the suit says. '[Minneapolis Police officer Nicholas] Sciorrotta quickly turned, stepped toward Browne and forcefully shoved him, knocking him to the ground,' the suit says. Browne 'was hurt physically and mentally,' the suit alleges."

Survey suggests support for replacing Minneapolis Police Department (8-3-2020) - "A new poll of likely Minneapolis voters found that a majority of the people surveyed would vote to replace the city's police department. The poll, commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and The Fairness Project, was conducted by Benenson Strategy Group. Potential Minneapolis voters were asked if they supported the initiative by the city council to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention. When given a description of the amendment, 56% of voters polled said they would vote yes to the change. Thirty percent said no, and 14 percent were unsure."

Wanton violence, Pt. II. How a broken system of accountability enabled MPD's brutal response to the George Floyd protests. (7-25-2020) - "In the month since the George Floyd protests began in Minneapolis, neither the mayor nor police chief has announced any disciplinary action about officers' conduct during the protests, despite at least four peaceful protesters maimed by police and at least four lawsuits against the city."

Complaints against police skyrocket in Minneapolis (7-24-2020) - "Residents filed a record number of complaints about Minneapolis police in recent months, including the time since the killing of George Floyd on May 25. Almost 700 complaints have been entered into the city's system since April, with the majority of complaints tied to officers in south Minneapolis' 3rd Precinct. The level of complaints in the second quarter of the year was almost five times higher than usual, according to city records. The increase in complaints came as protests and other civil unrest spread across the Twin Cities in the wake of Floyd's killing by a Minneapolis police officer. The city also received almost 2,000 voicemails and 1,300 electronic complaints tied to police actions during the protests."

Community group against police brutality responds to 5 INVESTIGATES report on pattern at MPD (7-24-2020) - "The spokesman for the Minneapolis Police Department, who's position was just eliminated by the Minneapolis City Council on Friday, told 5 INVESTIGATES his initial statement about George Floyd's death was wrong, but based on information he believed to be correct at the time. John Elder, whose formal title is Public Information Officer, could not say why that account was so drastically different from the cellphone video of Floyd's death. At least some city council members cited it as a reason to eliminate Elder's position and instead shift that role to city hall. But 5 INVESTIGATES found it is part of a larger pattern at MPD."

Travis Jordan's family says cops turned his depression into a death sentence (7-22-2020) - "It was Friday, November 9, 2018. In north Minneapolis, the 36-year-old Jordan was alone in his house, beginning a dangerous spiral into the worst depressive episode of his life. Jordan wouldn't survive to see November 10, and reports about his death in the weeks that followed would make it seem inevitable - a dangerous, broken man who decided to commit suicide at the hands of the police. Until George Floyd's death, his was another name on a long list of dead Black, brown, and Indigenous men killed by Minnesota officers who claimed they felt too threatened by their encounters to use anything but deadly force."

Fired Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, wife charged with tax crimes (7-22-2020) - "The charges document various sources of income for the couple. The complaints said that between 2014 and 2019, Derek Chauvin made between $52,000 and $72,000 annually as a police officer. He also worked off-duty security nearly every weekend in that time at El Nuevo Rodeo dance club, Cub Foods, Midtown Global Market and EME Antro Bar on E. Lake Street. During that span, Chauvin failed to pay taxes on nearly $96,000 he earned from El Nuevo Rodeo alone, investigators estimated."

JUSTIFYING THE FORCE: Initial description of George Floyd's death fits larger pattern at MPD (7-21-2020) - "Court documents, as well as video evidence, reveal a pattern in which the initial description of an officers' use of force was later shown to be misleading or inaccurate, including most recently in the death of George Floyd. The night Floyd died in police custody, Minneapolis police held a press conference and described his death, which has since been deemed a homicide, as a 'medical incident.' That narrative was shattered within hours after cellphone video surfaced showing an officer kneeling on Floyd's neck for nearly eight minutes as witnesses pleaded for someone to check his pulse. It is still unclear why the original description of Floyd's death was so radically different from what was later revealed in that video."

'There Is Nothing That Called For Us To Kill Her': Fmr. Minneapolis Police Officer, Victim's Friend Reflect On Fatal Shooting 20 Years Later (7-20-2020) - "Schneider was a Twin Cities transplant, a local activist who was devout to her Jewish heritage. She struggled with bipolar disorder, something the officers did not fully understand when they responded to the call that ended her life. One of the 911 callers noted Schneider was mentally ill and urged police contact a caretaker first. None of the six people who responded got that message."

