This program contains video some viewers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.
LIBOR JANY, Reporter, Star Tribune:
I was working a holiday shift and I got this cryptic text from the police spokesperson telling me about a news conference outside of City Hall. So I went down there.
May 26, 2020
JOHN ELDER, MPD spokesman:
Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and realized that the suspect was suffering in medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died a short time later.
LIBOR JANY:
I was posting regular updates on Twitter saying that there were all sorts of unanswered questions about this incident. And it was around that time that someone on Twitter, a follower of mine, said, "Hey, there's a video that's floating around out there. You may want to check it out." It was pretty surreal, because it seemed to directly contradict what the initial police account said. There was no mention of being pinned under an officer's knee. It took me a second to sort of process what I was watching.
You realize that there’s far more to this case than they initially let on. It raised a lot of doubts or questions in a lot of people’s minds of how many other incidents in the past had been shaped or sanitized by the cops.
LIBOR JANY:
We didn't have any inkling at the time about the magnitude of George Floyd's murder and the impact that it would have not only on law enforcement, but on society in general.
LIBOR JANY:
It was a pivotal event in the story of policing in this country, one that my colleagues at the Star Tribune and I would be reporting on for the next two years.
MALE NEWSREADER:
This morning a man is dead after being arrested by Minneapolis police, and video has emerged online.
MALE NEWSREADER:
This is the latest in a series of controversial deaths involving Minneapolis police.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Outside this grocery story is now home for a memorial.
CHAO XIONG, Reporter, Star Tribune:
The Tuesday morning after George Floyd was killed, I got there pretty early, and the protesters and demonstrators and mourners were just starting to gather at the scene.
CHARLES McMILLIAN:
I watched the whole thing from start to finish.
CHAO XIONG:
Were you standing out here on the sidewalk?
CHARLES McMILLIAN:
Yes.
CHAO XIONG:
Can you tell me where you were standing when you saw them?
CHARLES McMILLIAN:
Let me tell you where he died at, too. This is where he died at, right here.
CHAO XIONG:
And where were you, sir, when you saw this? You were right there.
CHARLES McMILLIAN:
Right here. He died right there.
MALE MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENT:
This is ridiculous. How long do y'all think this is going to keep on f------ happening, killing our kids in the street, and we’re going to sit over here and put up with this s---?
MALE VOICE:
Murder!
CHAO XIONG:
It was kind of chaotic, too. A lot of people in the street, and the crowd just kept growing.
MALE PROTESTER:
Murderer!
LIZ SAWYER, Reporter, Star Tribune:
Roughly 48 hours after Floyd was killed, people were protesting en masse. We've seen mass demonstrations, but never destruction of property on this level. It escalated really quickly.
ANDY MANNIX, Reporter, Star Tribune:
We started to hear a lot of different versions of who was behind the violence. We had the governor and public safety officials coming out and holding press conferences saying out-of-town agitators, white supremacists.
POLICE BROADCAST:
You are in violation of unlawful assembly.
ANDY MANNIX:
And because our world had sort of been turned upside down, anything seemed possible.
LIBOR JANY:
The visceral images of him taking his last breath on that video, that's certainly what brought people out to the streets in the first place. But what sustained or fueled some of these subsequent protests is that there'd been a long history of heavy-handed policing and police violence. We'd been chronicling that violence in a database of every person killed by law enforcement in Minnesota since the year 2000.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Police shot and wounded Jamar Clark early Sunday—
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
Family and community members asking for answers after a man was shot and killed by police—
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
Twenty-four-year-old Edmond Fair was shot and killed by the officer during a traffic stop.
JEFF HARGARTEN, Reporter, Star Tribune:
We started working on this database back in 2015. And late 2015 is when Jamar Clark was killed by Minneapolis police. It was just the next year after that, that Philando Castile was shot. Justine Damond shot after that. We knew that we had to provide a deeper context for people of how often this happens.
By the time that George Floyd came around, there was just this certain numbness that this just keeps happening. It keeps happening. The point of the database is to show that these aren’t just numbers. This was someone’s brother, sister, mother, father.
ANGELA HARRELSON, George Floyd’s aunt:
You guys know him as George Floyd, but I know him as Perry. And Perry is my nephew. I’m his aunt. His mother is my sister.
Trying to find family ones. Here’s a family photo, here. There’s Perry right there. That's his mama, Cissy. And that's his two sisters, that's Zsa Zsa and Tonya. And that’s his father.
He was a mother’s boy. And my sister, I wouldn’t say she nurtured him a lot, but that was her eldest son. When she looked at Perry, he just melted her heart.
Before he came to Minneapolis, I remember telling him, "Perry, you got to be careful of the police, because you’re about six-eight. So if they ever stop you, just do what they tell you to do." Because I was afraid they'd be intimidated by his height. Because he's Black.
It's a talk that I think all Black mothers and aunts and grandparents have with their loved ones out of fear. And he said, "I'm going to be OK, auntie. I got this." I said, "I'm just letting you know, because the police, they're afraid of us."
CROWD [chanting]:
George Floyd! What’s his name? George Floyd! What’s his name? George Floyd! What’s his name? George Floyd!
FEMALE PROTESTER:
That man still had respect! He said, "I can’t breathe, officer"! And then he called for his mother!
LIBOR JANY:
We were in the midst of these historic protests, and it just felt like we'd reached a certain tipping point and that something was going to change—fundamentally change.
MALE PROTESTER:
We’re going to take a walk, or get in y'all cars, whatever they got to do, but we going to the precinct right away. We're not walking around. We going right there.
CROWD [chanting]:
George Floyd!
LIBOR JANY:
Three days after George Floyd’s murder, protesters descended on the 3rd Precinct, where Derek Chauvin and the other three officers had been stationed.
CHAO XIONG:
The night the 3rd Precinct was set on fire, I was right outside that gate. That initial small flame in the entryway, that really grew over time. It was just a scene out of a movie.
LIZ SAWYER:
Essentially, MPD was nowhere to be found. Fires are raging everywhere. Any perception of law and order had crumbled.
FEMALE MPD OFFICER:
The commissioner of the Department of Public Safety is making us evacuate this building. We are going to go in one huge team.
LIBOR JANY:
Everyone had been ordered to pull out of the 3rd Precinct, essentially handing the building over to protesters.
LIZ SAWYER:
I didn't know that that would be possible in an American city, for a police station to fall. I did talk to an officer who was there that night who was forced to abandon his post. And the officers felt the same. I mean, to them it was a huge betrayal. This was their home; that's how they viewed it. And to be forced to evacuate and essentially give it to protesters was a slap in the face. It felt like the city had been taken.
LIBOR JANY:
Someone inside the department said that this particular precinct had long had a bad reputation as sort of a haven for cowboy officers who kind of play by their own rules.
We started doing some reporting, and even when officers were credibly accused of using excessive force they were rarely, if ever, held accountable, showing our readers why it was that this particular precinct would go up in flames. It wasn’t simply about George Floyd’s killing. It was years and years of tension that had been simmering.
So there was a sense that Derek Chauvin was sort of the poster child for the culture in the 3rd Precinct as opposed to being an outlier.
The MPD didn't exactly push back on some of the allegations contained in the story. Instead, they issued a brief statement saying that no officer, shift or precinct were exempt from the chief’s expectations of all of his officers.
CHIEF MEDARIA ARRADONDO, MPD:
I know that there is currently a deficit of hope in our city. And as I wear this uniform before you, I know that this department has contributed to that deficit of hope, but I will not allow to increase that deficit by re-traumatizing those folks in our community. So I am committed to making sure that we restore peace and security in our community.
LIBOR JANY:
Medaria Arradondo was carrying the burden of being the city's first Black police chief while trying to steer the department through arguably the worst crisis of its 150-plus-year history.
