SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 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.