Wanton violence, Pt. I. MPD's brutal response to the George Floyd protests (7-19-2020) - "It was simple. The protests that came after the killing of George Floyd by four Minneapolis Police officers were an easy opportunity for the MPD and its leadership to demonstrate remorse or a sense of regret for what happened. Unsurprisingly, the protests demonstrated that Minneapolis Police and its leadership were unable to restrain themselves from committing violence against civilians. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo expressed his apologies about Floyd's death to the public and to Floyd's family, but his department demonstrated that rank and file did not mean that apology in their conduct with protesters and journalists. Like with the deaths of Philando Castile, Justine Damond and many more, the violent police response to protests was an example of the culture of violence and brutality that characterizes policing in Minneapolis, especially toward African Americans, Indigenous individuals and other people of color. "

Young girl who witnessed killing of George Floyd is writing a book for kids (7-18-2020) - "At the corner of 38th and Chicago, the kneeling officer locked eyes with Judeah, giving her the same look he leveled at Darnella as she pulled out her phone to record the scene. A look that said, 'There's nothing you can do about this. You have no power, little girl.' Until Darnella Frazier posted her video and the whole world could see what the cousins had seen. The weeks since have been weeks of protest and unrest and promises from politicians. All four of the officers involved in George Floyd's killing are facing charges in his death. 'The person who tells the story has the power,' said Lily Coyle, owner of Beaver's Pond Press in St. Paul. Judeah Reynolds is going to tell her own story. The story of what happened that day she walked to the store, and in the days that followed. The children's book she's writing with the help of the staff of Beaver's Pond is set to publish in early 2021."

The Quiet Life of Derek Chauvin Before the Public Death of George Floyd (7-18-2020) - "The roadside encounter with the four teenagers led to a complaint against Mr. Chauvin, and it reflected what both co-workers and citizens told The New York Times about encountering the officer over his 19 years with the Minneapolis Police Department: Mr. Chauvin did his job as if he were playing a role - a tough Dirty Harry on the lookout for bad guys. 'He was overly aggressive and not understanding that we were just kids,' recalled Noah McGurran-Hanson, who was in the car with Mr. Bergh and the two others, all of whom are white. 'He was treating us like we had been tried and convicted.'"

Walz refutes police union claim he ordered Third Precinct abandoned in riots (7-15-2020) - "Wednesday, three union officials told a Senate panel investigating the spring rioting that morale among Minneapolis cops has dropped to an all-time low. But it was Sgt. Anna Hedberg's comment about the precinct that drew the most attention. 'I was in the command post and I heard it. I heard the governor say, 'Give it up,'' Hedberg, a Minneapolis Police Federation director, told senators. 'Wasn't directly to me. It was through a phone call of how the governor says, 'Give up the precinct.'' In an interview after her testimony, Hedberg told FOX 9 she heard the information 'third-hand.' She declined to name her source. Seconds after Hedberg made her comments in the Senate hearing, a Walz spokesman texted to say, 'that's not true.' The governor never called the Minneapolis Police Department command center and did not given any orders to police during the unrest, he said"

George Floyd's family sues city of Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin and 3 former officers (7-15-2020) - "'It was not just the knee of officer Derek Chauvin on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, but it was the knee of the entire Minneapolis Police Department on the neck of George Floyd that killed him,' attorney Ben Crump said. 'The city of Minneapolis has a history of policies and procedures and deliberate indifference when it comes to the treatment of arrestees, especially Black men.'"

New police body camera footage reveals George Floyd's last words were 'I can't breathe' (7-15-2020) - "Within 36 seconds after speaking with a store employee, the officers are at the door of the car Floyd was in and, after an initial knock with a flashlight, Lane points a gun at Floyd and yells, 'Put your fucking hands up right now!' Floyd pleads with the officers while sobbing, at one point putting his head on the steering wheel."

Minneapolis business groups buy into police reform but not dismantlement (7-14-2020) - "The president of the police union, Lt. Bob Kroll, also has overstayed his welcome, says the business lobby. Under Kroll, say critics, the union became a shadow command of the department. 'The membership needs to think [about] whether Kroll is the right leader to restore community trust,' Cramer said."

