Police abuse of power often involves not only the abuser but also other officers who enable the abuse through inaction and silence. They are virtually never prosecuted, meaning that a crucial precedent could be set with the trial that began Monday for the three former Minneapolis police officers who did nothing to forcefully intervene as Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.
The case against Chauvin, convicted last year, was straightforward: Video from a bystander documented how the white officer knelt on the neck of his Black victim for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, ignoring Floyd’s pleas that he couldn’t breathe and refusing to move until after Floyd’s body had gone limp. Despite that overwhelming evidence, the trial was a nail-biter because of juries’ historic reluctance to convict police officers in even the most egregious instances of abuse. The guilty verdict was in every way a victory for justice and a sign of societal change for the better.
The federal trial that started Monday for Chauvin’s fellow officers in some ways poses an even greater test for the evolution of American justice. The officers are accused of violating Floyd’s civil rights with their failure to intervene as they witnessed Chauvin’s abuse. The legal concept that police officers have a duty to prevent fellow officers from violating citizens’ rights has long been in law, but it is almost never enforced.
