Minneapolis' top cop sued the department in 2007. Here's why it matters today

The killing of George Floyd isn't the first time the Minneapolis Police Department has faced scrutiny over its treatment of people of color.
In 2007, five black Minneapolis police officers alleged that city leadership tolerated discriminatory conduct against people of color, including African American police officers within the department, according to a complaint.
Medaria Arradondo -- now the city's police chief -- was among the plaintiffs.

The officers filed the civil lawsuit based on "their own experiences on the force from when they were recruits training through their present statuses at the time in '07," attorney John Klassen, who represented the officers, told CNN.
The officers experienced their own individual "employment discrimination" while also "watching the every day, every week, every year actions of white officers against citizens of color. Which they had to stand and watch and read about and hear about and see no action, effective action, taken against those officers for what they firmly believed were constitutional violations and discrimination in the police of Minneapolis to citizens," Klassen said.