About Bloody Time

Attorney General Merrick Garland has announced that the Department of Justice will be conducting an in depth review of policing in Minneapolis.

Considering the reputation of the Minneapolis PD was among the worst in the nation even before Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, this is long overdue:

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday announced a sweeping Justice Department probe into the practices and culture of the Minneapolis Police Department, elevating the federal government’s role a day after former officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of killing George Floyd.

Garland said the pattern-or-practice civil investigation would be conducted separately from an ongoing federal criminal probe opened during the Trump administration over whether the Black man’s civil rights were violated during his arrest and death last May.

The new examination will go beyond Floyd’s case, Garland said, to determine whether the Minneapolis department has engaged in systemic misconduct that constituted “unconstitutional or unlawful policing.”

“Nothing can fill the void the loved ones of George Floyd have felt since his death,” Garland said during brief remarks at Justice Department headquarters. “My heart goes out to them and to all those who have experienced similar loss.”

He added that “justice is sometimes slow, sometimes elusive and sometimes never comes. The DOJ will be unwavering in its pursuit of equal justice under the law.”

If this ends with a consent decree, those involved in the negotiations, the Minneapolis city government, the Minnesota Governor, and the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison should do their level best to roll back the more odious parts of the police collective bargaining agreement.