Arradondo himself was no stranger to the at times discriminatory culture within the MPD, having sued the department early on in his career after he and some of his colleagues were passed over for promotions.
It wasn’t lost on him that the world was really looking at what was going on here in terms of race and policing, and him being a Black man and a cop.
MEDARIA ARRADONDO:
I came to pay my respects to Mr. Floyd, and I came to just offer prayer for his loved ones, his family and our community that’s hurting. I grew up about a block from here.
LIBOR JANY:
He moved quickly to fire the four officers involved in George Floyd’s killing.
MEDARIA ARRADONDO:
I did not need days or weeks or months or processes or bureaucracies to tell me that what occurred out here last Monday, it was wrong.
LIBOR JANY:
But after years of complaints about police harassment and brutality, people were demanding radical change.
June 6, 2020
CROWD [chanting]:
Black lives, they matter here! Black lives, they matter here! Black lives, they matter here!
LIZ NAVRATIL, Reporter, Star Tribune:
About two weeks out from George Floyd's death, Mayor Jacob Frey was confronted by protesters. And they asked him if he would abolish the Police Department.
FEMALE PROTESTER:
Jacob Frey, we have a yes or no question for you. Yes or no, will you commit to defunding the Minneapolis Police Department? It’s important that we hear this because if y’all don’t know, he’s up for reelection next year. And if he says no, guess what the f--- we gonna do next year?
MAYOR JACOB FREY:
I do not support the full abolition of the police.
FEMALE PROTESTER:
All right! Get the f--- out of here! Go!
CROWD:
[Booing, chanting] Go home, Jacob, go home! Go home, Jacob, go home!
LIZ NAVRATIL:
And he got booed by the crowd.
CROWD [chanting]:
Shame! Shame! Shame!
LIZ NAVRATIL:
And they started screaming "shame," and it was like something out of a scene from "Game of Thrones."
MALE PROTESTER:
Get out of here!
FEMALE PROTESTER:
Shame!
June 7, 2020
Powderhorn Park
FEMALE ANNOUNCER:
Next, what I’m going to do is call up our council members.
LIZ NAVRATIL:
And then the next afternoon we saw nine council members walk on the stage, and they delivered a pledge that made a couple of key promises to begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department and building a new community safety system that really set the tone for all of the debates we would hear in the next two years.
FEMALE ANNOUNCER:
This is what leadership looks like.
LISA BENDER, President, Minneapolis City Council:
It is clear that our system of policing is not keeping our community safe.
ALONDRA CANO, Minneapolis City Council member:
[Archival] My name is Alondra Cano, I’m the 9th Ward council member and I am no longer a reformist.
The killing of Mr. Floyd happened in my ward. The burning down of the 3rd Precinct happened in my ward. I knew that the type of response that I needed to have was going to have to be the magnitude of a spiritual response.
[Archival] We should and can abolish our current Minneapolis police system.
LIZ NAVRATIL:
People had really strong reactions to the Powderhorn Park pledge. We heard from some folks who were incredibly excited about this and saw it as a crucial step forward. We heard from others who feared that the council members were acting too swiftly and didn't have a concrete plan for going forward.
MALE SPEAKER:
—and we stand with the people of Minneapolis in fighting for a safer community.
LIZ NAVRATIL:
But it was clear this was going to be a moment that we were going to revisit and it was going to have really significant impact.
September 11, 2020
CROWD [chanting]:
Justice for George Floyd! Justice for George Floyd! Justice for George Floyd! Justice for—
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
Four former police officers charged in George Floyd's death will appear in Hennepin County Court this morning.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Will the former officers charged with killing George Floyd be tried separately or all together in one trial?
CHAO XIONG:
OK, we’re going to go live on Twitter here from the scene.
Earl, have you heard whether the judge will issue any decisions today on—
Normally these are very procedural hearings, not a lot of interest or activity.
Mr. Kueng, anything you’d like to say?
But there was a lot of protesters outside the courthouse.
FEMALE PROTESTER:
They have to reap what they have sown!
CHAO XIONG:
Not sure what was going to happen in court, but also not sure what was going to happen outside of court.
MALE PROTESTER:
We need community control of the police, right now. The people right here could have prevented the murder of George Floyd.
CHAO XIONG:
This was the first time Chauvin appeared in person in court with the other three officers who were charged.
Thomas Lane
Alexander Kueng
Tou Thao
CHAO XIONG:
The other three officers' attorneys asked the judge to separate their trials from Chauvin’s trial, which the judge later agreed to do. They felt that trying them all together would prejudice the jury because they might blame one for the other's actions. We're used to seeing cops sort of stand up for each other, at least publicly be more discreet about their strategy, but right out of the gate they were willing to say, "It was him and not us." I think the fact that Kueng and Lane were so quick to blame Chauvin really showed us that this was going to be an unusual case.
December 30, 2020
LIBOR JANY:
Right at the end of 2020 there was another police killing.
MALE NEWSREADER:
The shooting happened just a mile from where George Floyd was killed after being restrained by officers in May.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
Dolal Idd, a 23-year-old Somali man, shot out of the driver's side window, and three officers returned fire.
LIBOR JANY:
Dolal Idd’s death was the first police killing after George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. People were still very much on edge. There were already a number of protesters or demonstrators that had gathered around the gas station where it happened.
FEMALE PROTESTER 1:
Get your f------ hands off of me.
FEMALE PROTESTER 2:
Don't touch her!
MALE MPD OFFICER 1:
Then back up.
MALE MPD OFFICER 2:
If you want to have a rational conversation, by all means.
FEMALE PROTESTER 3:
No, I don't want to.
MALE MPD OFFICER 1:
But if you're going to be irrational, then, OK.
LIZ SAWYER:
So we’re going to try going inside the Holiday station and see if any of the managers are around who were here last night.
I’m sorry to bother you. I’m just trying to talk to managers who were here at the time.
FEMALE CASHIER:
The manager's not here.
LIZ SAWYER:
All right. You weren’t working last night?
FEMALE CASHIER:
No.
LIZ SAWYER:
OK, thank you.
FEMALE PROTESTER:
No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!
LIBOR JANY:
We still don’t know much, but police maintain that this guy shot at them first.
A lot of folks still hadn't recovered mentally or emotionally from the sight of watching George Floyd's killing. And then also watching the city kind of go up in flames, that was still this sort of lingering feeling or sentiment.
Do you remember how many shots you heard?
ALICIA SMITH, Exec. Director, Corcoran Neighborhood Org.:
What I recall was three, but the third shot I was in the building.
LIBOR JANY:
What goes through your mind?
ALICIA SMITH:
Our community is beyond a state of emergency. And we have to figure out a solution for moving forward holistically for the sake of everyone, because if we don't, we'll continue this cycle of trauma and hurt on one another.
LIBOR JANY:
Very well said.
This continuum of police violence against Black people, even if you don't know the person who's been killed, you still have this sort of visceral response or reaction to images of Black pain and trauma and grief. Mike Brown. Tamir Rice. George Floyd. Alton Sterling. Each time something like that happens, it takes an emotional toll on Black people everywhere.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Prosecutors say the officers involved will not face criminal charges. Body camera footage shows Idd opened fire on officers first before they returned fire.
FEMALE PROTESTER:
Here are some of the names of the people who have been killed by police in the state of Minnesota: Roderick Harvey. Romell Hill. Philando Castile. George Floyd.
FEMALE VOICE [on Zoom call]:
Welcome everyone. I think we’re all a little anxious.
ABBY SIMONS, Public Safety Editor, Star Tribune:
Logistically, Chao and Rochelle and Libor are pretty much ready to go. We don’t know how eventful this first week will be, of course—it’s pretty fluid.
