5.21.25
The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday moved to withdraw from federal settlement agreements with the cities of Minneapolis and Louisville, which had called for sweeping police reforms following the high-profile deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. The decision arrives just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyd's death, which sparked nationwide protests and calls for racial justice and police reform. Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, when former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pinned him to the pavement with his knee for more than nine minutes—a moment that ignited a global movement. Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black medical worker, was shot and killed by Louisville Metro Police officers on March 13, 2020, during a late-night raid on her apartment. Officers executed a "no-knock" warrant as part of a narcotics investigation linked to Taylor's ex-boyfriend, though no drugs were found in her home. Taylor's boyfriend, believing the officers were intruders, fired one shot, prompting police to return fire with over 30 rounds, striking Taylor multiple times as she stood in a hallway. Taylor's death sparked nationwide outrage and became a defining moment in the 2020 racial justice protests.
The settlements, known as consent decrees, were negotiated in response to scathing federal investigations and were designed to bring both departments under court-supervised overhauls. The Biden administration finalized the Minneapolis agreement in January 2025, just before leaving office, aiming to address systemic failures in training, use-of-force policies, and officer accountability. Despite the federal pullback, Minneapolis will still be bound by a separate consent decree with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which was enacted in 2023 after a blistering state report found longstanding racial discrimination within the police force. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara has committed to upholding the terms of the original federal agreement regardless of the Trump administration's position. In an email to Newsweek, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said: "It's no surprise that Trump's Department of Coverups and Vengeance isn't seeking justice. It's been five years, and police reform legislation still hasn't passed in Congress, and police departments still haven't been held accountable. Five years. We elect people to take action, and all they seem to do is take action against us. How much longer do you need to actually do something?"
