Editor’s note: A pervious version of this article referred to George Floyd as “Michael.” This was a mistake that has been corrected.
Washington D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham sent out a chilling notice to his officers via a private YouTube link this week, telling Metro Police officers that more reform is coming and will likely put them in harm’s way.
According to Fox 5 DC, Chief Newsham lambasted the city council saying they, “forgot about our 20 years of reform…. and insinuated that somehow the Metropolitan Police force would be involved in an act of murder like we saw in Minneapolis.”
DC just passed a sweeping emergency police reform legislation just days after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The bill throws out the previous body-worn camera policy. It requires the department to publish all body-cam video and the corresponding officer’s name within 72 hours of a use of force incident.
The previous regulation left it to the Mayor’s discretion on whether or not a video should be released. It also had to meet certain criteria like public interest.
The bill also undercuts the union’ss ability to negotiate discipline and other collective bargaining measures.
Mendelson continued in his statement saying, “Washington D.C. is not Minneapolis, but the events that started in Minneapolis have affected police departments across the nation. There’s never anything wrong with the examining our practices, and I would not label that as abandoning our police.”
“Rather, we want to invigorate community trust in our police,” Mendelson said. “That’s beneficial to all.”
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