DOJ abandons talks for police reforms settlements
By: Bart Jansen
USA Today
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is dropping negotiations for court-approved settlement with Minneapolis and Louisville police agencies, ties routinely violated the civil rights of Black people.
.....
The two cases sparked worldwide outrage over fatal police encounters in 2020 Federal authorities are also closing investigation and retracting findings of wrongdoing against police departments in Phoenix; Memphis, Tennessee; Trenton, New Jersey; Mount Vernon, New York; Oklahoma City; and the Louisiana State Police.
..... "Overboard police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda," Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general overseeing the department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement May 21. [2025]
.....
The announcement came days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis on May 25. [2020]
..... The Louisville case involved the March 12, 2020, killing of Breonna Taylor, who was shot to death by police executing a no-knock warrant.
.... But Dhillon said the Biden administration wrongly attributed disparities in the treatment of rascal minorities with intentional discrimination. She said the department would retrace accusations the departments violated constitutional rights of Floyd or Taylor.
..... The sweeping court agreement being negotiate with the police departments in both cities would have micromanaged management, training, performance evaluations, discipline, recruitment and hiring, Dhillon said.
..... Contributing: Reuters