As a psychologist, when I saw Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd I wondered: “How the hell did he get on the Minneapolis Police force? ”The level of out-of-control violence that he displayed almost always has a history. His defiant violence was punctuated by the fact that he knew he was being videoed and as warnings came from bystanders including a firefighter who pleaded to take Floyd’s pulse. Yet Chauvin persisted.
MINNEAPOLIS
Crews on Thursday removed the concrete barriers that blocked traffic at a Minneapolis intersection where a memorial to George Floyd was assembled after his death last year, but community activists quickly put up makeshift barriers and resumed chanting the name of the Black man whose killing galvanized the racial justice movement.
It took the crews led by a community group known as Agape less than four hours to clear the barriers, artwork, flowers and other items from 38th Street and Chicago Avenue where Floyd was killed, informally known as George Floyd Square. City spokeswoman Sarah McKenzie said a fist sculpture, which stands several feet tall, will remain.
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The LAPD is a changed organization a year after the social justice protests but hardly in the ways its critics wanted. Its budget was cut by $150 million last year, then increased by 3% this year. Still, the protests have forced major changes within the department, its daily operations and the way city officials see its role in public safety.