DOJ report on MPD offers varying reactions at George Floyd square

Community reacts to MPD investigation by DOJ

Following the release of a year’s long investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department, community members reacted to the report by the Department of Justice.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The intersection of 38th and Chicago in Minneapolis has become sacred ground for people to remember George Floyd, but the minds of many are on a new report by the Department Of Justice (DOJ) that says the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) created the culture that allowed his murder by former officer Derek Chauvin.

"We have to have somebody tell us or demand that we treat everybody like a human being, that we treat each other with respect and that we care. So that makes me very disappointed," Rosyln Gantt-Simmons, who was visiting George Floyd Square on Friday afternoon, told FOX 9.

Marcia Howard, who has been one of the lead activists at the square, was brought to tears while reading the report.

"I was emotional when I was reading about the treatment of 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds who were mistreated and maced. I was emotional when I read about how many people were put in chokeholds and neck restraints. All we're saying is stop killing us," said Howard.

But she wasn't surprised by the findings given the long-standing problems communities of color have had with the department.

"To be honest, it's saying what we've already been yelling from the rooftop and from this intersection. That we have been living under a terrorist regime of the MPD," said Howard.

Floyd's aunt Angela Harrelson wasn't surprised by the report either.

"To me, it's like it became a police mafia. They were worse than gangs because the community and the people expected more from them to protect and serve us," said Harrelson.

But she is optimistic the involvement of the federal government will lead to meaningful change.

"This gives us hope. This inspires us, that what we are saying is not in vain. My nephew's death is not in vain," said Harrelson.
Still others are skeptical the culture of the MPD can do an about-face any time soon.

"I hope we see real substantive change, but so often it seems like just same old, same old. You keep getting what you used to get," said Gantt-Simmons.