‘Blue wall of silence’ takes a hit in Chauvin’s murder trial
Police accused of wrongdoing can usually count on the blue wall of silence — protection from fellow officers that includes everything from shutting off body cameras to refusing to co-operate with investigators. That’s not the case with Derek Chauvin, with many colleagues quick to condemn his actions in George Floyd’s death, some taking the stand against him.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo testified that Chauvin’s kneeling on the handcuffed Floyd’s neck was “in no way, shape or form” in line with department policy or training. Homicide detective Lieutenant Richard Zimmerman testified, “If your knee is on a person’s neck, that can kill him.”
Chauvin’s former supervisor, retired Sergeant David Ploeger, testified that the force used on Floyd went on too long and should have ended when the Black man was handcuffed and stopped resisting.
An inspector acquainted with Chauvin for two decades and an officer who said the defendant spent a day as her training officer took the witness stand as well.
Last year, before the trial, 14 officers including Zimmerman signed an open letter saying Chauvin “failed as a human and stripped George Floyd of his dignity and life. This is not who we are.”
It’s unclear whether officers are becoming more willing to call out a colleague, or if the extraordinary circumstances of this particular case are at play. While police agencies across the country have instituted reforms that promote more ethical behaviour, some experts say the unblinking video of Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck as the dying man pleads for air is the impetus for officers to stand against Chauvin.
“I sincerely wish I could see a crumbling of the blue wall, but sadly I do not see that,” said Bill Hall, a former Justice Department mediator who handled brutality cases, and a political science adjunct professor at Webster University in Missouri.
The damning police testimony — and public criticism — against Chauvin is coming from the top of the department, not patrol officers. All 14 signers of the June letter were ranked as sergeant or higher. Hall said supervisory police officials have incentive to show the fault lies with the officer, not their policies.
Still, in June, Minneapolis police union head Lieutenant Bob Kroll, a
We don’t usually see a dozen or more police officers from the very same agency come out opposed to the actions taken by a police officer.
usually militant defender of officers, agreed Chauvin’s firing was warranted, calling the video of his actions “horrific”.
Meanwhile, the three other officers charged in Floyd’s death, fired soon after and facing their own trials in August, are likely to blame the far more senior Chauvin.
The number of Chauvin’s Minneapolis colleagues who have turned on him is telling, said Rick Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St Louis.
“We don’t usually see a dozen or more police officers from the very same agency come out opposed to the actions taken by a police officer,” Rosenfeld said.
It’s a far cry from the code of silence that has surrounded cases of police brutality for so long in many places, including Minneapolis.
In 2017, Officer Mohamed Noor shot and killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond as she approached Noor’s squad car in the alley behind her home. Court testimony showed an incident commander turned off her body camera when talking to Noor shortly after the shooting. Other officers told him not to say anything. Prosecutors told the court that about 20 police officers refused to talk to investigators and met with union officials to discuss withholding information.
Noor was one of the rare officers to be convicted anyway. He is serving a 121⁄2-year prison term.
Chauvin still has the legal support of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. The association’s legal defence fund is paying for his defence, and is obligated to do so because his years paying dues to his local union earned him the right to representation, said Brian Peters, executive director of the association.
Eric Nelson, Chauvin’s attorney, is one of 12 attorneys for the MPPOA who take turns handling officerinvolved cases.
Some new programmes seek to address the blue wall head-on.
New Orleans police in 2015 implemented a programme called Ethical Policing Is Courageous, or EPIC. Training emphasises peer intervention if an officer is doing something wrong such as committing an assault or planting evidence.
New Orleans Chief of Detectives Paul Noel said Floyd’s death could have been prevented if Minneapolis police had a programme like EPIC.
“It would have taken just one officer to say, ‘hey, get off of him’,” Noel said.
But John Kleinig, professor emeritus of criminology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at City University of New York, believes that in most cases, police officers will remain inclined towards actions that protect their wayward colleagues.
“For the police, it’s not a simple matter of cover-up,” Kleinig said.
“There’s a moral impetus to the blue wall of silence. In other words, ‘we owe loyalty to each other’.”
Rick Rosenfeld, criminologist