Minneapolis PD Promotes Officer Disciplined For a Racist Email to Head of Homicide

Despite being placed on paid leave for more than a year for forwarding a racist email chain that included pictures that were determined to negatively portray Black people, and that bore the subject line, “Only in the Ghetto,” Minneapolis Police Department lieutenant Aimee Linson has been appointed to lead the department’s homicide unit, Liz Sawyer reports for the Star Tribune. Several police reform advocates condemned the move and questioned whether MPD leadership was serious about overhauling its culture in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Under questioning from Internal Affairs, Linson said she didn’t remember sending the email, which was by then 10 years old. Linson will replace Lt. Richard Zimmerman, the department’s longtime head of homicide who was a key witness in the trial of ex-officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.