Police in the city of Louisville, in the heart of the United States, repeatedly resort to excessive use of force and other illegal, discriminatory and even racist practices, a resounding federal investigation concluded on Wednesday March 8.
This report comes in the wake of the March 13 homicide of Breonna Taylor, a Louisville hospital emergency department worker who was shot and killed by at least eight bullets in her own apartment. 2020.
“Aggressive police practices”
The fate of 26-year-old African-American Breonna Taylor sparked national outrage and her name was chanted in protests that rocked the United States during the massive protests against racism and police brutality in 2020, in reaction to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The report of the federal authorities, written after two years of investigations, was unveiled this Wednesday in Louisville, the largest city in Kentucky, by the American Minister of Justice Merrick Garland, who came specially from Washington.
In its conclusions, his ministry denounces the "
aggressive policing practices
" of the police in Louisville, "
implemented selectively, in particular against black people
".
"monkey" or "animal"
"
Police have filmed themselves throwing drinks at pedestrians from their cars, insulting people with disabilities or calling black people 'monkeys' or 'animals'", notes the inspection
report .
Federal investigators also noted the misuse by officers in Louisville of police dogs or Taser-type stun guns.
During arrests, they too often resort to strangulation to neutralize the suspects, they also accuse.
The report also deplores unjustified roadside checks, illegal searches and searches and repeated harassment of people from minorities.
“
By behaving like this, the Louisville police have undermined their public safety mission and degraded their relationship with the residents they are supposed to serve and protect
,” Merrick Garland said.
The framework for law enforcement investigations was set by the US Congress in the wake of the 1992 acquittal of Los Angeles police officers who beat up black taxi driver Rodney King.
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A dozen surveys
In nearly three decades, the US Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has opened dozens of investigations into police departments.
Among the metropolises that have been targeted are Miami, Cleveland, New Orleans, Detroit, Seattle, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Chicago and Baltimore.
These investigations give rise to the publication of a report and can either result in dismissals, or binding court decisions, or even an amicable agreement whose application is supervised or not by a judge.
Eight federal investigations have been opened since Joe Biden's arrival at the White House, notably concerning the police in Minneapolis, Phoenix or Oklahoma City.
Coincidentally, the last federal investigation was officially launched on Wednesday, on the Memphis police.
It was in this Tennessee town that a 29-year-old African-American, Tire Nichols, was violently beaten in January by police officers, before dying three days later.