Eight non-white corrections officers at a county jail that initially housed Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with murdering George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, say they were barred from guarding Chauvin because of their race, according to the Star Tribune. The corrections officers, all of whom work at Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul, have alleged that they were ordered to a separate floor while their white colleagues monitored Chauvin, because jail authorities considered them a “liability” around the former officer. Chauvin and the three other officers involved in Floyd’s death currently face a slew of charges, with Chauvin facing the most stringent charge of second-degree murder. All non-white officers were also reportedly moved to another floor, away from Chauvin, when he arrived as an inmate. Chauvin was first held at Ramsey County Jail but has been transferred to two other facilities: first, to a jail in Hennepin County, and most recently to the Oak Park Heights maximum security prison near the Minnesota state capitol.

Source: Huffington Post June 21, 2020 18:33 UTC