CHAO XIONG:
I just don’t know how we’re going to get through the next two months here. I just was sort of like, I don’t know if I’m ready for it.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Downtown Minneapolis here is frankly starting to look like a war zone.
MALE NEWSREADER:
You also see National Guard soldiers out in the community doing security checks before the trial.
FEMALE PROTESTER:
Right is right and wrong is wrong! We paid the ultimate sacrifice.
March 29, 2021
MALE NEWSREADER:
Now Derek Chauvin will face the judgment of a jury. And it begins this morning with opening statements by the prosecution and the defense.
CHAO XIONG:
Everyone in the world has been waiting for this day to begin. And now it's happening. And it's sort of hard to believe. I didn't really get a lot of sleep last night, I don't know why. I wasn't really worried or nervous, but I probably slept three hours last night just running through all the different scenarios and arguments in your brain about what might happen today.
REV. AL SHARPTON:
You will never be able to bring this family’s brother back. You have the opportunity to make it right this time.
CHAO XIONG:
So much rests on the outcome of this case, and it's caused this reckoning across the world about race and equity in general that you can't help but feel the weight of that today.
CROWD [chanting]:
What do we want? Justice! And when do we want it? Now! If we don't get it? Shut it down! If we don't get it? Shut it down!
JERRY BLACKWELL, Prosecutor:
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, good morning. You’re going to learn in this case a lot about what it means to be a public servant and to have the honor of wearing this badge. On May 25 of 2020, Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge.
CHAO XIONG:
Minnesota has pretty strict rules about when cameras are allowed in courtrooms. Generally and broadly, they're not allowed in courtrooms.
JERRY BLACKWELL:
That he put his knees upon his neck.
CHAO XIONG:
Eventually, the judge ruled that it would be livestreamed because the COVID pandemic was going to limit access to the trial so severely that it wouldn't be a public trial without a public livestream.
ERIC NELSON, Defense attorney:
A reasonable doubt is a doubt that is based upon reason and common sense. What would a reasonable police officer do? What is a reasonable use of force? What would a reasonable person do in his or her most important affairs? What is a reasonable doubt? Common sense tells you that there are always two sides to a story.
LIBOR JANY:
For a lot of people, this trial came to symbolize more than just the actions of one officer. It was a moment for policing itself to be on trial. But from the start, the focus was almost entirely on Derek Chauvin. The evidence of what he did was overwhelming, mostly because it was caught on camera.
But it wasn’t just the video that everyone had seen. There were multiple other videos, some of which were released for the first time, including from passers-by, various surveillance cameras in the area and other sources.
They also introduced body camera footage from some of the main officers who responded to the scene. This other footage that was introduced gave us some insight into how the first few minutes of the police encounter, how that unfolded. How officers initially approached Floyd as he was sitting in an SUV and he was parked and ordered him out.
THOMAS LANE, MPD:
Stay in the car. Let me see your other hand.
LIBOR JANY:
How the encounter sort of escalated from that moment.
THOMAS LANE:
Put your f------ hands up, right now! Let me see your other hand.
GEORGE FLOYD:
All right! I didn't know, man.
THOMAS LANE:
Get out of the car.
GEORGE FLOYD:
I didn't know, Mr. Officer! I didn't know it!
FEMALE VOICE:
Stop resisting!
ALEXANDER KUENG, MPD:
Stop moving. Stop. Stop resisting, man!
GEORGE FLOYD:
I’m not!
ALEXANDER KUENG:
Yes, you are.
LIBOR JANY:
It raised a question in some people's minds about whether the officers unnecessarily escalated this incident, which ostensibly started over a fake $20 bill.
ALEXANDER KUENG:
You got an ID on you?
GEORGE FLOYD:
[Crying] I got one at home.
ALEXANDER KUENG:
All right. What’s your name?
GEORGE FLOYD:
George.
ALEXANDER KUENG:
George?
GEORGE FLOYD:
George Perry Floyd. I don't know what's going on.
LIBOR JANY:
It was Lane and Kueng that initially encountered George Floyd, and they tried to force him into a back of a squad car.
THOMAS LANE:
I'll roll the windows down, OK?
GEORGE FLOYD:
Please, man.
LIBOR JANY:
And yet, as soon as Chauvin arrived as the most senior officer on the scene, he immediately took control of this situation.
GEORGE FLOYD:
I’m not going to run, man!
DEREK CHAUVIN, MPD:
Right. All right, all right, all right, all right, all right. Right.
GEORGE FLOYD:
I know, I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!
ALEXANDER KUENG:
What's going on?
THOMAS LANE:
Let's take him out and just—
GEORGE FLOYD:
For what? Please, man!
LIBOR JANY:
Just on a human level, it’s difficult to watch.
ERIC NELSON, Defense attorney:
—informing your opinions, right?
MALE SPEAKER:
Yes, based on what was current at the time of the incident.
ANGELA HARRELSON:
Perry fought for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. But if you look careful at that video, you saw somebody that was very humble.
THOMAS LANE:
Put your foot back in.
GEORGE FLOYD:
I’m sorry, Mr. Officer. I'm so sorry.
ANGELA HARRELSON:
"Yes, Mr. Officer."
GEORGE FLOYD:
Thank you, Mr. Officer.
ALEXANDER KUENG:
Sit down!
GEORGE FLOYD:
Thank you, man.
ANGELA HARRELSON:
"Please, Mr. Officer."
GEORGE FLOYD:
I’m claustrophobic, Mr. Officer!
ALEXANDER KUENG:
Face the door.
GEORGE FLOYD:
Please, man!
ANGELA HARRELSON:
There had been many people that would’ve cussed that officer out when they were in pain or dying or whatever. Through all of that, he still gave respect to that officer.
GEORGE FLOYD:
I can’t breathe, Mr. Officer, please!
ANGELA HARRELSON:
And he treated that officer as a human being.
GEORGE FLOYD:
I can’t breathe, officer—aargh!
ANGELA HARRELSON:
See, here's the thing. Through all this terrible thing, I still see Mr. Derek Chauvin as a human being. If Mr. Chauvin saw my nephew as a human being, he wouldn't have treated him that way.
MALE VOICE 1:
He fought with him.
MALE VOICE 2:
Bro, then why you just sitting there? He ain't doing nothing to you!
FEMALE VOICE:
Got him kneed on the ground.
LIBOR JANY:
There were a number of things in the video that pointed to bigger issues with Minneapolis Police Department's culture and training practices. One that immediately jumps out is the failure by the other officers to forcefully intervene.
GEORGE FLOYD:
I can’t breathe!
LIBOR JANY:
It's the underlying culture that exists in certain police departments where they're paramilitary organizations and ones that are rooted in hierarchy and a clear command structure.
GEORGE FLOYD:
Mama! Mama!
LIBOR JANY:
Younger officers, more junior officers, might see something that a senior officer is doing that is sort of very clearly wrong, and yet they wouldn't intervene because of this clear hierarchy, which frowns on a younger officer questioning or second-guessing an older cop.
GEORGE FLOYD:
Look at my face, man.
CHAO XIONG:
All these bystanders immediately knew how serious this was and really felt that it was important to capture that for posterity and for accountability.
CHARLES McMILLIAN:
Look, you’ve got him down, man. Let him breathe at least, man.
GEORGE FLOYD:
I can’t breathe!
CHAO XIONG:
They capture people yelling for the cops to show some mercy.
FEMALE VOICE:
His nose is bleeding. Like, come on now. Look at his nose.
CHAO XIONG:
You had children who were telling the cops what was going on, but yet he was ignoring them and resisting their pleas for help.
GENEVIEVE HANSEN:
I’m a firefighter from Minneapolis.
MALE BYSTANDER:
Bro, look, you should check on him. He’s not breathing.
