In Minneapolis, rage over George Floyd extends beyond cops

[Mike 03]

Associated Press via The Gazette
By MARGIE MASON and ROBIN McDOWELL Associated Press
Jun 8, 2020 Updated 59 min ago

An AP review of Minneapolis Police Department data found force has been used 11,000 times in the past five years. Black people accounted for 60% of those cases, even though they represent only 19% of the city’s population. Body pins were most commonly used, followed by punching, kicking and shoving.

...snip...

SWAT team member Lucas Peterson, who fired five shots into Franklin’s skull, had already been involved in 12 other excessive force cases — including the death of another black man.

In 2002, not long after joining the force, Peterson, who is white, used a choke hold on Christopher Burns after responding to a domestic dispute. The medical examiner’s office ruled the death a homicide, and a $300,000 settlement was paid, though a grand jury chose not to indict.

Four years later, Peterson lied in a police report, saying a woman had jumped on his partner’s back during a traffic stop. The charges were dropped after surveillance video proved she didn’t. That cost the city $100,000.

Peterson remains on the job.

Read more: https://gazette.com/ap/national/in-minneapolis-rage-over-george-floyd-extends-beyond-cops/article_12abf1c9-8ddb-5436-a29e-f7726b2ac0a6.html

This article explains a lot!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. It does explain a lot but it's not entirely accurate.

Problems with MPD date back long before the shooting of Jerry Haaf. It's been a hotbed of racist assholes since at least the '60s, and especially the 3rd Precinct, where Chauvin worked. I knew a few of them in the late '80s and their attitude was that unless you're a cop you're an asshole. They took special pride in roughing up black and Asian people (Asians especially, because they tended to be smaller and easier to beat up).

Another error was including the cop who shot Philando Castile. That shooting did not occur in Minneapolis but in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul. The officer worked for the St. Anthony PD - St. Anthony is a Minneapolis suburb that contracted out some of its officers to two smaller municipalities. MPD is responsible for a lot of bad acts, just not that particular one.

[lunasun]

2. Kick & ++the AP review of MPD data. Link mentions AP spent a year on another MPD killing