Changes made, but racial justice reforms fall short

>> The murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and the fervent protests that erupted around the world, looked to many observers like the catalyst needed for a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing.

For more than nine minutes, a White officer pressed his knee to the neck of Floyd, a Black man, who gasped, “I can’t breathe,” echoing Eric Garner’s last words in 2014. Video footage of Floyd’s May 25, 2020, murder was so agonizing to watch that demands for change came from across the country.

But in the midst of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, economic uncertainty and a divisive U.S. presidential election, 2020 ended without the kind of major police reforms that many hoped, and others feared, would come. Then, 2021 and 2022 also failed to yield much progress.

Now, three years since Floyd’s murder, proponents of federal actions — such as banning chokeholds and changing the so-called qualified immunity protections for law enforcement — still await meaningful signs of change. The beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers in early January underscored just how long it could take.

Democratic

Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, said during a recent press conference convened by a Black Lives Matter collective that she sees no evidence of a “racial reckoning.”

“I don’t play with words like ‘reckoning,’” Pressley said. “That needs to be something of epic proportion. And we certainly have not seen a response to the lynching, the choking, the brutality, (and) the murder of Black lives.”

What's happened?

Soon after Floyd’s murder, Minneapolis adopted a number of changes, including bans on chokeholds and neck restraints, and requirements that police try to stop fellow officers from using improper force. Minnesota lawmakers approved statewide police accountability packages in 2020 and in 2021, as well as tight restrictions on noknock warrants this month.

The city is still awaiting the results of a federal investigation into whether its police engaged in a “pattern or practice” of unconstitutional or unlawful policing. A similar investigation by the state Department of Human Rights led to what it called a “court-enforceable settlement agreement” in March to revamp policing in the city.

The federal investigation could lead to a similar but separate agreement with the city. Police in several other cities already operate under such oversight for civil rights violations.

“We are shifting the culture of our police department — to ensure that our officers strengthen and hold the trust of our entire community,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a statement Thursday.

There were immediate cries after Floyd’s murder to defund the police — and instead fund public housing and other services. But a ballot measure that had roots in that movement failed, even in some heavily Black neighborhoods.

An AP review of police funding found that some municipalities elsewhere made modest cuts that fell far short of activists’ calls.

This week's events

Minneapolis activists had planned a candlelight vigil Thursday night at George Floyd Square, the corner where Floyd died. A festival at the square Saturday will celebrate change in Minneapolis.

At the square, hundreds of flowers and signs swayed in the wind between towering statues of fists. Kendrick White and Georgio Wright, two Black men, said they visit the site every day and lead “pilgrimage guides” — or tours — to spread awareness about what happened.

About 20 high school students and teachers from California were in their group Thursday. Lee Fertig, head of school at The Nueva School in the Bay area community of San Mateo, said they wanted to see how the community is rebuilding.