Minneapolis had a failure of leadership last week, the state of Minnesota did as well. Now cities are on fire across the country. Here’s what needs to happen:
- Arrest the three police officers who did nothing while Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. It’s not enough that they’re fired.
- Everyone in Chauvin’s chain of command needs to be demoted and made ineligible for future promotion (at best). There was a tolerance for the brutality this police officer had exhibited previously, which was tolerated and led directly to the murder of George Floyd. The witnessing police officers felt it necessary to either be callous about it, or supportive, or afraid to do anything. Regardless, there was a direct line between leadership, expression of values and this murder.
- Anyone who ever gave Chauvin a good evaluation needs to be investigated. Anyone who was involved, however peripherally (Amy Klobuchar), needs to reconsider their situation in life.
- Minnesota’s Governor Walz should address the rampant problems with racist law enforcement on the state level and provide guidelines for future state funding to municipalities, just like the federal government forced a nationwide speed limit in the 1970s (by withholding money).
Governor Walz also needs to publicly apologize for describing people demonstrators as “outside agitators“. After corrections to his initial false information about arrests was made public, Walz quietly backtracked his comments. The protesters were majority local. As they are across the country. It is probably impossible for him to regain credibility with many Minnesota citizens, but he needs to investigate why his state officials passed him this bad information. I suspect white supremacists.
If you are a leader of any large organization, I suggest the following:
