DOJ Under Trump Shuts Down Police Reform Cases Sparked by Floyd, Taylor Deaths

By Christina Carrega, CapitalB

The ACLU and local partners are demanding transparency through a new campaign targeting seven states with histories of police misconduct.

Just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, the Justice Department said they will dismiss police investigations launched during former President Joe Biden’s administration. 

Harmeet Dhillon, the leader of the department’s Civil Rights Division, announced Wednesday plans to withdraw pending federal lawsuits against police departments in Louisville, Kentucky, following the death of Breonna Taylor, and in Minneapolis, where all the officers involved in Floyd’s death have been convicted in federal and state courts. 

Dhillon also announced officials would retract findings of constitutional violations in six police departments, including in Memphis, Tennessee, where all the officers involved in Tyre Nichols’ death have been federally convicted.

“This decision is a slap in the face to the families,” Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney for the families of Floyd, Nichols, and Taylor, wrote in a statement on Wednesday, adding, “and to every community that has endured the trauma of police violence and the false promises of accountability.”

Civil rights and legal advocates said they feared that if President Donald Trump won a second term, Black and brown communities would face a weakened U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division — one likely to underuse its investigation tools in response to police misconduct over the next four years.

[…]

Now, with the Trump administration eliminating investigations into the pattern or practices of law enforcement agencies with allegations of misconduct, the courts will become the primary venue where the victims of police brutality can air their complaints.

Continue reading.

More news like this.