Last week offered the second anniversary of the killing of George Floyd by officers of the Minneapolis Police Department. Tonight, in a joint project with the Star Tribune, the PBS program “Frontline” will air a powerful documentary on the case, “Police on Trial,” featuring many of the Strib reporters who worked on the story on camera explaining their reporting of the story.
I previewed a mostly-final version of the film. It is powerful and solid, in keeping with Frontline’s long tradition of great work, but will be of special interest to Minnesotans.
I’ll mention a few notes I made while previewing the film, but feel free to stop reading this piece now and just watch the documentary yourself. The material will be familiar to many, but it offers a sober, thorough retelling of what happened.
The film also follows some of the efforts to deal with the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd: the round-the-clock protests; the “abolish the police” movement that arose in its aftermath; the fact that Officer Derek Chauvin had been accused of numerous prior cases of excessive force while making arrests.
Former officer Rich Jackson says on camera that the administration had multiple opportunities to “take care of this” (meaning Chauvin’s behavior) because Chauvin was known to make improper use of force during arrests before the night he killed Floyd.
Jackson, who is Black, tells of previous instances when he complained about excessive use of force, which led only to him acquiring a reputation as a “snitch,” which he found “demoralizing” and which apparently contributed to his decision to leave the force.
“It angered me a lot,” Jackson says, “because I became a police officer to do the right thing, not to hide stuff. I became a police officer to protect our community and make them safe; not to enable bad behavior by officers.”
A white officer named Will Gregory, who agreed to let a Frontline crew ride along with him, said that in the new environment many people treat officers “like we are truly the enemy. We are getting attacked more. We are encountering people resisting arrest more. And we are getting surrounded more [by police critics]. It makes us more on edge and it makes me look at people differently, which I wish I didn’t have to do. But I understand the climate. I understand people’s anger.”
A Black officer, Rick Plunkett, reacted to the Floyd case and the controversy thus: “The black part of me was pissed. The cop part of me saw it as all the more reason why I got into this field, to prevent stuff like that.”
The film ends with the recently released report by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights showing over a recent ten-year period that Minneapolis Police “routinely discriminated against people based on the color of their skin,” and that officers regularly use racist and misogynistic language.
“Police On Trial,” premieres on Tuesday at 9 p.m. central time on PBS stations. It will also be available to stream on PBS.org/frontline and via the PBS app.
We need the police. Most of us know that. But we need better relations between the police and people of color. We all know that.
A better relationship must be created and it’s going to take all of us contributing, in whatever way we can, from whatever our niche in society we occupy. Right now the ball is in the police’s court, meaning that there is a perception from Blacks that they are not treated well, and this has been proven true, from old history to the present day.
We need to stay with this, people. It’s gonna be a long haul, but it’s our only choice.
The people behind the “abolish the police” movement are also fighting to keep criminals out of jail. If that wasn’t enough, now they’re demanding that you give up your firearms leaving you completely defenseless against the thugs who run the streets. If you had to write a script for dismantling a free society, this would be it.
Please share your thoughts on former officer Jackson, as compared to Chauvin.
“It angered me a lot,” Jackson says, “because I became a police officer to do the right thing, not to hide stuff. I became a police officer to protect our community and make them safe; not to enable bad behavior by officers.”
What is it about MPD that Jackson quit, while Chavin was training new officers? Seems to me there are too many Chauvins and not enough Jacksons.
When you set out to eliminate aggressive police offices, you end up with a force that checks all the politically-correct inclusion boxes … and police who run away from danger instead of towards it like we saw in Uvalde, Texas. I always believed that recruiting combat veterans as city police offices was a good idea because they have been conditioned to do the right thing in those circumstances. I was recruited by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office when I was discharged from the military and finished number one on the exam. It’s in their training and it’s in the warrior gene in their DNA. But just like in a rifle company, you have to weed out the idiots. That wasn’t done with Chauvin.
“you have to weed out the idiots. That wasn’t done with Chauvin.”
I think the union, not the city, should be responsible for paying excessive use of force awards. That would weed out the idiots real quick.
Dennis,
Let’s at least recognize that the MPD hasn’t been much of a police department for years. Historically its clearance rates substantially lag national averages and peer police departments. The MPD has one of the higher rates of lawsuit and costly settlements compared to national averages and peer departments.
Look at the state commissioned report on the law enforcement response to the riots. MPD had a well-written emergency response plan. They never trained on the plan, they never pulled the plan off the shelf when the riots started. They never implemented the plan. When the state finally took over the emergency response, guess which agency refused to provide representatives to state emergency command center. MPD! Arrogant or incompetent, either way completely unacceptable.
