Police indictments in George Floyd murder case show America's broken cop culture
The horror movie-turned-reality for some rookies in the Minneapolis Police Department came courtesy of their training officer, convicted killer Derek Chauvin.
May 10, 2021, 6:24 AM CDT
By Frank Figliuzzi, MSNBC Opinion Columnist
In the 2001 movie "Training Day," Denzel Washington plays a deeply corrupt veteran narcotics investigator assigned as the training officer for a newly promoted detective. The plot plays out during the young cop's ill-fated first day of training, which quickly turns into a hellish nightmare of mind-boggling crimes and killings committed by Washington's character and a cadre of bad cops. Washington's trainee, played by Ethan Hawke, realizes he can't trust anyone to do the right thing —including himself.
The horror movie-turned-reality show for some real-life rookies in the Minneapolis Police Department came May 25, courtesy of their training officer, convicted killer Derek Chauvin. Now, in addition to state charges for aiding and abetting the murder and manslaughter of George Floyd, those officers have been indicted on charges that they violated federal civil rights laws.
The charges against Chauvin and his conviction in state court hold one officer accountable for his own criminal conduct. But the state and federal charges against the officers who were there and did not stop Chauvin hold cops responsible for their failure to act against bad cops. That kind of prosecutorial approach is an essential element to breaking the "blue wall of silence" that has long kept officers from reporting the misconduct, and even brutality, of their fellow officers.
That informal code gets embedded early in a cop's career. They graduate from the academy with heads filled with policy, protocol and ethics instruction. But from their first shifts on the street, riding along with seasoned training officers, rookies can quickly learn a different set of rules.
Two of the three officers with Chauvin that deadly day, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, had served as police officers just three days and four days respectively, and they were being trained by Chauvin. Lane was reported to have asked Chauvin twice whether they should reposition Floyd as Chauvin was restraining him on the ground. Chauvin was reported to have said, "Leave him." Lane's attorney, Earl Gray, said, "What was my client supposed to do but follow what the training officer said?"
In an excellent summary of the systemic impact of veteran training officers' acting as roadblocks to meaningful police reform, Simone Weichselbaum of The Marshall Project writes:
"It's not uncommon for trainers, known as FTOs in cop-speak, to have histories of misconduct and citizen complaints, according to a Marshall Project review of 10 big-city departments. The trainers get little formal instruction in how to mold young officers' behavior. Becoming a field trainer is seen as a mark of prestige and seniority, rather than a serious and challenging job."
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Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Monday, May 10th 2021 at 8:49PM
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