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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: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @09:28PM (7 children)
A lot of the riots are being instigated by opportunistic groups like anarchists and white supremacists, not the people organizing the protests.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @10:38PM (1 child)
A lot of black politicians and other black leaders are coming out saying that, and appropriately worried that blacks will continue to be labeled as criminals, violent, etc.
I say, shoot the looters and arsonists. There are really only a few that instigate, and many marginal sheep that follow. Just shoot them. It'll all end quick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @10:44PM
And that is why you are regularly called a fascist and a racist.
Found the perfect mate for you! Knows how to lie through her teeth and everything!
https://reddit.com/r/MurderedByWords/comments/gvc0m9/good_old_meghan_mccain_i_assume_shes_a_staple_on/ [reddit.com]
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @10:40PM
Please give any evidence that any significant fraction at all are white supremacists. It's all anarchists, Antifa, daughters and sons of the commie mayors presiding over this dumpster fire. Why can't the left own it?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday June 03 2020, @01:12AM
And there's also a long history of agents provocateur, who are undercover police and/or the FBI sent in to start trouble in crowds to create an excuse for the cops to attack that crowd.
As an example: One hypothesis for why the Kent State shootings happened a little over 50 years ago is that an FBI informant was on the scene with a pistol, fired a shot at nothing in particular, and the National Guard returned fire into the crowd.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Wednesday June 03 2020, @05:50PM (2 children)
That may well be the case. Then again, it might not. Can you please provide supporting evidence of that? Being able to support that assertion would give it much more weight.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2020, @01:21AM
Article [thehill.com] Moltov girl [twitter.com] NYC lawyer (Moltov girl 2) [swarajyamag.com]
This guy [knoxnews.com] apparently has a III%er [wikipedia.org] tattoo. Something and nothing because it's a constitutionalist group although one that attracts complete wingnuts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2020, @01:41AM
Representing the boogaloo brigade [justice.gov] or just dodgy taste in Hawaiin shirts? [wikipedia.org]