Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee are urging an immediate investigation into the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor.
A letter addressed to Attorney General William Barr and Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband asks for increased transparency into how the cases were handled. Floyd and Taylor, who were black, died at the hands of brutal police force by white officers. Arbery, who was also black, was shot by a white ex-police officer.
“The fair, transparent, and equal administration of justice is a bedrock principle for citizens to maintain the trust required to govern themselves in an ordered society,” the letter said. “However, public trust in the blind administration of justice is being seriously tested by recent high-profile killings of African Americans during attempts to enforce state laws as well as by the lack of transparency regarding how and why those killings occurred.”
In the case of Arbery, who was confronted by an armed 64-year-old former police officer and his son, the letter asks for an investigation into the role played by local law enforcement and whether there was a deprivation of constitutional rights in Arbery’s case.
A viral video showed Greg and Travis McMichael, both armed, coming up to Arbery in a truck. Several shots can be heard in the video, which ends with Arbery collapsing on the pavement. The McMichaels were both charged with felony murder and aggravated assault earlier this month after the footage led to widespread public disturbance and outrage.
For Taylor, an EMT worker, who was shot and killed in her home by officers while they looked into a possible drug investigation, the letter seeks federal oversight of state and local law enforcement. Police had entered Taylor’s home without knocking and shot her eight times before she fell dead.
Earlier this week, Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer pushed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. In a video that went viral, Floyd can be heard expressing he couldn’t breathe from the pressure multiple times. In the wake of Floyd’s death, violent protests erupted within the Minneapolis area in the past two days.
“There simply is no excuse for any law enforcement officer to treat any human being in the brutally callous way the Minneapolis Police Department treated Mr. Floyd, apparently causing his death,” the letter reads.
The letter applauds the local decision to fire four officers involved with Floyd’s detainment but requests a formal investigation into whether there has been a history of civil rights violations by the MPD.
