A jury convicted former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin of all counts including murder in the death of George Floyd, but Floyd's murder and yesterday's verdict are neither the beginning or the end of a bigger story.
There have been many reports of abusive behavior within the Minneapolis Police Department since Floyd's killing set off a wave of protests last summer, but the Department of Justice is now formally investigating the department
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced this morning that he authorized a pattern or practice investigation that could lead to the department being placed under strict, court-ordered oversight.
The broad federal civil investigation will include a "comprehensive review" of the Minneapolis Police Department's "policies, training, supervision and use of force investigations," he announced.
It will assess whether the Minneapolis Police Department "engages in a pattern or practice of using excessive force, including during protests," whether it engages in "discriminatory conduct," and whether "its treatment of those with behavioral health disabilities is unlawful," Garland said.
If this were the Obama administration, an announcement like this would be relatively routine, but this is the first such action the Department of Justice has taken in over four years.
The Trump regime banned investigations of local police departments and Attorney General Garland just recently repealed the policy put in place by former Attorney General William Barr. The Trump era policy was more or less a license for police departments to routinely violate the Constitutional rights of citizens as the Justice Department was literally prohibited from getting involved.
If recent events are any indication, the investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department will undoubtedly find things they don't want anyone to know about. Previous investigations of other departments certainly did.
Police departments in Missouri, Maryland, and Ohio were investigated under the Obama administration.