Embedded hate
American culture’s over-reliance on police to maintain order is problematic
A report on the findings of a sweeping, two-year investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) into violence and racial discrimination of the police in Minneapolis — where George Floyd, an unarmed African-American was murdered in May 2020 in police custody — found that officers had used excessive force, including “unjustified deadly force”, and violated the rights of people engaged in constitutionally protected speech, particularly discriminating against African-American and Native American people and those with “behavioural health disabilities”. The findings appeared to confirm a raft of citizen complaints about police conduct in Minneapolis in the wake of the Floyd murder, for which crime the officers involved were sentenced to prison terms. The report’s salience is underscored by the outpouring of public anger and protests against racism and violent acts by police on minorities, which erupted across major cities, calling for police reforms. The inquiry not only found numerous examples of excessive force, unlawful discrimination, and First Amendment violations upon review of 19 police shooting incidents but it also noted that there was entrenched racism with regarding to police actions in the context of traffic stops and arrests and callous, violent treatment of some who suffered from mental health conditions. The scathing report concluded that the “systemic problems in MPD made what happened to George Floyd possible”.
