A community panel’s report, released on Tuesday, calls for a “sincere, public apology” from the Seattle Police Department for its handling of demonstrators in 2020 following George Floyd’s death.
The Office of the Inspector General for the City of Seattle made a total of 22 recommendations, the majority of which concern the strategies, procedures, and education of the Seattle Police Department.
According to the report, if the Seattle Police Department were to issue an official apology, it would go a long way toward repairing relations between the force and the city’s civilian population.
In summation, the recommendation was to own the harm to people of color caused by the Seattle Police and issue a public apology for their actions during the 2020 protests.
The Seattle Times wrote that the Inspector’s review panel found that commanders and their officers failed to differentiate between the throngs of protesters exercising their First Amendment rights and the few troublemakers.This was the fourth and final review of the police response to the months of protests in 2020.
In response, they pointed to a public statement written by Chief Adrian Diaz in 2021, in which he expressed his “deepest regret” for anyone who had been mistreated by the police or had lost faith in them.
Additionally, he expressed regret “to members of the community and the department alike who bear the physical and emotional scars” from the protests of 2020.
Diaz explained what was meant by reform–
“Reform means that we accept the responsibility that is ours to bear, we learn from our experience, and we consistently strive to do better.”
Riots broke out in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd, who was, according to a jury of his peers, killed by Derek Chauvin, who was captured on camera putting his knee on Floyd’s neck while the man was handcuffed.
Reparations requests were raised as part of the widespread civil upheaval that swept the United States for weeks.
The appeal of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was sentenced to almost 20 years in jail for the death of Floyd, was denied on Monday.