CHAO XIONG:
He was ignoring a Minneapolis firefighter's pleas for help, who had wandered on the scene, off duty.
TOU THAO, MPD:
Get off the street.
GENEVIEVE HANSEN:
I’m a firefighter from Minneapolis.
TOU THAO:
Then you would know to get off the street.
GENEVIEVE HANSEN:
No, I do know.
MALE BYSTANDER:
He’s not responsive right now. He’s not responsive right now, bro.
GENEVIEVE HANSEN:
Does he have a pulse?
MALE BYSTANDER:
No, bro, look at him. He’s not responsive right now, bro.
CHAO XIONG:
Yelling for the cops to check his pulse. Captured George Floyd screaming for his life and really begging for some breath.
MALE BYSTANDER:
So you call what he’s doing OK?
TOU THAO:
Get back off the street.
MALE BYSTANDER:
You call what he’s doing OK?
TOU THAO:
You’re really a firefighter?
GENEVIEVE HANSEN:
Yes, I am, from Minneapolis.
TOU THAO:
Get back on the sidewalk.
GENEVIEVE HANSEN:
Show me his pulse!
MALE BYSTANDER:
You think that's OK! Check his pulse!
GENEVIEVE HANSEN:
Check it right now.
MALE BYSTANDER:
Check the pulse!
GENEVIEVE HANSEN:
I'm telling you right now, check his pulse.
MALE BYSTANDER:
Thao, check his pulse. Thao, check his pulse, bro.
MATTHEW FRANK, Prosecutor:
As you were standing there, seeing all this, how were you feeling?
CHAO XIONG:
They built the case around those elements, showing that if all these people knew better, a veteran police officer with Derek Chauvin's experience, who trained new recruits, should have known just as much, if not more, than those bystanders.
CHARLES McMILLIAN:
Helpless.
MATTHEW FRANK:
Were you frustrated?
GENEVIEVE HANSEN:
Yes. [Cries]
LIBOR JANY:
Almost as soon as we learned Derek Chauvin’s name we started looking into his record at the MPD. We found at least two dozen complaints in over 18 years. All but two of those were dismissed without any discipline.
MARCIA ROBIOU, FRONTLINE:
We need to fIgure out how Derek Chauvin fell through the cracks.
LIBOR JANY:
Prosecutors also ended up finding cases of people who had never filed complaints. We worked with our colleagues over at FRONTLINE to track down and speak with some of them, and we found video of the incidents that had never been seen before.
ANDY MANNIX:
They all involved Derek Chauvin encountering a suspect or responding to a 911 call, and as soon as the person wasn't compliant, him becoming really aggressive and kind of ramping up that encounter to assert his physical dominance over these people and make them comply with him by force.
LIBOR JANY:
One of the people we found was Jimmy Bostic. Back in 2016, he had been thrown out of one of the city’s indoor markets and the police had been called to deal with him.
JIMMY BOSTIC JR.:
I remember an officer coming up to me very calmly. And he asked me what's going on. And I told him, "They're trying to make me leave. I'm waiting for my ride. When my ride gets here, I will leave." The officer at the time, that I found out was Chauvin, I started to tell him what was happening. Derek Chauvin asked me, "What's your name?" "Am I under arrest? If I'm not under arrest, you have no reason to know my name." I know being young, I say a lot of s--- to provoke officers.
LIBOR JANY:
The footage shows Chauvin grabbing Bostic by the head and neck and forcing him down to the sidewalk.
JIMMY BOSTIC JR.:
He went to grab my arm, and I snatched my arm away. I said, "What the f--- are you doing? Don't touch me." And I yelled it at the top of my lungs.
They all jumped on me, and I feel an arm wrap around my head. I just panicked. "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe." And when I started saying that, I started to really couldn't breathe.
There's no reason for five grown men to jump on me. Even if I am hostile. To be 18 years old, my life is in Derek Chauvin’s hands. That’s scary.
LIBOR JANY:
Bostic was cited for disorderly conduct and released.
There was another case we found where Chauvin was arresting a woman named Zoya Code, who'd been accused of assaulting her mother. It takes a little while for the body camera sound to click on, but you can see Code resisting, and Chauvin cuffing her and taking her to the ground.
ZOYA CODE:
Hey, guess what? I didn’t even move since he said stop fighting. Guess what?
FEMALE VOICE:
No, you did fight.
ZOYA CODE:
Guess what? That’s why people dead now. That’s why people dead now. Watch this.
DEREK CHAUVIN:
Stand up.
ZOYA CODE:
You want to see how—you want to see me murdered? You want to see me murdered?
MALE VOICE:
Zoya, your children are here. Please think of them.
DEREK CHAUVIN:
Stand up.
ZOYA CODE:
No.
MALE VOICE:
Please think of them.
ZOYA CODE:
I’m resisting. I’m not going to stand up.
MALE VOICE:
No, you’re not.
ZOYA CODE:
Look, he just slamming my face around and stuff. Take my glasses off.
MALE VOICE:
Zoya!
ZOYA CODE:
[Archival] Take my glasses off. Ow!
They took me outside, pushed me forcefully to the ground—by the grass, not in the grass. It just looked like that.
[Archival] You strong enough? Ow! That's how you gonna slam me on the ground? That’s how you gonna do me?
And he jumped on my neck and stayed there.
LIBOR JANY:
Chauvin pinned Code down with his knee for more than 4 1/2 minutes.
ZOYA CODE:
Can you get off my neck?
DEREK CHAUVIN:
Here put this one back around her waist area there.
ZOYA CODE:
My legs were pumping. I was hand-tied with a man on my neck and my legs were folded.
DEREK CHAUVIN:
Perfect.
ZOYA CODE:
[Archival] Take my glasses off.
I didn't know his name. All I knew was he was a police officer with Minneapolis Police Department. I didn't know what precinct he was at. All I knew was his face. He haunted me until I seen him on top of George.
LIBOR JANY:
The charges against Code were eventually dropped.
The case was close enough to the way Chauvin handled George Floyd three years later that the judge said it could be introduced at trial.
ZOYA CODE:
Just pull me by my ponytail. Don’t nobody else give a f---. All on my damn neck. Take my glasses off.
LIBOR JANY:
A casual observer might wonder if there were other instances that were similar to George Floyd's killing, why wasn't this officer flagged earlier? Why was he allowed to continue as a field training officer? It raised a host of questions, both about Derek Chauvin as an individual officer and MPD as an institution or police department.
Chauvin’s lawyer argued that he had acted reasonably and that his supervisors approved how he responded.
During the trial, prosecutors never called Zoya Code.
JUDGE PETER CAHILL:
Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you’re about to give will be the truth—
LIBOR JANY:
They relied on the testimony of MPD officers about Chauvin’s actions.
STEVEN SCHLEICHER, Prosecutor:
Sir, is this an MPD-trained neck restraint?
JOHNNY MERCIL, MPD:
No, sir.
INSP. KATIE BLACKWELL, MPD:
What we train is using one arm or two arm to do a neck restraint.
STEVEN SCHLEICHER:
And how does this differ?
KATIE BLACKWELL:
I don't know what kind of improvised position that is.
RICHARD ZIMMERMAN, MPD:
If your knee is on a person’s neck, that can kill him.
MATTHEW FRANK:
What is your view of that use of force during that time period?
RICHARD ZIMMERMAN:
Totally unnecessary. I saw no reason why the officers felt they were in danger.
LIBOR JANY:
The message that the MPD was projecting from the witness stand to the world was that Chauvin was a rogue cop.
MALE PROSECUTOR:
Would you please point to him?
DAVID PLEOGER, Retired Sergeant, MPD:
Right there.
MALE PROSECUTOR:
May the record reflect that the witness has identified the defendant.
