Before George Floyd’s Death, Minneapolis Police Failed to Adopt Reforms, Remove Bad Officers

As video footage of George Floyd’s last moments circulated this week, many watched in shock and revulsion. The 46-year old black man died Monday, pleading for air, as a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck during an arrest.

But few could share the horrible familiarity the clip would evince for Valerie Castile, who four years ago watched similar footage: her son, Philando, dying after a police officer shot him during a traffic stop in a Minneapolis suburb. Her son’s killing added fuel to the national conversation about how police use force against people of color, and prompted promises from civic leaders across Minnesota to reform policing.

So why, she asked, is she now watching another video of a black man in her city dying at the hands of the police?

“I’m sick over it and literally heartbroken,” Castile said of Floyd’s death. “We still have that big question: Why? Why does this keep happening and why no one is being held accountable?”

To answer that, The Marshall Project analyzed police reform efforts in the city and throughout Minnesota to understand why change has been so slow across the predominantly white state. Police accountability experts, court documents, stalled state legislation