Cops in This State Still Don't Want to Explain Why They Kill People

Published Sep 15 2021 at 8:50 AM GMT

Key
Points

GettyWithin weeks of the police murder of George Floyd last year, Johnathon McClellan was hard at work trying to make it harder for cops to kill people for no reason.
In previous years, McClellan told The Daily Beast, criminal justice reform was the sort of issue Minnesota state lawmakers would only discuss behind closed doors.
But after a furious nationwide demand for changes to policing and for accountability, he believed past pipe dreams like ending qualified immunity for cops and making body-cam footage of killings immediately available might finally have their movement.
Tim Walz signed into law last July left in place policies like qualified immunity, a federal standard that effectively shields police from much civil litigation.
But it did include a ban on chokeholds, and a requirement for officers to intervene if they witness another officer use unnecessary force on the job.