The Minneapolis police department has a “pattern and practice” of overly-aggressive policing and illegal discrimination against Black Americans, according to US attorney general Merrick Garland, who also claimed that the department used excessive force when its officers killed George Floyd in 2020.

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After a two-year inquiry into the Minneapolis police force following the death of George Floyd at the hands of city officers, Garland released the findings on Friday. According to Garland, the city’s policing procedures violated the US constitution.

“Our investigation found that the systemic problems in MPD made what happened to George Floyd possible,” the report states.

The Minneapolis Police Department has, for years, used dangerous “techniques and weapons” against people who had committed a petty offense or no offense at all, “including unjustified deadly force,” it adds.

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“MPD used force to punish people who made officers angry or criticized the police,” the report says, and “patrolled neighborhoods differently based on their racial composition and discriminated based on race when searching, handcuffing, or using force against people during stops.”

The Justice Department conducted dozens of interviews with city officials, members of the community, and police officials in addition to reviewing hundreds of police body-worn camera footage, incident reports, and police reports.

In a review of the 19 police shootings that took place between 2016 and the summer of 2022, the investigation found that “a significant portion of them were unconstitutional uses of deadly force” including officers shooting at individuals without determining any immediate threat and MPD officers using deadly force against “people who are a threat only to themselves,” the report says.

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A Minnesota inquiry resulted in the conviction of numerous police officers who had been involved in the savage slaying and bungled arrest of the man. The investigation was started by the DoJ following Derek Chauvin’s conviction in 2021.

Chauvin was the senior officer present that evening and kneeled on Floyd’s neck for almost 10 minutes as he begged to be allowed to breathe. Federal hate crimes were also found to have been committed by Chauvin and his three fellow policemen, all of whom were fired shortly after the murder.