Minneapolis Burning

Maybe, just maybe, if the Mayor and/or the FBI had done something Officer Noor might have kept his pistol in his holster and acted with discipline, self control, and restraint, and maybe Officer Chauvin might have taken his knee off George Floyd's neck and sat him upright or rolled him on his side and monitored his breathing and rendered first aid like he was required to do per department policy, but nobody was ever held accountable in the Minneapolis Police Department so why would they? Bad cops were rewarded and good cops were persecuted. The Minneapolis Police Department had a long history of covering up misconduct and the FBI helped them when it benefited them. The message to officers Noor and Chauvin and many others was, do whatever you want, and if you're friends with people in power, your covered, no worries. Perhaps officers Noor and Chauvin thought they had friends in power, and if they did, well they disappeared in a hurry. All the wrong signals and messages were sent to Officers Noor and Chauvin, and all the other officers in the department. When a police department persecutes its whistle blowers and rewards bad cops, officers take risks and make bad decisions. Officer's Noor and Chauvin took risks and made bad decisions and it cost them their freedom and two people their lives. Minneapolis Police officers had poor leadership for years and they were sent all the wrong signals, nobody knew where they stood, or what the ground rules were. It was a police department driving with the lights off and bound to crash. If the Minneapolis Police Department had listened to Lieutenant Keefe, Sergeant Miller, and FBI Agent Hunter and prosecuted bad cops, it would have sent a completely different message to the rank and file. It would have set the bar high and officers would have known in no uncertain terms what the ground rules were and where they stood, but that never happened, nobody knew where they stood or what the ground rules were. Officers were on their own, and they were always short staffed and left with little or no back up. Everyone just winged it. Leadership was limited to a few good sergeants and lieutenants at different precincts throughout the city. In the summer of 2019 Chief Arrandondo asked for 400 more officers, but his request was denied. The police department was crumbling and officers felt abandoned, and if you weren't part of the "in crowd", you were stuck on the street for the rest of your career and nobody cared. The lack of accountability and transparency turned the Minneapolis Police Department into a ticking time bomb, and that bomb, despite repeated warnings, exploded on May 25, 2020. In the fall of 2010 the Minneapolis Police Department was backed into a corner and there was nowhere to turn. Lieutenant Keefe’s lawyers were setting up depositions and the only way out for the corrupt officers would be relentless perjury. It was a case like no other in the history of the United States. The FBI, the premier law enforcement agency in the United States, could not help any cop who may have wanted to back up Sergeant Miller and Lieutenant Keefe because they were as dirty as the Minneapolis Police Department. The FBI and the Minneapolis Police Department had created a massive case of corruption second to none, and it all started out with a few racist cops wanting to frame fellow black officers and make a lot of money, and sleazy FBI agents and an Assistant U.S. Attorney willing to turn a blind eye. In the end, its that simple, but it spiralled out of control into a massive case of corruption as cops, agents, and attorneys created lie after lie to cover up more lies.