By George Floyd’s family has filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him and the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday seeks compensatory and special damages in an amount to be determined by a jury. The complaint also asks for a receiver to be appointed to ensure the city properly trains and supervises its police officers in the future.
“We seek to set a precedence to make it financially prohibitive that the police won’t wrongfully kill marginalised people, especially Black people in the future,” lawyer Benjamin Crump said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.
The complaint, alleges the Minneapolis Police Department is at fault for Floyd’s death, due to its ratification of “the culture of systemic racism and disparate treatment of the Black Community”, vague and “unconstitutional” use of force policies and “Killology” training that “teaches officers to consider every person and every situation as a potential deadly threat and to kill ‘less hesitantly'”.
#GeorgeFloyd’s death is just 1 of many cases that emphasize the fact that police culture, policies, & procedures need to CHANGE. We are calling for ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY from the @CityMinneapolis & their police department. We cannot tolerate police MISCONDUCT any longer!! pic.twitter.com/hB4IK3FH3K
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) July 16, 2020
Crump said in a statement that accompanied the complaint: “The City of Minneapolis has a history of policies, procedures and deliberate indifference that violates the rights of arrestees, particularly Black men, and highlights the need for officer training and discipline.”
Floyd, a Black man who was handcuffed, died on May 25 after, Derek Chauvin a white police officer, pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd said he could not breathe.
