The Minneapolis Police Department—which sparked racial justice protests around the country after its fatal arrest of George Floyd three years ago—has promoted an officer with a racist past to head its homicide division, and detractors are furious with the tone-deaf move.
Lt. Aimee Linson, a 25-year veteran with the Minneapolis police, was promoted this week—just six months after she returned from a year’s suspension from the force, Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The move comes after Lt. Richard Zimmerman was advanced to commander on Sunday.
Zimmerman was also a major witness during Derek Chauvin’s trial in Floyd’s untimely death in 2020.
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In March 2022, Linson was placed on paid leave from the department when a state-led investigation probed whether Minneapolis police officers engaged in discriminatory practices, according to the Star Tribune. The search found that a decade ago Linson sent an email chain that included racist stereotypes of Black people to at least eight of her co-workers. The messages specifically mentioned “the Ghetto” and featured a notable number of negative depictions of Black people.
Linson returned to the department in April 2023 with a written reprimand.
“In the past 10 years since the conduct occurred, there is no evidence that the conduct has been repeated. Therefore, it is clear that discipline would not need to be imposed to correct the behavior,” the policy violations letter of reprimand from Chief Brian O’Hara read.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland (L) looks on as Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara addresses the findings of a Justice Department investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department in June, 2023.
STEPHEN MATURENHowever, according to Kimberly Milliard of the Racial Justice Network, Linson has engaged in other problematic behavior that resulted in complaints being filed.
“Because of [Minneapolis Police Department’s] abysmal record of disciplining officers, the content of those complaints is not public knowledge,” she said.
Milliard also provided a link to those complaints in an online filing database to The Daily Beast.
“This promotion of Aimee Linson by a Chief who is himself under investigation for three highly concerning complaints demonstrates that they are carrying on with the exact same attitudes and culture which has rightfully attracted not only state but federal scrutiny after the brutal and public torture and murder of George Floyd,” Milliard said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “[Minneapolis Police Department] threw Derek Chauvin under the bus and sought to distance themselves from that ‘bad apple,’ but Derek Chauvin wasn’t an aberration. He was a feature, and not a bug, of their system.”
Milliard referenced investigations that were launched against O’Hara in August.
According to the Minnesota Reformer, O’Hara hired an officer with a history of using excessive force, berated a detective about a nonpublic report, and didn’t report an incident of excessive force in January.
“[Minneapolis Police Department] is showing it will not change without the application of external legal force—again, because it sees nothing wrong with itself.”
Chief O’Hara did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment Thursday.
