Minneapolis Cops Used Fake Accounts to Spy on Innocent Black People

Officers of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) engaged in surveillance of native Black leaders and organizations “without a public safety objective,” the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR) discovered. The racist misuse of state authority was only one amongst a litany of different abuses that included “killing community members of color and Indigenous community members” at a extremely disproportionate price, in line with a report launched Wednesday. 

The civil rights company mentioned it discovered a sample and follow of racial discrimination on the MPD extending over a interval of not less than 10 years in its investigation, which itself lasted 10 months. The discriminatory techniques included the “covert use” of pretend social media accounts to spy on native Black residents who weren’t suspects in any legal probes.

The MDHR inquiry into the division started after the homicide of George Floyd in May 2020. A jury discovered former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin responsible of the homicide 11 months later. Chauvin was sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in jail.

MPD officers created social media profiles with a view to goal activists and teams opposing racial discrimination throughout the MPD. The teams included the native chapters of the NAACP and Urban League. Officers used pretend accounts to achieve entry to posts they may not in any other case learn, with no official function, the report states.

“Specifically, MPD officers sent friend requests, commented on posts, sent private messages, and contributed to discussions. When doing so, officers posed as like-minded individuals and claimed, for example, that they met the targeted person at a prior demonstration or protest,” the findings state.

Officers would “further racial stereotypes associated with Black people, especially Black women,” whereas posing as Black individuals. Among the targets was a distinguished Black civil rights lawyer, whose identify was withheld from the report.

“Today’s MDHR report shows that although we were working with MPD for meaningful police reform, they were surveilling our organization,” Minneapolis NAACP mentioned in an announcement on Twitter. “They used taxpayer money and ‘valuable’ officer time to surveil and troll the Minneapolis NAACP when we were trying to end police misconduct.”

Additionally, officers used pretend accounts to ship messages “attacking” native elected officers who’d been vital of the MPD. Investigators warned one impact of this is likely to be to “distort elected officials’ perspectives and understanding of positions taken by community members.”

The report discovered there was neither oversight of covert accounts throughout the MPD nor mechanisms to stop such abuse.

Spokespersons for the MPD and City of Minneapolis didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The report describes a variety of different “racist, misogynistic, and disrespectful behaviors” that continued all through the time interval underneath investigation. Body digicam footage and disciplinary information confirmed officers “consistently” utilizing the N-word, calling Black neighborhood members “monkeys” and ladies “Black bitches.” White officers known as Black officers “cattle” and “nappy head.”

The officers known as ladies “fucking c*nt,” “bitch,” and “cussy” (a portmanteau of the phrases “c*nt” and “pussy”). One officer acknowledged—falsely—that “a man could not be guilty of sexually assaulting a woman if they had children together.”

Officers who had been witnesses or targets of this habits typically did not report it, the report says, as a result of accountability is just not seen as current throughout the MPD, and officers feared retaliation.

The report additional discovered that the MPD usually makes use of “higher rates of more severe force against Black individuals.” In conditions the place white and Black individuals are stopped or detained for related causes, Black individuals are constantly extra prone to be subjected to power, the report states.

A shocking majority—93%—of all MPD “officer-involved deaths” had been individuals of shade or Indigenous individuals, the report mentioned, regardless of these demographics mixed comprising solely 42% of town’s inhabitants.