National Urban League: Civil Rights Convictions of Minneapolis Officers Bring the Nation Closer to Dismantling the Blue Wall of Silence

NEW YORK (February 24, 2022) -- National Urban League President Marc H. Morial today said the conviction of former Minneapolis police officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane on federal civil rights charges brings the nation a step closer to dismantling the “blue wall of silence” that allows police corruption and misconduct to thrive.

“We are beyond tired of hearing apologists dismiss every horrifying example of racially-motivated police violence that comes to light by blaming a few ‘bad apples,’” Morial said.  “The fact is, bad apples do spoil the whole barrel, and officers who fail to intervene when their colleagues transgress are just as responsible for the rot.”

Criminal prosecutions of police officers are rare, and prosecutions of those who enable corruption with their silence or inaction are even rarer.

“These officers watched as their colleague crushed the life from George Floyd and did nothing to stop him,” Morial said. “They did nothing to save his life, or to ease his suffering. That’s both a sin and a crime by any standard and today’s conviction sends a clear message that such callous indifference has no place in law enforcement.

The case points to the urgent need for police departments to reform the unofficial culture of retaliation that allows misconduct to persist and wrongdoers to avoid accountability.  Officers who call out their colleague’s misbehavior are likely to find dead rats in their lockers.  According to a USA Today investigation, those who enforce the blue wall of silence “have stuffed dead rats and feces into fellow officers’ lockers. They’ve issued death threats, ignored requests for backup, threatened family members and planted drugs on the officers who reported wrongdoing. Whistleblowers have been fired, jailed and, in at least one case, forcibly admitted to a psychiatric ward.”

“It’s unconscionable that these officers chose to save their own jobs over saving a man’s life, but they should not have had to make that choice,” Morial said. “With this verdict, police departments are on notice that the blue wall is crumbling and will no longer hide their shame.