Attorney General Keith Ellison: We did — and can still — have justice in response to George Floyd’s murder

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The Trump administration’s walking away from its consent decree with the city of Minneapolis is unsurprising, coming from a president who has torn up other federal consent decrees and encouraged police to mistreat people they are sworn to protect (front page, May 22). It’s sadly unsurprising this administration would prefer to ignore the two-year Justice Department investigation sparked by George Floyd’s murder, which found Minneapolis had engaged in a pattern and practice of illegal, unconstitutional and racially discriminatory policing. And it’s shameful that this withdrawal came on the cusp of the fifth anniversary of the murder, an event that rocked our city and the world and sparked a global movement for racial justice that continues today.

While the Trump administration would seemingly have us move on and forget the murder and legacy of Floyd, we will not forget. Instead, we must pause and remember what we all saw five years ago that led us to today.

We all saw three police officers hold Floyd down on the ground. We all saw one of those officers, Derek Chauvin, kneel on Floyd’s neck for 9½ minutes. We watched a fourth officer keep a growing crowd at bay as they begged Chauvin to let Floyd get up and even offered first aid. We all saw and heard Floyd call out for his mother and plead in vain for his life, as he asphyxiated and died.

Thanks to the courage of Darnella Frazier, who stood and recorded those officers’ actions when she was just 17 years old, we all saw one of the most callous and deplorable acts of police violence in our country’s history. We remember George Floyd’s name today because of Frazier’s bravery, and we remember because we saw it with our own eyes.

The whole world saw it. And from Minneapolis to Madrid, from Toronto to Tokyo, people took to the streets in protest. People wanted justice, and they wanted a future where what happened to Floyd could never happen again.

Five years on, some in the right-wing echo chamber keep denying the truth about Floyd’s death. The truth is what we proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to a jury of Chauvin’s peers, which is the highest standard of proof we have in our society: Floyd died of a lack of oxygen to his lungs and his brain when Chauvin and the other officers asphyxiated him. Period.

Further, because Chauvin killed Floyd while Chauvin was a police officer, we had to prove not only that he caused Floyd’s death, but that his conduct was “unreasonable” under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. We proved that as well at a six-week trial at which we presented 38 witnesses that was broadcast around the world. Just as people around the globe watched Floyd die, they watched us establish the truth of how he died.

As we’ve marked the fifth anniversary of Floyd’s murder in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s shameful abandonment of the DOJ’s commitment to constitutional policing, we should recommit to the fight for justice and accountability that continues in his name.

States and localities have enacted some much-needed reforms to improve public safety outcomes.

Importantly, even though the federal government has abandoned its consent decree, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the city of Minneapolis reached a historic court-enforceable agreement in 2023 that requires transformational changes to policing in the city, many of which mirror the reforms in the federal decree. That agreement is here to stay, and my office is proud to help the Department of Human Rights enforce it.

It is not, of course, enough. We must do more — not only in Minneapolis but across the country, where there has been no reduction in fatal police encounters since Floyd’s murder. In fact, the number of people killed in interactions with law enforcement has risen every year since 2020.

And speaking of shameful: Nearly five years since it was introduced, Congress still hasn’t passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would help curb racial profiling, implement new use-of-force standards and promote new methods of officer training.

Policymakers can’t solve this problem on their own: We all need to do our part. Prosecutors need to use all the tools at their disposal to go after unlawful conduct, because no reform can be effective if the officers who break the law face no consequences for their actions. Swift, visible and vigorous prosecutions can help build public trust, which in turn makes things easier for officers and agencies that do follow the law.

Law enforcement leaders and local officials need to commit to policies that transform department culture and community relations and prioritize officer wellness. Rank-and-file police officers, who work hard to protect their communities with fairness and integrity, need to break the “blue wall of silence” that for too long has protected bad actors from accountability and tarnished their noble profession.

And at the grassroots level, community leaders and regular folks need to keep up the pressure for reform and accountability, so we do not fall once again into a collective cycle of inaction. Voices and votes are essential to holding leaders accountable for securing justice and safety together.

We can break the cycle of inaction that has claimed far too many lives — but only if we act, and only if we recommit to the lesson Floyd taught us: that no one is above the law, and no one is beneath it.