A group of 14 current and former Minneapolis Police Department Officers signed sworn declarations attesting to their belief that Assistant Chief Katie Blackwell committed perjury during the trial of Derek Chauvin over the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Blackwell testified that the method of restraint used by Chauvin was not part of MPD officer training. Blackwell had said at the trial “that’s not what we train.”
However, others say that the “knee-on-neck restaint Chauvin employed was trained under the maximal-restraint technique (MRT), a restraint the MPD taught and allowed until 2023.” The officers who signed the declarations “swore that this training was well known—indeed, common knowledge—and omnipresent,” Alpha News said.
Reporting on the declarations, Alpha News said that these 14 statements “were among dozens of declarations submitted by lawyers representing Alpha News in a defamation lawsuit brought by Blackwell last October against Alpha News, Alpha News reporter Liz Collin, producer J.C. Chaix, and a publishing company.” Blackwell brought suit against Alpha News in response to their documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis,” which indicated that Blackwell had not been truthful in her testimony.
In a lengthy motion asking for the case to be dismissed with prejudice, attorney for Alpha News Chris Madel wrote “With this motion, 33 former MPD officers who served with Blackwell, and one who currently serves with her, have sworn that MPD trained this restraint as part of the ‘maximal-restraint technique’ (‘MRT’) and otherwise. Indeed, 14 of these officers have sworn—under oath—their belief that Blackwell perjured herself.”
“Blackwell remarkably claims that Collin and Chaix defamed her when they opined that it ‘seemed’ like Blackwell lied. In reality, this opinion was far more generous than necessary. It is a fact,” the motion further reads.
Floyd died in police custody after he was arrested in a parking lot on that fateful day in May 2020. Chauvin restrained him and Floyd later died. His death was deemed by the court of public opinion to be a racially motivated murder and within two days of his death, as cell phone footage of the arrest circulated online, riots began in Minneapolis and quickly spread across the country.
Floyd’s death was about 10 weeks into the Covid-19 pandemic which inspired local government leaders to insist on lockdowns, business, school and church closures. The riots began at the tail end of a spring as weather turned warm after the winter months. In many areas, lockdowns were still imposed except in the case of protests. Dozens of doctors signed a letter claiming that racism was a bigger health threat than Covid and that those who were out protesting were in the right. Anyone who wasn’t protesting for racial justice was told to stay home and churches, schools, and businesses remained closed.
Hellbound and Down 