Court filings shed more light on former officer Thomas Lane's training (7-9-2020) - "The limits on interactions between an officer and his or her field training officer concerns use-of-force expert Timothy Williams Jr. 'Why do you have a person in there in the car in a mummified position where you can't ask them questions and you have to call someone else to assist you in the call when you have a partner sitting right there? That doesn't make any coherent sense at all,' Williams said. 'I've handled cases all across the country,' he added. 'This is the only agency that I have read about that does something like that. I'll call it what it is: That's stupid.' Williams spent nearly 30 years with the Los Angeles Police Department. He is now the CEO of T.T. Williams, Jr., Investigations, acting as an expert in both state and federal court cases."

George Floyd told Minneapolis police officers he couldn't breathe more than 20 times, new transcripts show (7-8-2020) - "Floyd uttered 'I can't breathe' not a handful of times, as previous videotapes showed, but more than 20 times in all. He cried out not just for his dead mother but for his children, too. Before his final breaths, Floyd gasped: 'They'll kill me. They'll kill me.' As Floyd shouted for his life, an officer yelled back at him to 'stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk.'"

How the officers charged in George Floyd's death could get their jobs back. The Minneapolis police union has had great success convincing arbitrators to reinstate fired officers. (6-27-2020) "The process of selecting the arbitrators in most places is akin to picking a jury. Presented with a pool of seven, each side takes turns striking a name until only one remains. The arbitrator will then hold a closed-door hearing and accept written briefs. A ruling is typically made within 30 days and could amount to upholding the discipline, reducing it or throwing it out entirely. Some experts say the selection of arbitrators incentivizes them to rule half the time in favor of the unions and the employee and half the time in favor of the employers in order to keep getting chosen. Studies done on the Minnesota arbitration system back up part of the claim: The rulings on police firings since 2006 split just about down the middle."

Law Enforcement Scoured Protester Communications and Exaggerated Threats to Minneapolis Cops, Leaked Documents Show (6-26-2020) - "While the documents reveal concern over groups with a professed commitment to unrest, like the far-right group Boogaloo, they also suggest a tendency to categorize standard protest behavior as a threat to police. For instance, a May 28 document from the Minnesota Fusion Center, a post-9/11 body that coordinates among various law enforcement agencies, warned that police should look out for a dizzying array of suspicious behaviors, including people possessing balloons or bike locks and wearing masks - a description that includes many of those who took to the streets during the pandemic."

Minneapolis City Council votes unanimously for proposal that could replace Police Department (6-26-2020) - "The city would need to change its charter to implement its proposal, which requires a citywide vote. Council members are using an unconventional, expedited process as they seek to get the measure on the November ballot."

Hundreds Rally Outside Minneapolis Police Union HQ To Call For Lt. Bob Kroll's Resignation (6-25-2020) - "The protesters believe the federation's president, Lt. Bob Kroll, is standing in the way of police reform, and they want him fired. "

Police Federation Sgt. on living in Minneapolis: "I don't need to put my children in that kind of danger" Henry Lake responds, and says she should immediately resign (6-25-2020) - "'This woman is afraid to be in Minneapolis with her children,' said Lake. 'So I'm supposed to feel comfortable with people that think like that policing me? You cannot reform Anna Hedberg. You can't. You can't reform her and folks like her. They have to go. In my opinion, in Henry Lake's opinion, she should be forced to resign tonight. After that ridiculous comment, we have people with badges and guns that can kill us in the blink of an eye talking like this. And this is the thing about it. People, she's not talking in private, this is a press conference! So I'm telling you right now, I am not for abolishing the Minneapolis Police Department, but folks have to go and it can start with the Sergeant there. We cannot have this, that person can not be reformed, that thinks like that.'"

Chauvin's legal defense covered; but labor case is not (6-24-2020) - "The Minneapolis Police Federation no longer supports former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, and will not contest his firing. However, his legal defense for the criminal case will still be covered by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, because MPD is a member in good standing."

Crybaby cop explains why she shouldn't have to live in the community she polices (6-24-2020) - "If our terrified mom here followed her own line of thinking a little further, she might realize she's actually making a pretty good case for abolishing the police. Maybe if you felt a little worse about arresting people you wouldn't do it so goddamn much. Maybe you'd think about the consequences of arresting people if you were forced to think of them as people who live in your city, instead of 'criminals.'"

Minneapolis police union head says Chauvin firing is justified but rank and file officers being scapegoated (6-24-2020) - "The four officers are having their legal defense paid for the by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA), whose top official pointed out on 'CBS This Morning' that the public has yet to hear all the facts about the cases against the men his group is defending. However, MPPOA Executive Director Brian Peters went on to address Chauvin's actions during Floyd's arrest, saying, 'He betrayed the badge. And there's no excuse for it.'"

Police union head Bob Kroll backs out of scheduled WCCO interview in 'stunt.' "Mr. Tough Guy doesn't want to answer questions," Chad Hartman said. (6-23-2020) - "Instead, a Kroll representative called the show within moments of his planned appearance and said he had been double booked and wouldn't be on. 'First we received the confirmation, mid-morning confirmation that we were all set ... Then we heard we also had to have on (union director) Rich Walker ... And then they decide to do what is a stunt. I don't buy for a second that all of a sudden Bob Kroll was booked,' Hartman explained. He added: 'To think that he's chuckling about this, he just looks silly to me. Mr. Tough Guy doesn't want to answer questions ... I was going to give him the opportunity to respond to what has been said on this show.' "

Minneapolis police union leaders on "horrific" video of George Floyd's death, racism in policing (6-23-2020) - "We should also note that Lt. Bob Kroll is married to anchor Liz Collin of our Minneapolis station WCCO, so he has an idea about how the media works." - Gayle King

Ramsey County corrections officers of color say they were barred from guarding Derek Chauvin (6-21-2020) - "As Chauvin arrived, all officers of color were ordered to a separate floor, and a supervisor told one of them that, because of their race, they would be a potential 'liability' around Chauvin, according a copy of racial discrimination charges obtained by the Star Tribune."

With Only 8% Of Minneapolis Police Officers Living In City, Residency Requirement Push Gaining Traction (6-17-2020) - "Minneapolis has one of the lowest numbers in the country for police residents. In fact, the four ex-Minneapolis Police Department officers charged in Floyd killing don't live in the city. They're from Oakdale, St. Paul, Plymouth and Coon Rapids."

Minneapolis woman sues city, officers for discrimination, groping in 2019 stop (6-17-2020) - "Khalif's lawyer argues that the officers did not have probable cause or reasonable suspicion when they searched her, 'using unnecessary and excessive force and making contact with her genital area, also without justification.' The lawsuit also alleges that the officers discriminated against Khalif, a Somali woman, because of her ethnicity or skin color by seizing her without reasonable suspicion."

Minneapolis officers cited in misconduct lawsuits face little discipline (6-16-2020) - "Before he was charged with the murder of George Floyd, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was accused of misconduct 17 times and received disciplinary action in only one instance. But misconduct complaints resulting in no discipline aren't limited to Chauvin. CBS News has uncovered a history of excessive force allegations at the department, with multiple officers racking up repeated complaints - and few consequences."

Phone tapes: Concerned Minneapolis 911 dispatcher asked police supervisor to respond to George Floyd scene (6-15-2020) - "A 911 dispatcher watching real-time footage of George Floyd's arrest in south Minneapolis was so alarmed by police officers' actions that she called a supervisor who did not immediately respond to the scene, according to a newly released phone recording."

Photographer amid Minneapolis unrest sues, says officers blinded her in eye with nonlethal shot (6-15-2020) - "A bleeding Tirado "cried out repeatedly, 'I'm press!' But the police ignored her," the suit continued while also pointing out that Gov. Tim Walz's nighttime curfews during the unrest had exempted on-duty news media. The shot shattered her protective goggles, allowing tear gas to burn her eyes, the filing read. She continued to yell "I'm press!" while bleeding, but no law enforcement personnel came to her aid, her suit alleges."

Seven Minneapolis police officers resign after George Floyd protests, citing lack of support from city leaders (6-13-2020) - "But those reactions are unlikely to generate much sympathy from social justice activists, who pointed out the irony of officers' use of tear gas and rubber bullets on crowds protesting Floyd's death and past cases of police brutality."

Minneapolis police are rarely disciplined for complaints, records show (6-12-2020) - "Only about 1.5% of complaints filed against Minneapolis police have resulted in suspensions, terminations or demotions between 2013 and 2019, according to a CNN analysis of data from the city's Office of Police Conduct Review, which investigates complaints. That office, which is separate from the police department but works with officers to resolve complaints, received about 2,013 complaints against police within its jurisdiction in that time."

Minneapolis police chief ends contract negotiations with union (6-10-2020) - "He wants a union contract that makes it easier to fire problematic officers, after multiple instances in recent years where officers terminated for misconduct have been reinstated after union appeals and arbitration decisions."