LIBOR JANY:
But that didn’t exactly square with a lot of the reporting on the department that my colleagues and I had been doing over the years. Or with conversations FRONTLINE's reporter Marcia Robiou was having with some former MPD officers.
CATHERINE JOHNSON, Former Inspector, MPD:
I pulled it out. It’s the 150th anniversary of the Minneapolis Police Department. There I am. In my inspector’s attire, no less.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
Catherine Johnson, who has since left the department, was an inspector at the 3rd Precinct, which is the same precinct that Derek Chauvin had spent much of his career.
CATHERINE JOHNSON:
I’ll tell you a story about the internal culture of the 3rd Precinct. When I was a lieutenant at the 3rd Precinct, I submitted a report on a use of force to the internal affairs unit for an officer by the name of Blayne Lehner. He kicked a guy in the face during the course of an arrest following a pursuit. And my training was that kicking somebody in the head was deadly force, and so I sent the case to internal affairs. The entire precinct stopped talking to me as a lieutenant because I had had the audacity to send a case to the internal affairs unit.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
Lehner ended up getting suspended for 15 hours and was eventually fired years later. But there was all this video of incidents he was involved in. Before his suspension, he was seen grabbing a protester by the throat—
BLAYNE LEHNER, MPD:
Take your backpack off.
MALE SPEAKER:
I'm with the press. What do you want? I don't know what—
MARCIA ROBIOU:
—and shoving a reporter.
MALE SPEAKER:
What am I being arrested for?
MARCIA ROBIOU:
After his suspension, there was a video of him throwing a woman to the ground.
CATHERINE JOHNSON:
Later, when I came back as the inspector, there were still some in the precinct who refused to even look at me when I walked in the building because of their belief that I had done something that was inappropriate.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
She said she knew very little about Chauvin. She hadn’t been aware of any of the warning signs or any of the prior incidents like Zoya Code's, and she pretty much just pointed the finger at the officers below her.
CATHERINE JOHNSON:
The struggle is, as the inspector, I don't know all of the 911 responses, right? So you have inspector, lieutenant, sergeant. Part of it as an inspector, and as a person who did those force reviews, I'm relying on them to tell me if there's a problem, which means if someone is mistreated, I'm relying on them to complain. Is that the best way to go about it? No, probably not.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
Are they the ones who are responsible for a misbehaving cop? And if not, who is?
CATHERINE JOHNSON:
Ultimately, the entire department is responsible for it, frankly. But in the immediacy, it is the sergeants’ responsibility to make sure that their cops are following the rules. If the sergeant doesn't do that, then those cops believe they are following the rules, because they're following the rules as that sergeant has enforced them. It's part of the reason why the 3rd Precinct stopped talking to me when I was a lieutenant—I'm the one who broke the rules.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
She put a lot of the blame on what she sort of saw as these ingrained cultural problems throughout the ranks of the MPD, which is something I’d heard in other conversations with former officers.
RICH JACKSON, Former Lieutenant, MPD:
So this is kind of my life.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
There is this other lieutenant who had a pretty similar story.
RICH JACKSON:
First Precinct officer of the month, 2011.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
A guy named Rich Jackson, and he’d never spoken publicly before about his issues or concerns with the Minneapolis Police Department.
RICH JACKSON:
What happened with George Floyd and with other cases, those officers are responsible, yes, absolutely, and they have some weight in that. But what did the administration do to curtail this, or to divert this or keep this from happening before it even got to this point? And when you look at it, from my perspective, they had four or five different opportunities to take care of this before it even got to George Floyd. You would make a recommendation for discipline.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
We talked a lot about how cops with a pattern of behavior like Chauvin's were not stopped sooner and a process called “coaching.”
Coaching is supposed to be a form of corrective action reserved for minor policy violations. Essentially, there's discipline, which is public and sort of remains within a police officer's personnel file and could have consequences for a police officer's career. And then there's coaching, which does not remain in an officer's file and is not public.
RICH JACKSON:
So if you have an officer who is quote-unquote a problem officer, a coaching document can be used to shield an officer who has a proven record of policy violations. But in that same respect, there's only so much that you can protect before it comes to light. And then when it does come to light, then it becomes very obvious.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
When we sat down to interview him, Jackson had recently left the department over holding an officer accountable—a cop named Ty Jindra, who was ultimately convicted of multiple federal charges. Jackson gave me a hard drive filled with internal documents and police videos.
RICH JACKSON:
The guy is on the hood. His hands are behind his back. He’s not fighting. He’s not being uncooperative. Jindra takes his gun and jams it into his temple. And I was like, "What the hell?" Then he grabs his head, repositions it, slams it back down on the car. What is he doing? And then I look at all the other officers—everybody’s just handcuffing. If that gun had gone off when he went like this, it would've blew that kid's head off.
MARCIA ROBIOU:
So this is the next day. You find out about another complaint.
RICH JACKSON:
Another complaint. He pulls the kid out of the car—doesn't even ask for a driver's license, proof for insurance, nothing. Just snatches him out the car, puts a gun to his head.
I was starting to see a pattern. And then I came forward and did something about it. I sent it to internal affairs that night.
After Jindra got relieved of duty, it happened about two days later—it came out. "Oh, Rich is a snitch. Rich is going after cops." It was horrible. And it was very demoralizing being a lieutenant. And I can just imagine how my sergeants felt.
It angered me a lot. Because I became a police officer to do the right thing, not to hide stuff. I became a police officer to protect our communities and keep them safe, not to enable bad behavior by officers.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
In a rare move, Chief Medaria Arradondo prepares to take the witness stand for the prosecution.
STEVEN SCHLEICHER, Prosecutor:
Your honor, the state calls Chief Medaria Arradondo.
CHAO XIONG:
We learned early on that Chief Arradondo was going to testify.
JUDGE PETER CAHILL:
Do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury—
CHAO XIONG:
And more than likely he was going to testify against Chauvin’s actions and in favor of the prosecution’s case.
STEVEN SCHLEICHER:
Do you believe that the defendant followed departmental policy regarding de-escalation?
MEDARIA ARRADONDO:
I absolutely do not agree with that.
STEVEN SCHLEICHER:
And how so?
MEDARIA ARRADONDO:
That action is not de-escalation. That action goes contrary to what we’re taught.
STEVEN SCHLEICHER:
Do you have a belief as to when this restraint, the restraint on the ground that you viewed, should have stopped?
MEDARIA ARRADONDO:
Once Mr. Floyd had stopped resisting, and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that, that should have stopped. Clearly when Mr. Floyd was no longer responsive and even motionless, that in no way, shape, or form is anything that is by policy, it is not part of our training and it is certainly not part of our ethics or our values.
CHAO XIONG:
The chief's testimony was important because I think we expected other officers and the defense's expert witness to say, "Of course this is acceptable behavior. They're trained to do this," and there's no better counterpoint than the chief's counterpoint. He's the one who sort of settled it once and for all for the jurors and for the public.
STEVEN SCHLEICHER:
Thank you, chief.
LIBOR JANY:
Some people saw the testimony of the chief and some of these officers, the images of them getting on the stand and condemning the actions of one of their own, they saw that as a significant step towards better policing, a crack in the blue wall of silence. And yet a matter of days later, you had another police killing.
KIM POTTER, Brooklyn Center Police Department:
Taser, Taser, Taser! Oh, s---. I just shot him.
LIZ SAWYER:
We started seeing some chatter on Twitter that a suburban police department, Brooklyn Center, had been involved in a shooting.
CROWD [chanting]:
Say his name! Daunte Wright! Say his name! Daunte Wright! Say his name! Daunte Wright!
LIZ SAWYER:
To find out that it was an unarmed Black man again was hard for people to take.
