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African-American George Floyd's death has led to marches, demonstrations, acts of violence, and looting across the USA and in other parts of the world. Emotions are running high. We will not attempt to accuse or defend anyone here. Just attempt to lay out the information we have and offer it up for the community to discuss. Many comments about this incident have been posted to unrelated stories on this site. This is, therefore, an attempt to provide one place on SoylentNews where people are encouraged to discuss it. So as to not derail other stories on the site, I kindly ask you focus those comments here.
Wikipedia has a page about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_George_Floyd (permanent link to the page as it appeared at the time of writing):
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, an African-American man, was killed in the Powderhorn community of Minneapolis, Minnesota. While Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on a city street during an arrest, Derek Chauvin, a white American Minneapolis police officer, kept his knee on the right side of Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds; according to the criminal complaint against Chauvin, 2 minutes and 53 seconds of that time occurred after Floyd became unresponsive.[3][4][5][6][7] Officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas K. Lane participated in Floyd's arrest, with Kueng holding Floyd's back, Lane holding his legs, and Thao looking on and preventing intervention by an onlooker as he stood nearby.[8]:6:24[9][10]
The arrest was made after Floyd was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill at a market.[11] Police said Floyd physically resisted arrest.[12][13] Some media organizations commented that a security camera from a nearby business did not show Floyd resisting.[14][15] The criminal complaint filed later said that based on body camera footage, Floyd repeatedly said he couldn't breathe while standing outside the police car, resisted getting in the car and intentionally fell down.[16][17][18][19] Several bystanders recorded the event on their smartphones, with one video showing Floyd repeating "Please", "I can't breathe", "Mama", and "Don't kill me" being widely circulated on social media platforms and broadcast by the media.[20] While knee-to-neck restraints are allowed in Minnesota under certain circumstances, Chauvin's usage of the technique has been widely criticized by law enforcement experts as excessive.[21][22][23] All four officers were fired the day after the incident.[24]
[...] Charges: Third-degree murder (Chauvin) Second-degree manslaughter (Chauvin)
This has been extensively covered by the media. Some outlets attempt to put their own interpretations on their coverage with their selection of video footage and with their commentary. It is difficult to find a simple video of the incident. Here is one that has coverage from the time of initial encounter of the police the officers with George Floyd up through his being taken away by ambulance. The video is a composite of shots from a restaurant's surveillance camera (Dragon Wok), Officer body cam, and bystander cell phones. YouTube footage: Full George Floyd Available Footage (21:12). If anyone has more complete footage of the arrest, please mention it clearly (with a link) in the comments.
Lastly, this is a hard time for everybody. Pandemic. Lock-down. Unemployment. Fears. Please be mindful of others' circumstances when commenting. We are a community sprung from a time of challenge. Let us continue to be here for one-another during this difficult time. SoylentNews is People.
(Score: 0, Troll) by looorg on Tuesday June 02 2020, @08:26PM (14 children)
I predict that this tread will go places. Not sure if it's going to be the popcorn tread of the week or not. But it's probably not going to be very nice.
That said it seems that Floyd once was something of a career-criminal back in Texas. I guess it shouldn't matter, but it somehow makes it harder to feel sorry for him even if he has served his time and he might not have deserved to die for his previous crimes. But I guess his victims just got what they might have wanted by proxy. I figure that the media-logic have taken hold now, where the white police officer(s) are somehow more evil then the black career-criminal. This temporary sainthood elevation that always seem to happen in cases such as this is quite tiresome really. Gotta sell the black and white world view cause viewers and readers just can't do grey. I guess the multiple coroners reports, with different explanations, are not helping either. He may or may not have had some underlying medical condition(s). Combined with the panic of being held down and arrested again.
While I don't really find his death, or the arrest, very interesting I do wonder how exactly is all the looting and rioting helping people get over their "outrage"? Does the injustice of it all go away if one is just allowed to burn and pillage and carry home some new loot? Many wrongs make a right or something? Somehow there will be less racism if the cities burn? It's that or they just really want a confrontation with armed police, national guard or whomever is going to be put in to quell the riots.
It also somehow puts the American image to shame to, I would have expected more armed people defending themselves and their property with lethal force -- even if it's probably in a lot of cases a really bad idea unless you have a lot of ammo.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @08:44PM (5 children)
No one is saying that George Floyd was some kind of saint.
Go ahead and watch the video posted with TFS.
At around 11:20, we see a thoroughly subdued and handcuffed (he was handcuffed at about 3:00 or so) George Floyd prone, with his face on the pavement. He is handcuffed and not resisting in any way.
Since he is, at this point, in custody, the police are explicitly responsible for the safety of Floyd.
As this horrifying scene continues, Floyd is heard to repeatedly say he can't breathe. Which is ignored by the officers, especially the one obstructing Floyd's airway.
At ~15:00, Floyd has been bleeding from the nose for a while and is completely unresponsive. This is repeatedly pointed out the police officers who continue to obstruct Floyd's airway.
