Minneapolis Police Accused of Racism and Misogyny

A newly-released investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights reveals that, despite intense scrutiny in the wake of the George Floyd killing, the Minneapolis Police Department continues to routinely engage in racially discriminatory policing, including using fake social media accounts to target Black people and organizations, amid a “culture that is averse to oversight and accountability,” reports the New York Times.

The investigation, which began roughly a week after Floyd was killed, concluded that city and department leaders have failed to act with “the necessary urgency, coordination and intentionality required” to correct its extensive problems. The report produced an exhaustive list of slurs that officers and supervisors “consistently use” against women and Black people, including suspects, witnesses, bystanders and their own colleagues, so flagrantly that prosecutors were unable to present body camera videos to juries. The investigation found that officers stopped, searched, arrested, ticketed, used force on and killed Black and Indigenous people at a higher rate than white people, with 63 percent of the use of force instances recorded over the last ten years being against Black people.