Years of dialogue about police and criminal justice reforms in Minneapolis had improved the relationship between the African American community and law enforcement, activists say — before the police killing this week of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who died after a white officer pressed his knee
Floyd's death and footage of his neck pinned under the officer's knee have unleashed protests and violent clashes with law enforcement — exposing simmering frustration and the fact that there’s much work still ahead, several advocates and leaders told The Associated Press.
The city appointed its first black chief of police nearly three years ago, after slow progress toward making the department more inclusive. Earlier this year, a statewide task force made up of activists, people representing victims of police brutality, and law enforcement leaders released recommendations for policing reforms.
The city’s police department of more than 800 officers is still predominantly white, she said. The department did not respond to a request for up-to-date figures, but the Star Tribune reported in 2014 that the force, including cadets in field training, was 78.9% white, 9.2% black, 5.2% Asian, 4.1% Hispanic and 2.5% American Indian.
“We saw his eyes ... we saw a lynching. George Floyd is Emmett Till, 2020,” he said, referring to the black 14-year-old who was abducted, beaten and killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, a lynching that helped spur the civil rights movement.
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