FEMALE PROTESTER 1:
Just like George Floyd, it doesn’t matter what you do, you don’t deserve to be murdered.
FEMALE PROTESTER 2:
We must love and support one another! Because we have nothing to lose but our chains!
LIZ SAWYER:
And the city had already been through so much, even just in the past year, that we knew things could escalate quickly.
FEMALE PROTESTER 1:
All right, so if this s--- don’t go right with George Floyd, I’m burning this city up myself. I’m tearing this bitch up.
CROWD [chanting]:
Burn it down! Burn it down!
LIZ SAWYER:
Andy? Hey. So we're going to go to the police station, because apparently there's 200 people outside the police station.
ANDY MANNIX:
I'm just going to hang out here.
LIZ SAWYER:
It’s really terrible. In the middle of the trial? Like, we can't even go a week?
In a climate like this, in the midst of the Derek Chauvin trial, you have potentially an unarmed Black man, another one, be killed by a local police department. It's just a combustible situation right now. A group of several hundred people apparently is outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department demanding answers.
This is not good.
CROWD [chanting]:
Brooklyn Center! We do this every night!
LIZ SAWYER:
There was so much anger and the interaction with police had escalated so quickly that officers were firing tear gas into the crowd. So it was—it felt very familiar. And I got out my gas mask that night, as the tear gas was wafting in our direction. And all I could think about was that it was happening again. So soon after George Floyd, after Dolal Idd, that the community was going through it again.
CROWD [chanting]:
Daunte Wright! Say Daunte Wright! Daunte Wright!
LIBOR JANY:
There was a certain collective whiplash with what happened in Brooklyn Center with Daunte Wright. And while it wasn't in Minneapolis, it was the latest in this continuum of white officers killing unarmed Black men. If anything, it fed this movement towards abolishment because their underlying argument is that the system is sort of inherently flawed. It doesn’t matter how many reforms you enact, this sort of police violence will always exist unless you completely dismantle the system and start anew.
ANTONIO WILLIAMS, Yes 4 Minneapolis:
This is amazing. Look at all my volunteers! This is great. As you all know, we're having some crazy times here. We talk about the things that need to be done. And some of us sit back and do nothing but talk about it. We're doing more than that today. We’re doing something.
LIBOR JANY:
The movement was pushing to get a referendum on the ballot in the upcoming election in November that would essentially replace the MPD with a new public safety agency with more of a public health approach to violence prevention.
ANTONIO WILLIAMS:
In the beginning, everyone was hung up on the word "defund," and it was stopping people from being rational and thinking about something new. This isn’t actually eliminating police completely. It's us reimagining what a public safety department could look like, something outside of simply just police.
OK, we're going to Bloomington.
Hey, how's it going? So my name is Antonio. I'm with Yes 4 Minneapolis. We're out here to establish a new Department of Public Safety.
MALE RESIDENT:
I'm sorry, I am by no means in favor of eliminating police entirely. We need to redefine the position of police.
ANTONIO WILLIAMS:
Ah, we need you at the table.
MALE RESIDENT:
Have a good one.
ANTONIO WILLIAMS:
Enjoy your day.
This isn't eliminating the police. This is saying, "We want a new Department of Public Safety that would include other options when it comes to crime response."
Many of the people who are naysayers are white people. In my brain, what that says is that you're comfortable. You can afford to be a naysayer because when you see police, you see protection. You see service.
FEMALE RESIDENT:
I really don't like the terminology of "get rid of the Police Department."
ANTONIO WILLIAMS:
I agree, because it's been very harmful because of the fears—
FEMALE RESIDENT 1:
Because everybody thinks of a city with no police.
ANTONIO WILLIAMS:
Exactly.
Those slogans of "we're here to protect the community," because they have always done that for you they haven't done that for people who look like me. So I see it in that context.
FEMALE RESIDENT 2:
We have to step up and get in the way because our neighbors are getting killed. It is not OK that our neighbors are getting killed.
ANTONIO WILLIAMS:
Absolutely.
Once this gets on the ballot, we'll be reaching out to people having the conversation.
These are personal issues. These are things that are close to my community. These things affect me.
Thank you so much.
Let me know if I’m walking too fast. You don't have to.
FEMALE VOLUNTEER:
No, you’re good.
ANTONIO WILLIAMS:
OK.
LIBOR JANY:
The movement was getting thousands of signatures, but Mayor Frey held firm in his support of MPD.
JACOB FREY:
Ready to rock? Let’s do it.
I'm proud that I've stood by my values and when there were people outside my home asking me to abolish the police, I told them the truth, which is that I'm for deep change and structural reform, but no, I'm not for abolishing the police. The question is, "What form does that deep structural change take?"
LIBOR JANY:
Frey had approved a number of changes to the department’s policy, including doing away with the type of neck restraints that Chauvin used on Floyd. He beefed up de-escalation and use of force reporting.
JACOB FREY:
The most difficult part of being a mayor, regardless of what city you’re in, is this combination of public safety and police accountability.
Is this it? Good to see you! Hey, how are you doing?
When I talk to community members, they want to see deep change in the department. They want to see structural reform. They want to see more accountability. I just haven't heard in any significant numbers the argument to defund or abolish the police. In fact, I've heard loud and clear from them that they want to make sure their streets are safe, and that their kids can walk outside on the sidewalk without fear or risk of gunshots.
What's going on here?
MALE DRIVER:
I see flashing lights way up there.
JACOB FREY:
Oh, boy.
April 20, 2021
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
Developing news this morning: Day 2 of jury deliberations have just started in the trial of Derek Chauvin.
FEMALE ACTIVIST:
This day here is the day that the Lord has made! We need a change!
MALE NEWSREADER:
The nation preparing for what may come once the verdict is announced.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Right here in Minneapolis, and in cities all across the country, are preparing for possible unrest.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
The National Guard has been deployed in Minneapolis in anticipation of a verdict.
FEMALE ACTIVIST:
We're tired of getting killed. We're tired of having to heal. In my city, one officer's trial's not even over before 12 recklessly pulling their steel. Women or man behind that badge, there's many cowards in disguise overstepping their stand.
MALE REPORTER:
Just really in the last 15, 20 minutes, this crowd has easily doubled. People are kind of taking turns taking the microphone, doing chants, reading a poem, pumping up this crowd as we await this moment.
MALE NEWSREADER:
We're going to go listen in now to the verdict.
JUDGE PETER CAHILL:
Members of the jury, I understand you have a verdict. "We the jury in the above entitled matter, as to count one, unintentional second-degree murder while committing a felony, find the defendant guilty. As to count two, third-degree murder perpetrating an eminently dangerous act, find the defendant guilty. Count three, second-degree manslaughter, culpable negligence, creating an unreasonable risk, find the defendant guilty."
FEMALE PROTESTER:
We matter. [Cries] We matter. We matter!
CROWD [chanting]:
Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter! Black lives matter!
JUDGE PETER CAHILL:
Bail is revoked. Bond is discharged and the defendant is remanded to the custody of the Hennepin County Sheriff.
CHAO XIONG:
Any reaction to the verdicts?
MALE FAMILY MEMBER:
Yes, we’re going to change the world.
ANGELA HARRELSON:
Can’t believe it. This is awesome.
We are the only race, Black and brown people, that have to negotiate for equality. And when that verdict came back it gave us validation, validation that systemic racism is real. Now, we have validation! So thank you so much, and say his name!
CROWD [chanting]:
George Floyd!
ANGELA HARRELSON:
Say his name!
CROWD [chanting]:
George Floyd!
ANGELA HARRELSON:
Thank you, thank you.
LIBOR JANY:
Even with the guilty verdict, there was still a lot of momentum around the ballot initiative to replace the MPD.