Lt. Bob Kroll wins race for Minneapolis police union presidency (3-30-2017) - "In the final tally announced on Thursday, Kroll had a 423-184 vote edge over his opponent"

After decades of the Minneapolis police union wielding clout, the entire department is now at risk (6-14-2020)- "Kroll's brand of open rebellion against city leaders has become a hallmark tactic for the union during his tenure, and one of many ways the federation exerts power over the city."

'Bob Kroll has got to go': Calls grow for Minneapolis police union leader's resignation (6-12-2020) - "Since 2003, the city of Minneapolis has paid out more than $45 million in settlements, claims and court judgments for police misconduct lawsuits."

Community leaders voice support for Minneapolis Police Chief Arradondo (6-11-2020) - "'We're saying if you're serious about shifting the paradigm, protecting your jobs and changing the situation then you need to un-elect Bob Kroll and call for new leadership with integrity,' Levy Armstrong said. 'The people of this city are tired of feeling terrorized by the Minneapolis Police Federation.'"

Bob Kroll called police on Washington Post reporter who knocked on his door (6-6-2020) "A Washington Post reporter was pulled over by police shortly after he had knocked on the front door of Police Federation of Minneapolis president Bob Kroll, seeking comment for a story."

Minneapolis' Police Union Chief Won't Talk to Reporters. Maybe He Should Admit He's Married to One. (6-5-2020) - "But even as Kroll hides from the press, there's a fact that he can't run away from: He's married to a local television reporter and anchor in Minneapolis, Liz Collin of WCCO-TV, who previously reported on policing in the city - without disclosing their relationship."

Minneapolis' Third Precinct served as 'playground' for renegade cops (6-7-2020) - "'My clients were constantly getting anal searches,' said [Abigail] Cerra, who also has been a public defender. 'Not at the hospital. At the Third Precinct.'"

Minneapolis sued for police drive-by pepper-spraying protesters (6-3-2020) - "The crackdown on protesters and the press in the Twin Cities could turn out to be costly. Blame a continual indiscriminate use of force and an overwhelming amount of indisputable video evidence."

Labor groups call for Bob Kroll to resign from Minneapolis police union (6-3-2020) - "'As union president, he antagonizes and disparages members of the black community. He advocates for military-style police tactics making communities less safe and the police force more deadly. Despite his conduct, Kroll was reelected with an overwhelming majority. If Bob Kroll does not value the lives that he is sworn to protect, then we can only expect more death under his leadership,' [Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill] McCarthy said."

Minnesota Department of Human Rights files civil rights charge against Minneapolis Police Department (6-2-2020) - "The New York Times notes that despite African-Americans accounting for 20 percent of the city's population, they're more likely to be pulled over, arrested and have forced use against them than white residents."

Bob Kroll plans to 'fight for jobs' of cops who killed George Floyd (6-1-2020) - "What is not being told is the violent criminal history of George Floyd. The media will not air this. I've worked with the four defense attorneys that are representing each of our four terminated individuals under criminal investigation, in addition with our labor attorneys who will fight for their jobs. They were terminated without due process." - Bob Kroll

Minneapolis police rendered 44 people unconscious with neck restraints in five years (6-1-2020) "Since the beginning of 2015, officers from the Minneapolis Police Department have rendered people unconscious with neck restraints 44 times, according to an NBC News analysis of police records. Several police experts said that number appears to be unusually high."

Ex-Minneapolis police chief to police union president: 'Turn in your badge' (6-1-2020) "'A disgrace to the badge! This is the battle that myself and others have been fighting against. Bob Kroll turn in your badge!'' Harteau wrote on Twitter. "

Journalists report being fired on, arrested, gassed covering Minneapolis unrest (5-30-2020) "Regarding police behavior last night, I was twice ordered at gunpoint by Minneapolis police to hit the ground, warned that if I moved "an inch" I'd be shot. This after being teargassed and hit in groin area by rubber bullet. Waiving a Star Tribune press badge made no difference." - Chris Serres, Star Tribune

Former Mayor R.T. Rybak says Police Federation President is a "cancer" (5-29-2020) - "'We've never had a person leading the Federation who is as bombastic, who is as overtly racist, who is as likely to provide comfort to someone when they do something wrong, who is as central to that toxic culture as Bob Kroll,' said [former Minneapolis Mayor R.T.] Rybak. 'And it is time to name names. Bob Kroll is a cancer on this police department, on this city.'"

Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to physical appearance and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another.

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