No, officer Derek Chauvin wasn’t just one bad apple

It’s far clearer why ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin seemed empowered and righteously indignant in murdering George Floyd.

And why fellow officers seemingly stood by, witnesses to a man’s suffering and slow death, failing to intervene.

The disgraced police officers, including the now-convicted Chauvin, worked for a police department that fermented racism. It failed to adequately train its officers, goading them to be aggressive, demanding compliance to paramilitary, warrior forms of policing. Then, it excused or ignored outrageous behavior by some of those same officers.

What a setup. That’s a system failing the community and the men and women who sign up to serve.

All of this is within the first report of what will likely be several exhaustive studies of the Minneapolis Police Department, following Floyd’s 2020 death. The findings of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights are detailed and well-documented.

People who pit Back The Blue voices against those who chant Black Lives Matter should study all 72 pages. Poorly functioning departments fail everyone, sworn officer and citizen alike.

Consider the finding that Minneapolis police are more likely to be injured if they unnecessarily escalate situations and turn to harsher use of force measures as a result.

State officials began two years of study shortly after Chauvin cravenly knelt on the neck of Floyd for more than nine minutes — all over a $20 counterfeit bill that Floyd had used at a neighborhood store.

For the study, more than 2,000 residents were interviewed. More than 700 hours of police body camera videos were viewed, along with 87 hours of police training and 480,000 pages from police and city officials, including an unraveling of 300 use-of-force files.

Racial disparities were found: “Although Black individuals comprise about 19% of the Minneapolis population, 63% of all use of force incidents that MPD officers recorded were against Black individuals.”

For those eager to offer up a litany of “yeah buts,” the study’s authors, guided by experts in the field, controlled for race. It compared incidents where the details were similar, such as the officer’s justifications for a stop, or if a weapon was involved.

Over and over, race mattered in the outcomes. People of color, including many indigenous, were treated more harshly, and given less latitude.

And yet people wonder why communities of color distrust police.

Similar comprehensive reports of other departments are the way forward.

Without a broad, nuanced look, solutions will be flimsy, or merely handouts to shut critics up.

The Minnesota study said so, just less bluntly: “Without fundamental organizational culture changes, reforming MPD’s policies, procedures, and trainings will be meaningless.”

Floyd’s murder was so sadistic, so brazen, that it became dismissible to some.

The idea that Chauvin was the one bad apple in an otherwise functioning department became common. The stance is comforting to those who don’t want to believe that police can do awful things to citizens. In reality, dysfunctional departments, poor training and a lack of oversight guarantee the perpetuation of these problems.

It’s past time to do the work. We need to uncover what might be deeply unsettling truths, along with avenues for reform, city-by-city across America.