CORENIA SMITH, Yes 4 Minneapolis:
Two, four, six. Can someone give me a count and make sure we have 30 boxes?
LIBOR JANY:
Ten days after the trial, the Yes 4 Minneapolis movement delivered enough signatures to get the referendum on the ballot.
CORENIA SMITH:
Are one of you Casey? Hi, Casey. I’m Corenia. We’ve been talking.
It’s so amazing. I am just awestruck.
CASEY CARL, Minneapolis city clerk:
So we have now officially received your petition. [Cheering]
ANTONIO WILLIAMS:
These signatures that we turned in today, it is a screaming indictment on the old way. It is saying, "We want something new. And we want you to hear us, and we want you to hear us now."
LIBOR JANY:
That time leading up to the election was really challenging for the city. Around a third of the officers in the Police Department had left, and violent crime and some of the anxiety around it was going up.
MALE PARAMEDIC:
Where are we shot, guys? Chest?
LIBOR JANY:
The police administration wouldn’t talk about specific cases like Chauvin’s and the other three officers still awaiting trial. But Deputy Chief Amelia Huffman agreed to do an on-camera interview.
FEMALE PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER:
DC Huffman cannot speak to the Chauvin case, riots, incidents or specific discipline cases.
AMELIA HUFFMAN:
We are an organization made up of people, the same as every other organization, and sometimes people make mistakes or do things that they shouldn't do. And we need to find those issues, and we need to address those issues by holding people accountable, and we always have work to do on that. Like every human organization, we always have work to do on that.
And we also have work to do on rebuilding relationships and inviting folks in to get to know us and to get to know folks in the community in a better way in a variety of ways. Along with dealing with the serious increases in crime. People are suffering every day in Minneapolis from violent crimes—shooting victims, robbery victims, carjacking victims—and we have to do everything that we can to interrupt that increase.
WILL GREGORY, MPD:
All right, let's roll.
LIBOR JANY:
It’s always been difficult to get rank-and-file cops to talk on the record, but MPD agreed to let a few talk and let us film them on their shifts.
WILL GREGORY:
To me it was just a job before George Floyd. You came in, you answered your calls and then you went home. But now people treat us like we are truly the enemy.
LIBOR JANY:
One of the officers that we rode along with was Will Gregory, who’d recently been accused of punching a teenager in the face. The city would eventually settle out of court.
WILL GREGORY:
We are getting attacked more, and we are encountering people resisting arrest more, and we're getting surrounded more. It makes me more on edge, and it makes me look at people differently, which I wish I didn't have to do. But I understand the climate. I understand people's anger.
LIBOR JANY:
Officer Rick Plunkett was still in training when George Floyd was killed.
RICK PLUNKETT, MPD:
I seen the video. I’m like, "Man, that could have been me. That could have been my son." So the Black male in me was pissed. The cop part of me was like, that's even more of a reason why I got into this field, because to prevent stuff like that.
MALE SPEAKER:
Well, we seen his face 'cause he had the window down and stuff while he was driving, and we were like, "Stop! Stop!"
RICK PLUNKETT:
People are going to get sick and tired of being sick and tired, and community are going to start seeing that we need more police officers out here. And I'll tell ’em, "Hey, this ain’t us. Talk to your city council. You guys voted these guys in there. Complain to them, don't complain to us. We're doing the best that we can with the little bit of resources that we have.”
FEMALE POLICE DISPATCH [on radio]:
Thirty rounds instead of 22, 23rd Avenue North.
WILL GREGORY:
Uh-oh, 30 rounds fired.
Four cars on lunch and everybody else is busy. That's what we got to deal with now. Thirty shots fired and a block full of gang members shooting at each other and no cops available to go.
LIBOR JANY:
Violent crime was going up, but even amidst all the grief and suffering, there was a series of stories I did amidst this time that really stuck with me. A third-grade boy was shot while eating potato chips in the back of his parents' car. A 9-year-old girl was shot and killed while she was playing on a trampoline during a birthday party. And then a 6-year-old girl was killed down the street from a convenience store.
MARCUS SMITH, Neighborhood activist:
We just holdin’ the space. We the street team. We out here from 10 to 2:30, 3 o'clock every night.
LIBOR JANY:
Can you tell me about what you guys do every day? Like is it lighting the candles and just kind of keeping watch?
MARCUS SMITH:
Keepin' watch. We want people to feel safe in the neighborhood and be able to walk to the store and be able to have your kids out here late at night if you feel free because it's a nice day. Man, look, it's so much heat on the Minneapolis Police Department. Too much scrutiny. They really don't want to do nothing. So much scrutiny against them. It’s just horrible right now, bro.
LIBOR JANY:
Eventually the number of shootings would reach a 26-year high, and it became a deeply divisive political issue as people from all fronts demanded something be done.
There is no simple solution. It’s so easy for everyone to have these lofty and abstract conversations about replacing police or adding more police or whatever the latest political debate is without taking into consideration that there is still people living in highly stressful and traumatic situations where there’s gunfire outside of their window. And then on top of that they’ve been battered by all these other social forces—poverty, lack of access to health care, what the pandemic has done and how it’s f----- with Black and brown communities even more.
Gunshot victim just showed up at North. It’s not like you can just reform or dismantle MPD and it’s a job well done and you’re going to wake up in this utopia. There’s plenty more work to be done.
LIZ NAVRATIL:
So a few weeks before the election, the Star Tribune and other outlets band together to ask a polling firm to try to gauge residents' opinions on policing and on public safety in the city. One of the things we tried to do, too, was to get an especially deep view of Black voters.
MALE SPEAKER:
All of us play a role in healing the community.
LIZ NAVRATIL:
What we found was that 42% of the Black voters polled supported a proposal to replace the Minneapolis Police Department, but about 75% of them opposed a reduction in the size of the police force. What that told us was that this is a complicated issue and that people in the community were really trying to sort through all the implications of this proposal. There was very much a sense that this was going to be a life-and-death issue for a lot of people.
These poll results really cemented the idea that the proposal from Yes 4 Minneapolis could pass or it could fail. And we sensed there was a very high chance it was going to be a close vote.
LIBOR JANY:
A few weeks before the election, a story broke online on the news website Minnesota Reformer that just reminded people of why the department was so controversial in the first place.
ANDY MANNIX:
As part of a court case, a bunch of body camera videos were released showing a police SWAT team patrolling the streets a few days after George Floyd's killing. The mayor had set a curfew. Anyone out on the streets was believed to be in violation of the curfew.
MALE SWAT OFFICER 1:
Gotcha!
MALE SWAT OFFICER 2:
[Laughing] Good hit, buddy!
MALE SWAT SERGEANT:
All right, we’re rolling down Lake Street. The first f------ we see, we're just hammering them with 40s.
MALE SWAT OFFICER 3:
Yes, sir!
ANDY MANNIX:
Basically you have police running around in unmarked vans shooting people with these less lethal projectiles on the street, screaming at them.
MALE SWAT SERGEANT:
Go home!
ANDY MANNIX:
Then there’s this one incident which the city would eventually pay out $1.5 million for: The police fire a rubber bullet—
MALE SWAT OFFICER 4:
Hit 'em.
ANDY MANNIX:
—at a Black man named Jaleel Stallings, and he fires back at them.
MALE SWAT OFFICER 4:
S---! Get out of the car! Get out of the car! He's down.
MALE SWAT OFFICER 5:
That's it, stop it!
MALE SWAT OFFICER 6:
Don't fight back!
MALE SWAT OFFICER 5:
Cuff, cuff, cuff!
ANDY MANNIX:
Afterwards, you can see the officers trying to get their story straight.
MALE SWAT LIEUTENANT:
Who shot?
MALE SWAT SERGEANT:
Nobody. He shot at us and then he f------ gave up.
