![]() ![]() The Louisville police department released a statement from Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel in response to the DOJ investigation, saying the department "will continue our efforts in improving public safety in Louisville and making LMPD the premiere police department in the country. The probe was first announced in April 2021, more than a year after the March 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville. The DOJ probe found a variety of evidence that officers were violating citizens' constitutional rights and that multiple instances of police abuse largely went unpunished. Officers shared these videos with other members of their unit, and in 2022 two detectives plead guilty to civil rights violations for engaging in the behavior. Detectives drove slowly near residents then announced over police radio that "someone was thirsty" and hurled large drinks at people on the street. Louisville police also recorded themselves on their cell phones throwing drinks at pedestrians in 20, according to the report. ![]() "Officers called an unhoused white woman who had just injured herself in the midst of crisis 'an idiot,' 'dumbass,' and a 'fucking retard,'" the report said. The federal investigation also found that Louisville police mistreated people with mental health issues. In another incident where an officer described a Black teenager as a "wild animal that needs to be put down," the Justice Department said the department's investigators asked leading questions, such as, "are you describing the person or the behavior?" and "so you're not racist by any means?" In another episode examined in the DOJ report, a white officer dragged a 20-year-old Black man suspected of crashing a stolen car along the ground, saying he would "drag you through the fucking dirt like an animal if you don't want to move." The Justice Department said the officer was verbally reprimanded, but investigators didn't ask whether the use of the word "animal" reflected racial bias. "He said 'monkey' like that meant something to him, like old times back in the 40s and 50s, like, 'I'm insulting you and I want you to know it,'" Marcel Williams Jr. The report found a significant number of search warrants failed to satisfy the constitutional requirement for showing probable cause. Louisville Metro settled with the man’s estate for 1.25 million. It also cited a remark one of the men made to WDRB, a local news station that reported on the incident. Officers at the scene admitted that went from zero to sixty fast, according to the report. ![]() The Justice Department mentioned an incident where a police officer used a swear word and called Black men "monkeys" but was not disciplined because he retired. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. ![]()
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