Minneapolis politics post-Geroge Floyd: Four years later, what’s changed?

MINNEAPOLIS — Four years after the murder of George Floyd, the close-knit South Minneapolis neighborhood that saw protests and provocative chants of “Defund the police” has mellowed −but certainly not forgotten − the death that triggered a national debate about social justice and police reform.

As local leaders and residents explore long-term options for the corridor globally known as “George Floyd Square,” many question whether there has been any consequential progress on policing reform in the city since the tragedy.

“I can’t say nothing has changed, but we need more support to fully realize that change,” said Muhammad Abdul-Ahad, executive director of T.O.U.C.H Outreach, a Minneapolis violence prevention nonprofit. “People see things through different lenses.”

The quick push to defund

On May 25, 2020, Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on a defenseless Floyd’s neck in broad daylight for more than nine minutes. The horrific series of events was captured on cell phone video by Darnella Frazier, who was 17 years old at the time, and sparked a national movement.

For decades, local communities of color demanded action to their claims of police injustices, which were validated by a 2023 Department of Justice investigation. Cries to defund the police from protesters were augmented as local politicians tagged onto the demand.

In December 2020, the Minneapolis City Council unanimously approved a budget that shifted $8 million from the police department toward violence prevention and other services based on city performance recommendations.

However, by 2021, many council members who wanted to disband the police began walking back their declarations. Some said defunding was not meant to be taken literally and some said it was up for interpretation. Only two members who called for defunding police still sit on the council, a number of those members gone did not seek re-election or were defeated in the polls.

“When it was asked to me, they were very clear it was getting rid of the police,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said recently to USA TODAY. “So, clearly, it meant many different things to many different people.”

Frey, who received intense backlash for rejecting calls to defund the department, was booed out of a demonstration by protestors when he said just as much.

Despite scant demands for Frey’s resignation, voters largely rejected the 2021 measure to replace the police and Frey handily won reelection. Meanwhile, Minneapolis police’s budget has grown − from $181 million in 2019 to $210 million in 2023 − as homicides, burglaries, and thefts are comparable to last year.

“My position hasn’t changed from the very beginning,” the mayor continued. “I said very clearly, ‘We need deep reform, we need a culture shift, but no, I don’t support defunding the police.’”

Part of that culture shift also includes having non-violence initiatives as police try to regain community trust, Abdul-Ahad said.

“There’s an unbelievable amount of hurt and pain that people still have,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told USA TODAY. “There’s no way of separating that trauma, whether it’s the people who live in the city and have lived through all of this, or the police officers from their experiences.”

The city will open two new community safety centers to provide social service agencies. The South Minneapolis center will also house the third precinct police station.

As city leaders praise measures that formed after Floyd’s death such as the Behavioral Crisis Response program, which sends out unarmed and trained staff specializing in intervention and mental distress, some council members express concerns about contracts of “violence interrupters.”

“We’re boots on the ground. We were there when the police weren’t, and we’re still here,” said Abdul-Ahad, whose organization does not currently have a city contract. “I hope the council understands the urgency to figure this out quickly. It’s getting warmer outside and that’s when crime heats up.”

Justice beyond conviction

After Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death, and the three other Minneapolis officers involved were convicted of violating his civil rights, Minnesota’s top prosecutor knew that the work towards justice wasn’t over.

“Justice implies, for me, some form of restoration, true change,” Attorney General Keith Ellison told USA TODAY. “I always felt that we had to win this case in order to get justice, but winning the case wasn’t going to be justice.”

After the 2022 death of Amir Locke at the hands of another Minneapolis police officer, the state legislature passed restrictions on “no-knock” warrants. A Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension report found that Hennepin County requested and executed the most in 2022.

O’Hara took over Minneapolis Police in 2022 and said a big area of reform he wanted to work on was culture and interacting with communities by auditing bodycam footage and taking corrective action.

The Minneapolis Police Officer Standards and Training Board couldn’t revoke Chauvin’s license without a criminal conviction for the murder. In 2023, the standards changed, and the board can now revoke licenses for conduct violations and use of excessive or unreasonable force.

O’Hara oversaw the Newark Police Department’s consent decree, similar to Minneapolis’, to hold its department accountable for reform.

“Our people are tremendous, they truly are. They’re just working in a broken system,” O’Hara said.

But Hennepin County District Attorney Mary Moriarty, who has singled out Minneapolis Police for not working closer with her office, has a different take. “We need all hands on deck here to support actual deep reform and we don’t have that here right now,” Moriarty said.

“There was a lot of optimism”

Four years ago, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, was hopeful the trauma her district and the Black community endured would start a transformation.

“There was a lot of optimism about what that moment could bring,” Omar recently told USA TODAY.

Omar once championed the call to defund the police, but now, she said, instead of draining the force, she favors some resources put towards racial equity and community safety programs.

“[It] was an aspirational call, an outcry,” she said. “It’s something a lot of people hold onto and what is possible, the desire for there to be an allocation.”

She added congressional inaction on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the Amir Locke End Deadly No-Knock Warrants Act stalled hopes for federal legislation. “The lack of transformative change has been heartbreaking,” Omar said.

Abdul-Ahad said while many would like to move on from Floyd’s death, collective action and results will help make that happen.

“We’re not just trying to rebuild the city’s infrastructure, we’re trying to rebuild its character, the trust, the communities. Even love.”

Sam Woodward can be reached at swoodward@gannett.com. Terry Collins can be reached at tcollins@gannett.com.