Epic Hypocrisy by Tweet

‘As Chief Prosecutor, Klobuchar Declined to Bring Charges Against Cop that Killed George Floyd; While serving as Minnesota’s chief prosecutor between 1999 and 2007, Klobuchar declined to bring charges against more than two dozen officers who had killed citizens while on duty – including against the cop that killed George Floyd’, Alan Macleod, May 27, 2019

“The latest example of America’s racist police brutality problem was caught on camera in Minneapolis Monday, as Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on 46-year-old African-American George Floyd’s neck for over seven minutes until he passed out and died. In its headline on its website, Minneapolis police described the event as “man dies after medical incident during police interaction,” laundering themselves of any responsibility. Chauvin continued his assault even as Floyd desperately pleaded that he could not breathe, while bystanders protested his brutality. “You’re fucking stopping his breathing there, bro,” warned one concerned passer-by. Even after passing out, Chauvin did not release pressure on his neck. Chauvin has killed multiple times before while in uniform, has shot and wounded others and is well-known to local activist groups.

A history of racist policing, thanks to Klobuchar

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who Joe Biden recently asked to undergo vetting to be his running mate for November, issued a very tepid statement about the incident, describing the police killing of an unarmed black man over an alleged forged check as merely an “officer involved death,” – a copaganda word often used by police as a euphemism for “murder.”

Klobuchar also called for a “complete and thorough outside investigation into what occurred, and those involved in this incident must be held accountable.” However, this is unlikely to occur, in no small part because of Klobuchar herself and the precedent she set while serving as the state’s chief prosecutor between 1999 and 2007. In that time, she did not bring charges against more than two dozen officers who had killed citizens while on duty – including against Chauvin himself.”

Senator Hypocrite’s link goes to:

‘Minnesota lawmakers pass sweeping package of police accountability measures;n  Star Tribune, July 21, 2020, startribune.com

“The bill, [<8-pge pdf] one of the most substantial changes to the state’s criminal justice system in years, includes a statewide ban on chokeholds and neck restraints — such as the one used on Floyd — and a prohibition on warrior-style training for officers. It enhances data collection around deadly force encounters, requires officers to intervene and creates a new state unit to investigate such cases. The bill boosts funding for crisis intervention training, creates a panel of expert arbitrators to handle police misconduct cases and establishes incentives for officers to live in the communities they police.

The House approved the measure 102 to 29 just before midnight. The Senate passed it 60 to 7 a couple of hours later and sent the bill this morning to Gov. Tim Walz.

The hard-fought passage came after weeks of legislative impasse that had already derailed another special session in June — one that was initially called to review Walz’s extension of his emergency powers. But the continuing outrage over Floyd’s killing kept up the pressure on the only divided legislature in the nation to find common ground when Walz extended the state of emergency again in July.”

Research Memo: HF 1 (Mariani) – The MN Police Accountability Act, startribune pdf, 8 pages, linked above.  A few excerpts, my bolds:

“It will require some data collection on officer misconduct and use of deadly force incidents. It will ban the use of chokeholds in most incidents and require officers to intervene when another officer is using excessive force.”

Sections 7 and 8 – Banning Chokeholds and Other Certain Restraints

Prohibits a peace officer from using certain neck restraints, unless section 609.066 [????] authorizes the use of deadly force to protect the peace officer or another from death or great bodily harm.

With the exception described above, officers will no longer be able to use chokeholds, they will not be able to tie all of the person’s limbs together behind the person’s back to render the person immobile, and they cannot secure a person I [sic] any way that results in transporting the person face down in a vehicle. The only time a peace officer can restrict free movement of a person’s neck or head is to protect the peace officer or another from imminent harm.

For the purposes of this section, chokeholds are defined as “a method by which a person applies sufficient pressure to a person to make breathing difficult or impossible, and includes but is not limited to any pressure to the neck, throat, or windpipe that may prevent or hinder breathing, or reduce the intake of air.” It also means, “applying pressure to a person’s neck on either side of the windpipe, but not to the windpipe itself, to stop the flow of blood to the brain via the carotid arteries.”

Section 12 – Prohibiting Warrior-Style Training

Prohibits the use of warrior-style training by law enforcement. It also states that the POST board (Board) may not certify a continuing education course that includes warrior-style training; the Board may not grant continuing education credit to a peace officer for a course that includes warrior-style training; and the Board may not

reimburse a law enforcement agency or a peace officer for a course that includes warrior-style training.

Warrior-style training is defined in under this section as training for peace officers that dehumanizes people or encourages aggressive conduct by peace officers during encounters with others in a manner that deemphasizes the value of human life or constitutional rights, the result of which increases a peace officer’s likelihood or willingness to use deadly force.”

(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)