May 25, 2025

Five Years Since the Murder of George Floyd

George Floyd changed the world. I wish that change had taken place without him and the many Black community members losing their lives. George Perry Floyd was a father, brother, nephew, son, and friend to many. He deserved so much better, and I pray for him and his family as they grieve and heal. 

Five years ago, in the early morning of May 26, 2020, I watched that fateful video that showed in clear daylight, George Floyd struggling to breathe as an officer had his knee pressed on his neck for nine and a half minutes. The world saw another human being, another person in my city, lose their life, all while the people around him pleaded for the violent act to stop. I was a young policy aide, community organizer, and, like many, started gathering with the community to call for action and stand against the continued brutality of Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples. Five years later, in the memory of George Floyd, that call to action continues, and I would argue that this moment demands it even more. 

Many emboldened by Trump and by the right-wing MAGA movement will try to manufacture consensus, dress lies as the truth, and change the narrative. Many have tried to sanitize what happened as time passes. So we must stand up for the truth and stand against the erasure of our history to ensure that change continues. So let me be clear, George Floyd was murdered at the hands of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, an officer who has a history of police brutality against Black Community Members, while former officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao either helped restrain George Floyd or kept onlookers from intervening. 

Five years ago, I was not a Minneapolis City Council Member. Today I am. In this role, I apologize as a leader of the City of Minneapolis for the years of inaction in the face of a culture of clear racial discrimination and violence. This culture was left to fester, and without adequate interventions, the lack of accountability, transparency, discipline, and through the lens of race-based policing, it culminated in countless lives lost or harmed through police brutality.

I will do everything in my power as a Council Member and community member to answer the call to action this moment demands of me, and I encourage you to do the same. 

George Floyd’s life mattered. Black lives matter. Let us honor what we collectively experienced and went through. 

- Council Member Aurin Chowdhury 

Statement on Trump moving to end the Federal Consent Decree

I wanted to share an update on the U.S. Department of Justice Consent to decree with the City of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Police Department.On May 21, 2020 the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice moved to dismiss the consent decree mandating that the police department adopt reforms.

Just two years ago, the Department of Justice issued a report detailing how the Minneapolis Police Department engaged in unconstitutional and racially discriminatory practices is now seeking to walk away from oversight. The DOJ’s 2023 findings laid bare what so many of our residents– especially Black, Native, and disabled community members– have long known: that the Minneapolis Police Department has routinely used excessive force, targeted communities of color in traffic stops, violated First Amendment rights, and endangered people with behavioral health disabilities. Those are not abstractions. Those are lived realities for our residents. Without reform, the system will remain the same, and allow for the same things to happen again. 

On January 6, 2025, the Minneapolis City Council held a special meeting and approved a federal consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the Minneapolis Police Department. This consent decree was meant to reform the Minneapolis Police Department after an investigation following the murder of George Floyd and outlined policy, resource, and training requirements that were meant to help guide the City’s and Minneapolis Police Department’s reform efforts moving forward.  

Specifically, the United States Department of Justice found that the Minneapolis Police Department:

• Uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force and unreasonable use of tasers
• Unlawfully discriminates against Black people and Native American people in its enforcement activities, including the use of force following stops
• Violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech
• Discriminates against people with behavioral health disabilities when responding to calls for assistance.
• Persistent deficiencies in policy, training, supervision, and accountability contribute to the unlawful conduct

I voted for the DOJ Consent decree because I believe that the reforms within it are absolutely necessary for change. It is my commitment to do whatever possible to implement the reforms within the consent decree into Minnesota Department of Human Rights Settlement agreement. 

I also believe that there is a lack of public transparency in the work that has been done through the state settlement agreement by the City Administration. The City has spent significant resources on the implementation of our federal Settlement Agreement, yet we have not received a formal, public update on that progress. In a moment when public trust remains deeply fractured, transparency is not optional– it is foundational. 

That is why I have formally requested to City Attorney's Office that our independent evaluator, Effective Law Enforcement for All (ELEFA), present their findings of their second semi-annual report in a public meeting of the Settlement Agreement Subcommittee. Yes there have been strides made, there are also places where there has not been progress. The residents of Minneapolis deserve to know where we are in this process, not just statements of self congratulations geared at grabbing headlines. Accountability is required for change. 

Recognizing May 25, 2025, as the fifth year since the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis that sparked a global catalyst for justice

At our last Council Meeting we passed as resolution recognizing May 25, 2025 as the fifth year since the murder of George Floyd. Former MPD officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck for a total of 9 minutes and 29 seconds. In recognition we took a nine minutes and twenty nine seconds moment of silence for reflection. 

Whereas: George Floyd was born on October 14, 1973, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, later moving to Houston, Texas where he grew up playing basketball and football throughout high school and college; and

Whereas: In adulthood, Mr. Floyd worked hard to make changes in his life centered in religious mentorship, community service, and messages of anti-violence; and

Whereas: Mr. Floyd moved to the Minneapolis area in 2014 where he worked as a truck driver and provided security as a bouncer at local small businesses. He was a beloved father, brother, relative and friend who declared throughout his life that he would one day “change the world”; and

Whereas: On May 25, 2020, near the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue, now known as ‘George Floyd Square,’ after making a store purchase, George Floyd was confronted by four Minneapolis police officers whose actions led to his horrific murder and the kneeling on his neck by former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for over nine minutes; and

Whereas: What is commonly known as the 8-minute, 46-second video, but is actually 9 minutes and 29 seconds long, that captured the murder was taken by a bystander and minor at the time whose quick thinking and instinct proved integral to the ensuing global protest of police brutality and systemic racism, the movement for racial justice, and the criminal convictions of the four officers responsible for Mr. Floyd’s murder and the violation of his civil rights; and

Whereas: Community members, activists, and organizers immediately came together to preserve artworks and other offerings and to regularly assemble at George Floyd Square; advocate for solutions to dismantle systemic racism including the ‘24 Demands,’ as well as create on the ground memorials like the fist sculpture at the intersection, garden, and ‘Say Their Names Cemetery;’ and

Whereas: Mr. Floyd’s murder launched legal investigations by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the United States Department of Justice into the violation of civil rights by the MPD. The probe lasted over three years and resulted in court enforceable agreements due to findings of pattern and practice that the MPD “uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force and unreasonable use of tasers; unlawfully discriminates against Black people and Native American people in its enforcement activities, including the use of force following stops; violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech; and along with the City, discriminates against people with behavioral health disabilities when responding to calls for assistance”; and

Whereas: The City of Minneapolis began crafting and implementing police reforms immediately following the murder of George Floyd as the investigations happened. This included banning the use of chokeholds,
requiring officers to report and intervene when they witness unauthorized uses of force, making changes to the use and protocol of crowd control munitions, among other important reforms; and

Whereas: The City of Minneapolis continues to confront this legacy through mourning, resistance, healing, and the pursuit of equity and transformation. The City has committed to ongoing work that recognizes the collective pain and trauma caused by the police murder of George Floyd through racial healing and restorative justice initiatives, transforming traditional policing, improving police accountability, investing in upstream solutions, and dismantling systemic racism at the City of Minneapolis; and

Whereas: The City of Minneapolis is transforming traditional policing into a community safety ecosystem by improving community access and input into the oversight of police; investing in violence prevention programs, restorative justice and racial healing initiatives, alternative response models, embedded
mental health responders; and co-locating police precincts with other services to address community needs more holistically, among others.

—NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED—
That the Mayor and City Council do hereby recognize May 25, 2025, as the fifth year since the police murder of George Floyd that sparked a global catalyst for justice and acknowledge there is much work yet to be done to address systemic racism at the City of Minneapolis.

Contact Information

Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is anything I can help you with. You can reach me by email, phone, and on social media.

Aurin.Chowdhury@minneapolismn.gov
612-673-2212

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