Let’s also recognize that policing is not now, and should never have been about sending a bunch of strongmen out to kick butts and crack heads. In a modern, democratic society, the police act with the consent of the policed. They are not an occupying force. It would be worth your time to refer to Peelian Principles of ethical policing. These aren’t new – they date back to the late 1820’s. They lay out nine principles for effective and ethical policing.
I’m not in favour of abolishing the police. I am in favour of cleaning house and bringing in competent leadership. I’m in favour of molding the MPD around principles of ethical policing. I’m in favour of encouraging individual police officers to live in the community they police. I’m in favour of applying the same principles of union organization to the MPD that is found in private industry and in state government. Supervisors and managers should either be non-union or in a different union than the employees they supervise. I’m in favour of reform of arbitration rules. Disciplinary actions involving use of force or falsification of evidence should be appealable through the courts but not through arbitration.
Yes, that might be one way. Another way might be to elect reactionary officials and lawmakers – almost entirely Republicans – whose policies and proposals would take us back to at least the 19th century (and in terms of women’s health, back to the 15th century), and in the process establish an authoritarian state run by old white men who more or less look like me. I believe Margaret Atwood called such a state “Gilead.”
And there are about three people in the United States who hold these views, and whoever they are, we can be sure they are in the ranks of the completely powerless. On the other hand, there are some millions of our fellow citizens who think that non-Christians and persons of color should be dispatched en masse, and would like nothing more than to get to it, and some millions more who think that these people should be free to collect and stockpile as many pieces of advanced weaponry as pleases them, and many of these people hold positions of power within law enforcement, the military, and the Republican party, and many others of them are given megaphones by wealthy media owners. If you indeed have an interest in a “free society,” shouldn’t this be occupying a bit more of your concern than the three folks about whom you find it warranted to take to your keyboard?
We live inner city, it is not a battle field, yes we have our issues, but how the “H” could we have raised a family and still live here 34 yrs. W/O inflicting or getting bullet holes in our bodies? I won’t disagree however, the de-funder, keep the criminals on the streets bunch, are ultra left clueless knot heads!
Dennis, a couple of things to consider here…there is not one city council in the state of Minnesota that is getting behind Defund the Police ordinances or regulations. In Minneapolis, the Charter Amendment was soundly rejected by the voters. Police rank and file numbers are down after the George Floyd murder and upheaval following it because enough cops to make a difference don’t want to be held accountable. Racism on the police force is real and has real consequences. It’s a sad state of affairs, but it really is the reality of majority white police forces in charge of policing culturally diverse, black and brown communities. Be cautious when using the term “violent” crime; the petty but nevertheless upsetting neighborhood crime is not the crime category we’re trying to address. We want gun violence and gun deaths to be addressed by a police force sworn to preserve and protect. We’re not talking about a few bad apples; we’re talking about a culture promoted over decades. We need our cops on the beat to reflect the rich and diverse community in which we live and move and do business. A “shoot first, ask questions later” is an approach that costs our City millions of dollars annually in civil liability payouts. We must reform. And we can reform. The time is now.
The program really on a truly stark note, namely that the City of Minneapolis is one-third down from its police force before the murder of George Floyd two years ago and that the force that remains intact are mostly the same officers that were there before that event as well. The message of the Frontline-Star Tribune Report was that the aggressive police culture that has existed for some time remains intact. The recent report about racism in the Minneapolis Police Department was also mentioned. Given this record covered in the Frontline program and the evident inability of the elected officials and even Police Department leadership/hierarchy to deal with the culture of the Minneapolis Police Department, it seems to me that it’s only a matter of time before it comes under the jurisdiction of a federal court through a civil rights action consent decree, as has happened in so many other cities in the United States.
Overall, it was a good documentary. However, it was rather heavy on anecdotal and images vs hitting more on data and interviewing people who could respond to various allegations. Not all police shootings are the same, in one body cam showed the person shooting at police after being warned and after violating probation. And then there are the complexities of the Jamar Clark case, how did his situation get that far, could systems have intervened earlier to it and how do officer perceive one reaching for a gun in a split second; when to they back off vs feeling a need to resolve the issue. They noted it is a complex issue, but then rely heavily on images and reporters offering their perceptions vs doing more of a story on the issue. And for those stating the whole system must change, then why is there not more involvement with the city and county on creating those alternative responses like the suburbs are doing. There is no magic answer, but rather day to day non glamourous tasks that have to take place. It was, however, a good starting point to the conversation.
Whatever has been tried by Mpls police department and DA’s office, has not worked. I see a few here at Minnpost feel there is no crime spree going on, there is. All you have to do is look at the numbers. As the old saying goes, numbers do not lie, those sharing the numbers do. Change has to take place, it starts and ends with City council plus Mayor’s office actually doing their job overseeing the police.
Which is funny, because conservatives fight any real attempts to hold law enforcement accountable for their bad actors.
It’s easier to complain than find real answers.