Bodycam Footage Shows Minneapolis Officers Talking About ‘Hunting Activists’ During George Floyd Protests

Disturbing bodycam footage has surfaced showing a group of Minneapolis police officers relishing in the opportunity to fire non-lethal ammunition at protestors less than a week after the murder of George Floyd, KLTV reports. 

An officer is seen congratulating his colleague for successfully striking a protestor with a rubber bullet. A voice is heard saying that “hunting people” is “a nice change of tempo,” while another jokingly impersonates Elmer Fudd, saying, “Be very, very quiet. We’re hunting activists.”

A spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department declined to comment, citing its ongoing internal investigation. 

The footage comes courtesy of the lawyer for Jaleel Stallings, who was acquitted last month on a slew of charges, including second-degree attempted murder, for returning fire with a gun he was permitted to carry after officers shot at him with rubber bullets.  

Minneapolis City Council members announced last June that a veto-proof majority chose to disband the city’s police department, and replace it with community-oriented, non-violent public safety programs. The proposal, however, was never presented to voters in November after getting held up by the city’s charter commission.  

NPR reports the Council was forced to rework the proposal, with an option of requiring the city to have a police department. “What we really want is to put a clear question to voters to really confirm that we’re going in the right direction and to let them tell us we’re not,” Council Member Steve Fletcher explained. “And so we want to say ‘Do you want to change the charter to have a department of public safety instead of a police department? Yes or no.’”

While this proposal gives the City Council more oversight over the department, it also falls short of the progressive steps they initially vowed to take.