MALE SWAT LIEUTENANT:
Nice.
MALE SWAT SERGEANT:
Anybody shoot?
MALE SWAT OFFICER 7:
Negative.
MALE SWAT LIEUTENANT:
100% no officers shot.
MALE SWAT SERGEANT:
Not out of my van.
MALE SWAT LIEUTENANT:
And none of your officers are hurt, correct?
MALE SWAT SERGEANT:
That's correct.
MALE SWAT LIEUTENANT:
Outstanding.
ANDY MANNIX:
This video I think really shows a narrative that the police were going around, as they put it, "hunting people."
MALE SWAT SERGEANT:
Instead of chasing people around, you guys are out hunting people now, and it’s just a nice change of tempo.
MALE SWAT OFFICER:
Yup, agreed.
MALE SWAT SERGEANT:
F--- these people.
ANDY MANNIX:
I think more than any story in the past few months as we're heading into this pivotal election, this video got a lot of people talking about what Minneapolis Police do when the city's in crisis and if those are the people who they want to continue to protect and serve them.
November 2, 2021
LIBOR JANY:
All these issues, from police brutality and excessive use of force to rising crime, it all came to a head when people showed up to vote on Election Day.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
The fate of the Minneapolis Police Department will be hanging in the hands of voters.
LIZ NAVRATIL:
This was a historic election for Minneapolis. People were choosing their mayor. They were choosing their council members. And the thing that was driving almost every issue in the race was this question of whether or not the city should replace its Police Department.
We spoke to a lot of voters who were really torn over which way to vote on this proposal.
VICTOR DOSS, Minneapolis voter:
I don't want to ban the police, no. We've got to keep the police. I mean, with all the crime and things going on and so forth, man, we need police.
SHANEL PEREZ, Minneapolis voter:
I don't think our current policing structure has been meeting our needs. Whether that's mental health, whether that's more EMS training, whether that's more community-based action.
LIZ NAVRATIL:
There were a significant number of them who liked a part of the proposal but had concerns about the elected officials who would implement it.
ELECIA WILLIAMS, Minneapolis voter:
There was no explanation or guidance on what the plan was going to be after abolishing the police.
MALE NEWSREADER:
And now the polls are closed, the ballots being counted as we speak.
ANTONIO WILLIAMS:
As it started coming in more and more, it was clear to everyone that we didn't have enough. We didn’t have enough votes. And those feelings started setting in, that sick feeling in my gut, the tears behind the eyes. Man, we busted our butts. Blood, sweat and tears.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
The effort to replace the Minneapolis Police Department has been rejected by voters. "No" took more than 56% of the vote.
JANAÉ BATES, Yes 4 Minneapolis:
The police officers can continue to hurt, harm, maim and kill Black folks on a regular basis, lie about it and go back on the job.
MALE NEWSREADER:
In that mayor race, Mayor Jacob Frey, the incumbent, the first choice.
JACOB FREY:
We need deep and structural change to policing in America. And at the same time, we need police officers to make sure that they are working directly with community to keep us safe. And there will be many that will try to argue that this is a blow to reform. That is dead wrong. Thank you, Minneapolis. We are coming back! Minneapolis is on a comeback!
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
This morning Minneapolis Police Chief Arradondo announcing just a short time ago that he will not be seeking another term.
MEDARIA ARRADONDO:
I believe that now is the right time to allow for new leadership, new perspective, new focus and new hope to lead the department forward in collaboration with our communities.
LIBOR JANY:
Arradondo's retirement caught some people by surprise, myself included, especially considering the timing of it so soon after a very pivotal election.
MEDARIA ARRADONDO:
This, at the end of the day, it's what I feel is best for the department, certainly for my own personal well-being.
MALE NEWSREADER:
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey appoints an interim police chief. Deputy Chief Ameila Huffman has been named as Frey's pick to succeed Arradondo.
AMELIA HUFFMAN:
Good morning. [Laughs] I am humbled and honored to be selected as the interim chief—
LIBOR JANY:
Huffman stated her intention to carry on some of the reforms that Arradondo had championed during his time as chief, including strengthening some of the training around officers stepping in and intervening when they see their colleagues do something that violates policy.
About two weeks after she took over the department, there was another police killing.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
Developing right now, Minneapolis Police shoot and kill an armed man while serving a search warrant this morning.
LIBOR JANY:
A Black man was killed during a no-knock raid that was carried out by the Minneapolis Police Department, specifically the SWAT unit, in a pretty high-end high-rise apartment in downtown Minneapolis.
LIZ SAWYER:
I was just wondering if you’ve been briefed on the latest with MPD and St. Paul.
LIBOR JANY:
The MPD’s initial press release labeled the victim a suspect.
LIZ SAWYER:
We’re just trying to figure out what the hell's going on.
LIBOR JANY:
But that story would quickly unravel when we found out the man they’d shot, Amir Locke, wasn't the subject of the search warrant.
LIZ SAWYER:
Amir Locke was a 22-year-old DoorDash delivery driver, an aspiring rapper, who was staying with family in the Twin Cities. He had no criminal record. None.
LIBOR JANY:
Within 48 hours of the shooting, the body camera footage was released and showed the police entering the apartment without knocking.
MALE SWAT OFFICER:
Police search warrant! Police search warrant! Police search warrant! Hands, hands!
LIBOR JANY:
Amir Locke appeared to be asleep. He was under a blanket, and as he rose, he was seen to have a gun in his hand.
This isn't the first time that it's happened, especially as it relates to these no-knock warrants. There have been other high-profile incidents around the country, most notably with the case of Breonna Taylor.
MALE REPORTER:
Why was Amir Locke referred to as a suspect in MPD’s press release?
JACOB FREY:
I don’t know. Can you speak to that?
AMELIA HUFFMAN:
So yesterday at the time that we were putting out the press release, we didn’t have as much information as we have now, of course. And so it’s unclear—it was certainly unclear yesterday—
LIZ SAWYER:
Watching that press conference was just infuriating, because as a city official, how do you allow it to happen again? How do you allow your communications department to put out a release that is not accurate? They should have learned their lesson after George Floyd.
ANGELA HARRELSON:
Lord. Perry, he leading the pack. God, look at all those names. Philando. Breonna Taylor. Aiyana Jones. David Matay. Rashad Brooks. Tanya Blanding. Miriam Carrey. Troy Robinson. Devon Bailey. We see you.
Through all of this there was a lot of love that poured out for Perry, that poured out to the family. I don’t know if I will ever in a lifetime see that type of love again.
LIBOR JANY:
I remember, this interview always sticks out in my head. A few weeks after George Floyd, I sat down with a former city of Minneapolis employee who's Black. He just said that he gave all of his Black friends the advice, "Hey, whatever you want to do in life, do it now, because in this moment in time, there's a certain level of sympathy for your plight. People care about Black people, but that's a small window in time and eventually you're going to start being treated as like a second-class citizen again."
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
Now to a scathing report released today by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights after a lengthy investigation into Minneapolis Police.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
A two-year investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department finds a pattern of racial discrimination going back more than a decade.
FEMALE NEWSREADER:
—as well as regularly using racist and misogynistic language—
MALE NEWSREADER:
—and efficient systems designed to not hold officers accountable for misconduct.
LIBOR JANY:
I think the May 26, 2020, version of me would've been surprised by where the Police Department and the city are now. It's down hundreds of police officers, and although Chief Arradondo is retired and there's a new interim chief, a lot of the leadership is in fact intact—a lot of people that were in positions of power during the George Floyd saga still have their jobs. In a lot of respects, the Police Department of today very much resembles that of the one that existed before George Floyd's death. It kind of begs the question of how much has really changed, and then how much has really changed in society.
