By Alanna Durkin Richer And Michael Tarm The Associated Press
Prosecutors across the country are defying traditionally cozy relationships with police departments, swiftly charging officers with murder, assault and other crimes following protests over the death of George Floyd and dropping charges against demonstrators.
Even just a few years ago, when protests erupted over the killings of other black men by police, officers were rarely arrested for suspected criminal acts during the demonstrations. It’s been rare to charge police with crimes in the death of civilians, and winning a conviction is harder.
But the tide may be turning, led by progressive prosecutors pressing for criminal justice reforms to better hold police accountable for wrongdoing.“Prosecutors realize that they’re being watched,” said Mark Dupree Sr., district attorney for Kansas’ Wyandotte County, which includes Kansas City. “My hope is that this is a change and that we are turning a tide.” On Wednesday, Fulton County prosecutors charged Atlanta officer Garrett Rolfe with murder for a shooting during a sobriety check gone awry near a Wendy’s. The other officer involved in Rayshard Brooks’ death faces lower-level charges. The shooting happened less than a week ago.
Derek Chauvin, the officer who pinned George Floyd to the ground by the neck, was charged with murder days after Floyd’s death, and three other officers were charged shortly afterward. Most of the time it takes months, if not years, to charge an officer in an on-duty death.
Meanwhile, in New York City, a police officer caught on video shoving a woman to the ground is facing criminal charges, and prosecutors in Buffalo charged two officers with assault after a video showed them knocking down a 75-year-old protester. Atlanta police were charged with assault in a protest-related stop. In Philadelphia, a police officer faces aggravated assault stemming from video that shows him striking a student protester in the head with a metal baton. And in Chicago, investigators are looking at whether more than half a dozen officers broke the law after security video captured them lounging around a side-street office with its windows smashed in, making popcorn and napping on a couch, as a shopping centre was ransacked nearby…
Source: globalnews.ca/news
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
