Civil rights leaders in the Twin Cities are calling for the immediate firing of the Minneapolis police officers who were captured on body-cam video targeting protesters and others during the violence that followed the killing of George Floyd last summer.
The recently released videos capture officers discussing "hunting" protesters, as well as the beating of a man who had surrendered after exchanging gunfire with officers as he defended his property. The events in the videos took place on May 30 and 31, 2020.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said while he has issues with the conduct of the officers, he has to be very careful with how much he says while the investigation is ongoing.
“I find what we saw and the footage on those videos to be absolutely galling," Mayor Frey said.
"I am limited in what I say. If we want accountability and justice, I’m not able to take a firm position on what the outcome should be. Then due process would be denied and ultimately an arbitrator would overrule any decision that would end up happening.”
Frey said in his role, it is crucial to let the investigation play out before he takes a firmer stand.
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“There is nobody that has more incentive than me, from a political standpoint or otherwise, to dish on all of the cases that are going through the investigation and disciplinary process right now,” Frey explained.
“I have every incentive to do so, but here's the thing, I am not going to trade justice and the ability to hold officers accountable, ultimately for a few good political points. That's just not who I am and that's not how we should operate.”
In a portion of the video, Minneapolis Police Commander Bruce Folkens said to another officer, "Tonight it was just nice to hear, we're going to go find some more people, instead of chasing people around. You guys are out hunting people now, and it's just a nice change of tempo."
In another clip, Sgt. Andrew Bittell said, "We're rolling down Lake St. The first f**kers we see, we're just handling them with 40's." The reference to “40’s” would appear to be to the nonlethal rounds which Minneapolis police officers use to control crowds.
The videos also showed Minneapolis police in a van shooting rubber bullets at people outside a building without any apparent warnings.
CNN posted a clip of a portion of the body-cam footage on Wednesday (WARNING: video contains some strong language).
During his July trial in Minneapolis, Jaleel Stallings argued self-defense, testifying that he fired at an unmarked white van after he was struck in the chest with what turned out to be one of the nonlethal rubber bullets fired by police. Stallings was acquitted and after the trial, his lawyer Eric Rice fought to get this body-cam and surveillance footage released to the public.
Civil rights leaders are calling for the firing of the officers and for charges to be filed against those officers, as well as an independent investigation into the actions of Minneapolis Police following the killing of George Floyd.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations for Minnesota, says it time to for the Minneapolis Police Department to clean house from within.
“It is time for police officers, who saw this criminality that was happening, for them to come out and call it out,” Hussein said. “To be whistleblowers, and show how dirty and disgusting and dangerous the Minneapolis white, racist police officers are to all of us.”
Hussein added, "The Minneapolis police department after the uprising did not, instead of bringing peace to our community, they added chaos and stress instead of bringing calm to our city. They terrorized peaceful protestors."
The Mayor said that while that is true in some aspects, the situations is more nuanced and complicated.
“Are there instances where the conduct was galling?” Mayor Frey asked. “I just told you absolutely, the answer is yes. Are there individuals that were protesting peacefully? The answer is yes. Are there other people that were not protesting peacefully and were looting buildings and burning down buildings and causing chaos in our city? The answer's also yes. Let's be honest about the situations that we were facing through those, you know, four or five days there. To say the word unprecedented would be cliché, but it is in fact true. I think speaking in absolutes, regardless of where you're at, is the wrong thing to do. Let's dig in on each one of the individual situations. Let's make sure a full investigation takes place. Let's see due process through so that we can have justice done.”
Elizer Darris is the co-executive director of the Minnesota Freedom Fund and he said it is clear that officers were targeting people of color.
“It is intolerable that a system exists in which people feel in any way, shape or form comfortable saying they are going to hunt us,” Darris said. “And then thereby go about hunting us. Shooting indiscriminately into crowds. Saying things of such a nature, that they must not be criminals because those are white people. Yet they see crowds of brown people and open fire.”
Mayor Frey agrees that there is still a racism issue inside the MPD.
“I believe there are still major issues,” Frey agreed. “I believe that we need a full-on culture shift in the way our police department operates.”
The video and calls for more investigation have taken place while the city is voting this fall on a ballot language issue regarding the public safety amendment. The Minnesota Supreme Court has allowed the question on ballots provided for early-voting while still considering whether or not to allow the language which has gone through several court challenges already.
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WCCO has also reached out to the Minneapolis Police Department for a response but has not received a call back.