Minnesota Opens Human Rights Probe of Minneapolis Police Department

In the U.S. state of Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz said Tuesday the state’s Department of Human Rights has opened a civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department.

Gov. Tim Walz said: “The investigation will review MPD’s policies, procedures and practices over the last 10 years to determine if the department has utilized systemic discriminatory practices towards people of color.”

Legal observers believe Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is preparing to charge the three other officers involved in the killing of George Floyd, including two who held Floyd to the pavement while officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck while he repeatedly gasped “I can’t breathe” before falling still.  On Tuesday, Minneapolis’s public-school district said it was terminating its contract with the city’s police department to provide school resource officers.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in cities across the United States Tuesday, defying citywide curfews, braving police and military repression, and shrugging off fears over the spread of coronavirus, in order to protest the police killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.