The Police Chief Todd Axtell in St. Paul, Minnesota, said he made all his officers watch the video of a Minneapolis police officer putting his knee on the neck of George Floyd, describing the incident as "disgusting" and "dehumanizing".
Axell said on Thursday that this should stop and that he challenges all officers, outside of St. Paul Police Department, to check their humanity and rethink on why they became police officers the first day, adding that their main task is to protect people and that the incident is unacceptable.
Axell added that the police are here to serve people and act as guardians of their community rather than choke people up to death.
He said police departments rely on what he calls a bank of trust and that every right thing a colleague does, makes a deposit into the bank of trust. He explained that incidents of violence like what happened can destroy the trust officers work to build.
"Unfortunately, one incident like you saw in Minneapolis can just take that entire investment not only in that city, not only in St. Paul, but throughout this entire country and it is just unbelievably hurtful, all the great work going in, and a few can destroy that in a matter of seconds," Axtell said.
Axell said that such actions can take the police generations behind trying to set up trust and confidence will all communities within each region officers serve.
