House Democrats demand probes of police killings of African Americans

The US House Judiciary Committee has called for an investigation into systemic police misconduct following a spate of deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police.

The deaths of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky and George Floyd in Minneapolis raise questions about whether police were engaged in a "pattern or practice of unconstitutional conduct," House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler and the other Democratic members told Attorney General William Barr in a letter.

Taylor was fatally shot when LMPD officers served a warrant at her home as part of a narcotics investigation on March 13.

Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he did not hear officers announce themselves and fired a single shot, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers involved, in the femoral artery.

This prompted Mattingly, detectives Myles Cosgrove and Brett Hankison to open fire, shooting more than 20 rounds, hitting Taylor at least eight times. She died in the hallway of her apartment.

Floyd, on the other hand, died after a police officer held him face-down by his knee as the unarmed black man was repeatedly saying he cannot breathe.  His death triggered mass and violent protests in the US cities of Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

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US police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters demanding justice for death of George Floyd at the hands of a white officer.

The letter also asks the Justice Department to probe the local law enforcement authorities who were responsible for investigating the death of Ahmaud Arbery, another unarmed black man that was fatally shot by a white former police officer and his son on February 23.

Ahmaud Arbery was running in the Satilla Shores neighborhood in Brunswick when he was shot dead by Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34.

Video shows US black man killed by white ex-cop and his son, DOJ probe sought

Georgia’s attorney general has asked federal prosecutors to investigate local law enforcement’s response to the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man in February.

“Public trust in the blind administration of justice is being seriously tested by recent high-profile killings of African Americans during attempts to enforce state laws as well as by the lack of transparency regarding how and why those killings occurred," Nadler wrote.

"America's history of racism and racially motivated violence is a plague that continues to live on through generations. It's an ugly truth that can be seen today in disproportionate rates of COVID deaths, in discriminatory police enforcement of social distancing rules, in racial profiling, and in the unconstitutional treatment of African Americans by law enforcement, among other examples," Nadler said in a statement accompanying the letter.

In the letter, he also said that the committee would be contemplating legislation aimed at addressing law enforcement issues such as racial profiling and use of excessive force, as well as the "lost trust" between police departments and their communities.

Police-involved shootings and killings of unarmed black men in the hands of white police officers have led to mass protests across the country in recent years and the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement.

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