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Eight jail officers won almost $1.5 million after filing a complaint that their superintendent forbade them from "interacting with or guarding" George Floyd's killer, Derek Chauvin. Only white officers were allowed around him, and their lawsuit also claimed Chauvin received special treatment.
So, what was the jail's excuse?
The superintendent claimed he didn't want to expose guards of color to "heightened ongoing trauma" via Chauvin "out of care and concern" for them. That's rich.
Prison superiors have no qualms jailing Black people with white supremacists or criminalizing people brutalized by cops! But Derek Chauvin is the priority? Clearly, the prison system doesn't actually have the interests of Black people in mind. And that includes when killer cops get jailed.
Prisons typically put incarcerated former police officers in administrative, not just racial, segregation. Usually, that's meant to keep "dangerous" people from hurting others. But they do this in these cases to prevent other incarcerated people from beating up cops.
"No one should ever have questioned your ability to perform your job based on the color of your skin," said Ramsey's board chair about the jail guards. But here's our bigger issue.
Prisons and policing aren't designed to keep us safe, deliver justice, or rehabilitate people who cause harm in the first place. We all need to divest from these systems.