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[Editor's note: This is a follow-on to the story George Floyd Dead - Officers Fired and Charged - Discuss it Here that we ran on June 2, 2020. With 385 comments, it was the 5th-most-discussed story in the history of SoylentNews. All four of the officers involved were fired from the police force and are facing charges for the death.
New body-cam footage has come to light, exclusively on DailyMail.com. The two videos there fill in gaps from the previously-released footage.
In light of the interest when we first ran the story, the continuing "Black Lives Matter" protests, and the information this brings to light, I have decided to run this story.
NOTE: Each news organization has their own "take" on the killing. This coverage from DailyMail.com is no exception; read it with a heaping helping of the proverbial "grain of salt". It has been excerpted here without elision so as to not add any additional "spin".
WARNING: Please be aware the video content is disturbing; viewer discretion is advised. --martyb]
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1234
Police Bodycam Footage Shows George Floyd Arrest In Detail:
WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT. DailyMail.com has obtained video from the body cameras of two officers involved in the arrest of George Floyd that ultimately led to his death on May 25 in Minneapolis.
[...] Bodycam footage from two cops accused in the murder of George Floyd is revealed exclusively by DailyMail.com today — and it shows a rookie officer terrifying Floyd by pointing a handgun at his head and another callously picking a pebble from the squad car tire just inches from the dying man and seconds before he draws his last breath.
The tapes show in minute detail how a very distressed Floyd begs 'Mr. Officer, please don't shoot me. Please man,' before the struggle that ended with his death on May 25.
It also shows how belligerent cops cursed at and manhandled the sobbing suspect, ignoring his pleas for compassion.
Floyd resisted as the cops tried to force him into the back of the car, telling them he suffers from claustrophobia and anxiety and how Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, leading to his death, ignoring Floyd's repeated cries of 'I can't breathe.'
Floyd is even heard predicting his own death. 'I'll probably just die this way,' he says.
Transcripts from the videos were released in mid-July but a judge in Minneapolis had ruled the video could only be viewed in the courthouse, meaning few people have had the chance to watch the powerful images.
But the footage has now been leaked to DailyMail.com so the world can finally see the tragedy of Floyd's last minutes as the cops were mindless of Floyd's anguish.
The footage includes more than 18 minutes from Officer Alex Kueng's bodycam and 10 minutes from Officer Thomas Lane. They were the first two cops to arrive on the scene after a complaint that Floyd had attempted to pass a fake $20 bill to buy cigarettes at Cup Foods, a store in the Powderhorn Park section of Minneapolis.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by darkfeline on Wednesday August 05 2020, @06:42PM (7 children)
>He's on the floor, he's in cuffs, you have guns, he's literally zero threat to you.
This was a 6'6" ~222 pound dude and a standout athlete. It took four cops just to attempt to put him in the police car. He was clearly agitated, under the effects of at least one substance, and physically resisting. He was exhibiting symptoms of excited delirium, and everything the officers did was according to protocol to protect both themselves, George, and bystanders.
https://medium.com/@gavrilodavid/why-derek-chauvin-may-get-off-his-murder-charge-2e2ad8d0911 [medium.com]
If you think putting a guy on the floor with cuffs and handguns will protect you, I hope you'll never be anywhere near a situation where you'd learn how wrong you are.
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(Score: 5, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday August 05 2020, @09:54PM (6 children)
Just so you're aware, "excited delirium" is not an actual medical condition. It is something that is used by the police and their apologists to explain away deaths in custody.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday August 06 2020, @12:46AM (1 child)
"Excited delirium" is to the 21st century what "drapetomania" was to the early and mid 19th.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday August 06 2020, @01:00AM
I had to look up drapetomania, and noted that: "Cartwright's article was widely mocked and satirized in the northern United States." which is good.
"Excited delirium" is, as you noted almost exactly the same.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Thursday August 06 2020, @03:34AM (3 children)
No shit, excited delirium is a set of symptoms, much like how vomiting isn't a medical condition but rather a symptom for a medical condition. In this case, excited delirium was a symptom for extreme drug overdose.
Call it whatever you want, but erratic drug-induced behavior poses a real and serious threat to everyone involved. "Excited delirium" (in scare quotes just for you) is an attempt to standardize the diagnosis.
Also, keep in mind that EMTs and police don't have the luxury of treating specific drug overdoses or mental conditions from the comfort of a medical facility. When you're in the field and there's a person who is potentially a threat to themselves and others, you solve that problem first and then get the guy/girl to a hospital ASAP. That problem we have decided to call "Excited delirium". We can call it "happy limb flinging dance" if that pleases you.
I see three options here:
1. Allow cops free reign whenever people behave erratically, letting the definition of "erratic" be fully subjective.
2. Define a rubric for "excited delirium" state, for which cops should act to restrain the people and minimize damage (we are here).
3. Force cops to treat people behaving erratically like normal people, and shrug if it results in collateral damage (alternatively, blame the cops for "not handling it correctly" because cops have the requisite medical training to do so, obviously). It sounds like you're here.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @05:30AM
There is another option:
4. Defund the police to eliminate racism and crime once and for all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @03:26PM
How does any of that imply the correct way to handle it is to prevent the suspect from breathing? "Happy limb flinging dance" my arse. The apologetics keep getting more and more ridiculous.
#4 defund the police keeps coming out as the best alternative.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday August 07 2020, @05:09AM
As Azuma Hazuki noted, drapetomania also is a set of symptoms.
By killing Floyd. The problem wasn't being solved first.