*We assume the city of Minneapolis is ready. After all, they can’t be surprised that George Floyd‘s family attorney, Ben Crump, has filed a lawsuit against the city and its police force.
Crump and his co-counsel, Antonio Romanucci, announced the civil suit on behalf of the Floyd family with a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Minneapolis.
The family is suing the 4 officers who are now criminally charged with Floyd’s death.
The lawsuit argues that the City of Minneapolis actually has limited immunity, meaning it can’t be sued UNLESS it approved the policy either explicitly or by way of custom.
Crump says in the lawsuit that Minneapolis trained its officers to use neck restraints, claiming they were an “authorized form of non-deadly force.”
Poor training and discipline were also noted by the suit. Derek Chauvin had 17 citizen complaints, yet there’s no evidence the Internal Affairs Dept. of the P.D. ever connected the dots as they investigated all of them.
The lawsuit even goes as far as to accuse the department of promoting a culture of killing suspects and accuses a top lieutenant and union official of wearing a “racist ‘white power’” logo attached to his jacket.
The lawsuit characterizes Floyd as cooperative and casts the officers as aggressors.
“Defendants Lane and Kueng placed Mr. Floyd under arrest and secured both of Mr. Floyd’s hands in handcuffs behind his back without incident,” the lawsuit says of the early interactions between Floyd and the four officers.
“Mr. Floyd did not physically resist arrest,” the lawsuit then states. “Mr. Floyd was unarmed and did not at any point physically or verbally threaten the officers, nor did he attempt to flee. After he was securely handcuffed, Mr. Floyd remained calm and complied with each of the officers’ commands as directed, including sitting down against a wall and walking with the officers across the street without incident.”
Later, it says, “Without provocation or justification, the Defendant Officers took Mr. Floyd to the ground and placed him face down in the street, with the left side of his face pressed against the pavement.”
And there’s this … the suit claims that probationary officers like Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng were NOT allowed to question their supervisor. That works against the City, but it’s the argument the 2 rookie cops are making in the criminal case.
The backstory is this: George Floyd was killed May 25 while being arrested by Minneapolis PD. Now-fired officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee pressed on George’s neck for nearly 8 minutes and 46 seconds while Floyd was face down on the ground in handcuffs.
Chauvin, who is still in jail, has been charged with 2nd-degree murder and 2nd-degree manslaughter.
The other three former police officers charged in Floyd’s alleged murder — J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas K. Lane and Tou Thao — are each charged with 2 counts — one for aiding and abetting 2nd-degree murder and one for aiding and abetting 2nd-degree manslaughter.
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