Attempting to leverage an uncommonly visible bully pulpit and channel widespread outcry for police and racial justice reform in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Wednesday fired a shot across the bows of state Senate Republicans, suggesting they’re the only group in the state standing in way of morally compelling change.
To be clear, Walz, a Democrat, never uttered the word “Republican” or mentioned any lawmaker by name. But on the eve of memorial services for Floyd that will continue the national spotlight on Minnesota, Walz’s pivot to an offensive posture against the only body of power in the state not controlled by Democrats left little doubt. He all but dared them.
“My call to action on this is: This is on us, and I don’t think things just happen by chance,” Walz said at a 5 p.m. news conference carried live on local stations, underscoring that the national fury over racial injustice was sparked in Minneapolis when a white police officer put his knee to a subdued and unarmed Floyd’s neck, leading to his death. “I’m not sure there’s anywhere else in the country (where) their Legislature is coming back next week. So you’re gonna get to see an opportunity next week how serious people are about getting this done. Because I will guarantee you, there will be bills put on the floor and put to a vote: Yes or no. Put your money where your mouth is and send it forward.”
Walz didn’t articulate the actual bills he wants to see voted on, but it was clear from his deference to minority lawmakers and community activists that he’s endorsing a cornucopia of proposals long sought by liberal Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party members from the core cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
A request for comment from the state’s most powerful Republican, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-East Gull Lake, wasn’t returned Wednesday evening.
LEGISLATURE DORMANT
The shift toward the Minnesota Legislature is jarring; the entire legislative branch of government has taken a way-back seat to Walz ever since the the coronavirus pandemic hit and Walz, like governors across the nation, in March granted himself sweeping emergency powers allowed under state law. The Legislature was in session at the time, and the sense of national crisis spawned a brief flash of bipartisanship as both the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate sped through a series of relief packages.
But then the chambers went largely dormant, scattered into scratchy Zoom calls and soon defaulting to muted-but-still-steadfast partisan lines. They adjourned last month with no agreement on a public infrastructure spending package, aka “bonding bill,” even though the basic idea enjoys widespread support from lawmakers of both parties.
However, for Walz to continue his emergency powers, he must call lawmakers back to the Capitol in St. Paul for a special session. He’s said he’ll do so on June 12.
Walz attempted to draw a natural progression to the doorsteps of the Legislature Wednesday.
He highlighted that the executive branch — his domain — on Tuesday launched a sweeping civil rights probe into the Minneapolis Police Department’s racial practices over the last decade.
And he reiterated that Attorney General Keith Ellison — an independently elected official with constitutional powers — had taken over prosecution of the police officers involved in Floyd’s custody. On Wednesday, Ellison upped the charges against Derek Chauvin, the then-Minneapolis police officer whose knee kept Floyd’s face pressed against the pavement, to second-degree murder and also charged the three other officers with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Walz noted that the prosecution will eventually face the scrutiny of the judiciary branch of government.
Then, after saying “the center of gravity” of the national unrest “is in this state,” he rattled off a host of historical racial inequities, from discriminatory housing to educational achievement, and pivoted to the legislative branch.
LIST OF PROPOSALS
“Pick your issue,” Walz said, suggesting perhaps a way for those who have demonstrated to channel their energy.
The agenda poised to embody much of the initiatives was laid out earlier this week by lawmakers in the People of Color and Indigenous (POCI) Caucus, of which Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was a founding member when she served in a Legislature.
Their agenda includes some two dozen ideas, under five general topics — as the caucus defined them:
- Reform the investigation and prosecution of officer-involved deaths and wrongful actions
- Increase police accountability and transparency
- Raise standards of conduct and support officer excellence
- Partner officers with the communities they serve
- Repair and build community trust and create community-centered public safety
Among the specific ideas:
- Create a new crime: “unjustified use of force that results in death or great bodily harm”
- Create a legal duty for officers to intervene when a fellow cop is using excessive force
- Move all officer-involved death investigations and prosecution to the attorney general’s office
- Rescind current state law that bans municipalities from requiring cops to live within their borders
- “Prohibit use of ‘Bullet-Proof Warrior’ style use of force training”
- Develop new policies to respond to protests
“I think this is probably our last shot,” Walz said of the ambitions to rewrite many of the laws and policies that govern police behavior.
IS IT REALISTIC?
By any traditional political calculation, the list of ideas would face little hope of reaching Walz’s desk. In fact, many have been proposed for years, but never gained enough traction, with some never reaching the floor of the House and others languishing in the Senate, where traditional law-and-order Republicans preside over key committees.
But Walz is seeking to capitalize on what he painted as ground-shifting momentum during a moment when all lawmakers will face re-election in November.
Special legislative sessions are traditionally short affairs as lawmakers try to get in, pass urgent matters, and return to their summer breaks. When asked how such a list of reforms could possibly be heard, debated and passed in a short stretch of time, Walz suggested time wasn’t an issue.
“The strongest leverage is the people,” he said. “I could see us staying there until we get ‘er done.”
Shortly after his remarks, Walz’s political campaign committee sent an email to supporters to rally the cause.
“Will his death be just another blip in a textbook?” the email said of Floyd. “Or will it go down in history as when our country turned toward justice and change?”