It's not until ~19:30 that the cop stops obstructing Floyd's airway -- and only because EMTs are there to take Floyd to the hospital.
Since you clearly don't understand what happened here, I'll lay it out for you:
1. Floyd is handcuffed and taken into custody;
2. Floyd, handcuffed and not resisting at all, is placed face down on the pavement;
3. The cop places his knee on the neck of Floyd;
4. Despite repeated pleas from both Floyd and bystanders, the cop does not release pressure on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes;
5. During that time, it's clear that Floyd is in serious distress, with his nose bleeding and then is completely unresponsive for almost six minutes;
6. At no time did the police officers who are charged with the safety of *anyone* in their custody take any action to protect the health of a supine, unresisting Floyd.
At pretty much any time, the police could have placed Floyd in the patrol car and taken him to the police precinct. They chose not to do so. Rather, knowing that Floyd was in respiratory distress and then completely unresponsive, they continued to obstruct his airway.
It's clear from the video that the cops could see what was happening and chose to continue to *kill* Floyd.
That's intent. That's second-degree murder.
You say you're not bothered by this? Why? Do you support murder? Or is it just that you don't care if a darkie is murdered?
Watch the video in full. If you still don't see how this is intentional murder, I suggest you apply for membership in your local KKK chapter -- assuming you're not already a member.
(Score: 4, Informative) by mhajicek on Tuesday June 02 2020, @08:48PM
I don't have the link handy (on my phone) but search for the additional video that was released later. They had him in the car, looked like they were beating him there, then they brought him back out to kill him.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Tuesday June 02 2020, @10:21PM (1 child)
My take is that they waited as long as they possibly could. The prosecutor was probably hoping that blood work would show Floyd was doped to the gills so the case could be dropped. When that fell through and pressure from the protests/riots had built up too high, only then did they arrest anyone.
Nobody here would get that kind of courtesy.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday June 03 2020, @02:31AM
Seems like the protesters should be going after the prosecutor's house, and the police union chief, and other such people.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Wednesday June 03 2020, @04:00AM (1 child)
So, I guess thats why the guy who did it is being charged with murder?
So... whats missing? Criminal cop does criminal thing and is being criminally charged.
Perhaps I'm missing something here?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sjames on Wednesday June 03 2020, @04:17AM
You're missing that he was only charged after immense pubblic pressure. They still took 4 days to decide to charge him in spite of more than sufficient evidence for an indictment. Unlike any non-cop in America suspected of anything, they went for the minimum credible charge. Three other officers who had a duty to stop Chauvin before he killed Floyd still haven't been charged even though they not only didn't help Floyd, they prevented bystanders from doing so (making them active accomplices). One has left the state, one has left the area.
Based on history, Citizens fear that prosecutors will take a dive.
I think that about sums it up.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @10:49PM (4 children)
Well you didn't need to predict it. You went, literally, straight there.
He might not have deserved to die? He might not have deserved to die? You are evil and I hope you die soon, or drastically change your personality thereby killing "this" you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @11:28PM (3 children)
Death cult.
Even the more reasonable Republicans tend to be very gung-ho and treat the death of others like it is no big deal. And here I thought their otto was Pro-Life. Womp womp.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Wednesday June 03 2020, @04:02AM (2 children)
So, you are saying the people bring murdered (note the plural) are being murdered by Republicans?
You are saying Republicans are supporting those riots, which are killing people?
Interesting theory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @05:01AM (1 child)
Nope, but obviously you know that so I am not going to bother.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @08:53AM
It's all Runaway's fault. He wanted this boogaloo to keep black and brown folks from taking his children's future. Republican death-eaters, followers of MoldaTrump.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Wednesday June 03 2020, @05:04AM (2 children)
Lethal force is only needed very rarely. A couple of points regarding that image and the current situation...
- Most of the riots are in commercial districts, thus most buildings and businesses are property of corporations. Would you expect the manager of Old Navy to show up to defend that store? I wouldn't.
- Counterpoint to the above: Some armed people are showing up to keep the stores from being looted. [twitter.com]
- Most looters aren't stupid enough to throw their lives away for a TV or cellphone, but there is at least one case of lethal force used [washingtontimes.com] to defend a gun store.
On the police side of things:
- The police have been arresting and shooting reporters. At least one was shot in the face, blinding them. [vox.com]
- The police have been caught breaking shit. [imgur.com]
- Pointlessly shoving old dudes around. [imgur.com]
- Hauling people out of their cars using excessive force. [npr.org]
Who are you going to call for help in those situations? The police?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @05:16PM (1 child)
https://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh2OM1I6Fx8mtk9a7P [worldstarhiphop.com]
He does walk and talk like a cop. Didn't take anything either.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday June 03 2020, @06:48PM
And only cops can possibly walk and talk that way? I think the more useful evidence is the simularity of the exposed part of his face to a particular police officer (Jacob Pederson [heavy.com], who allegedly has an alibi for the time in question). It's very different when you have a match to a real person rather than vague impressions of the way he walks.