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Would anyone be surprised to discover that shortly after beating protesters and journalists at the George Floyd protests, the Minnesota State Patrol systematically deleted emails and texts that could have been useful in establishing accountability?

In fact, they also shredded unrelated case files, subverting some existing cases, as well.

Coverup much?

Minnesota State Patrol officers conducted a mass purge of e-mails and text messages immediately after their response to riots last summer, leaving holes in their paper trail as the courts and other investigators attempt to reconstruct whether law enforcement used improper force in the chaos following George Floyd's murder.

In a recent court hearing in a lawsuit alleging the State Patrol targeted journalists during the unrest, State Patrol Maj. Joseph Dwyer said he and a "vast majority of the agency" deleted the communiqués after the riots, according to a transcript published to the federal court docket Friday night.

This file destruction "makes it nearly impossible to track the State Patrol's behavior, apparently by design," said attorneys for Minnesota's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing the State Patrol and Minneapolis police on behalf of journalists who say they were assaulted by law enforcement while covering the protests and riots.

"The purge was neither accidental, automated, nor routine," said ACLU attorneys, in a court motion that asks a judge to order the State Patrol to cease attacks on journalists who are covering protests. "The purge did not happen because of a file destruction or retention policy. No one reviewed the purged communications before they were deleted to determine whether the materials were relevant to this litigation."

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The suit, filed on June 3, 2020, alleges that the Minneapolis Police Department and the State Patrol used unnecessary and excessive force to suppress First Amendment rights to cover the unrest last summer. It is one of several lawsuits filed against law enforcement for alleged constitutional violations in use of force last summer.

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The revelations come as Minneapolis police say they're also investigating why officers in the Second Precinct — across the city from where the protests took place — shredded case files during the riots last summer. Attorneys say police destroyed key evidence in a drug prosecution and have asked a Hennepin County judge to throw out the case. 

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In the July 28 hearing, Dwyer said troopers were not acting on orders from on high to delete records, but it's "standard practice" for troopers to do so.

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He said it's up to each individual on when they want to delete these records, and it's a "recommended practice" to purge after a major event.

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The State Patrol is required to make and keep records of official activity — including text messages and e-mails — per Minnesota data law, said Don Gemberling, spokesman for nonprofit Minnesota Coalition on Government Information. They can only delete them under a schedule approved by a state records retention panel. The Star Tribune asked Gordon of the State Patrol for this schedule policy, but he did not provide one.

So, as a matter of policy, the Minnesota State Patrol breaks the law.  Their policy is flat-out illegal.

What's more the testimony flat out states that they have been told to delete data even more aggressively when there is a potential investigation or lawsuit.

How is this not corrupt and illegal?

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The ACLU's recent court filing also said testimony from this hearing showed the State Patrol "concocted false reports to justify the arrest, assault and use of less-lethal weapons against journalists" and "ignored the governor's order exempting journalists from curfew restrictions."

"Not one trooper has been disciplined or reprimanded for their misconduct," the attorneys say. "Instead, at the very highest levels, state defendants have turned a blind eye to the troopers' illegal acts."

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In another exchange, Dwyer said that he believed people were posing as media during the protests in Brooklyn Center in April after officer Kimberly Potter fatally shot Daunte Wright. Dwyer estimated 300 people, almost one-third of the crowd, were pretending to be members of the media.

"Individuals that I would come in contact with … would say, 'I'm a member of the media,' or 'I'm press,' " Dwyer said.

"So you are extrapolating from your experience that 300 people falsely claimed to be media on the night of April 12th?" Riach asked.

"There is some degree of that, yes," Dwyer replied.

This is thoroughly corrupt, and neither the Minnesota State Patrol nor the Minneapolis Police Department can be trusted to investigate themselves.

Were an ordinary business with similar data retention requirement to do this, they would be hit with a RICO lawsuit, but these guys continue to hold security clearances and exchange data with the FBI.

Minnesota may have the most lawless and corrupt law enforcement in the nation.