Twin Cities Activists Push for Greater Accountability for Police Killings

Racial Reckoning: The Arc of Justice

Feven Gerezgiher reports.

Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of the murder of George Floyd last week, but the trial has not ended just yet. Chauvin will be sentenced on June 16, after which he will have 90 days to file an appeal.

Meanwhile community members are demanding murder charges against the Brooklyn Center police officer who shot 20 year old Daunte Wright. Washington County Attorney Pete Orput is in charge of the prosecution. Monique Cullars-Doty says Orput failed to bring a conviction in the police killing of her nephew Marcus Golden in 2015.

“Pete Orput is not competent to present any cases that are involving people of color and African-Americans,” said Cullars-Doty. “He is not competent to understand the law as it should apply to us equally as it would to his white counterparts. And we see that he backs the thin blue line.”

Orput has a long history of donating his legal services to the Minnesota Association of Chiefs of Police. Cullars-Doty and others are asking the governor to turn over prosecution to Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Community members continue to advocate for police reform. Kimberly Handy-Jones says her son Cordale was killed in 2017 by St Paul Police.

“There is work to be done. Because Chauvin is just one out of so many murderous cops around the globe,” said Handy-Jones. “And as a mother who lost a kid, It's hard to digest what is happening to our children. We don’t get to see our sons’ and our daughters’ full potential. Because soon as we can get one cop convicted, here comes another murder. In Ohio, the same day, Ma’Khia Bryant. This is ridiculous.”

16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant was shot by Columbus police last Tuesday after calling them for help. According to the New York Times, there was an average of three police killings per day throughout the Chauvin trial.