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posted by martyb on Wednesday August 05 2020, @02:17PM   Printer-friendly

[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.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by darkfeline on Wednesday August 05 2020, @06:53PM (3 children)

    by darkfeline (1030) on Wednesday August 05 2020, @06:53PM (#1031884) Homepage

    The entire George Floyd affair is a shitshow from start to finish (er, I guess we're still not finished yet?).

    I went from "George Floyd was absolute scum, but the police should have handled it better" to "the officers were 100% in the right and did everything well given the situation and their available knowledge" after seeing the leaked footage and reading this:

    https://medium.com/@gavrilodavid/why-derek-chauvin-may-get-off-his-murder-charge-2e2ad8d0911 [medium.com]

    The icing on the cake is that the white paper that the police department used as standard protocol for handling this situation even predicted the risk of public outrage:

    "Given the irrational and potentially violent, dangerous, and lethal behavior of an ExDS subject, any LEO interaction with a person in this situation risks significant injury or death to either the LEO or the ExDS subject who has a potentially lethal medical syndrome. This already challenging situation has the potential for intense public scrutiny coupled with the expectation of a perfect outcome. Anything less creates a situation of potential public outrage. Unfortunately, this dangerous medical situation makes perfect outcomes difficult in many circumstances."

    Emphasis mine. I don't think the authors of the white paper could have predicted a national mob causing so much damage though.

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  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @07:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @07:05PM (#1031892)

    It will be finished in November, because the protests are campaign rallies.

  • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @10:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @10:06PM (#1031987)

    Having a protocol, just like "only following orders" supposedly hasn't worked since Nuremberg.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @05:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @05:48PM (#1032362)

    Get fucked fascist scum. The police murder a man in cold blood and you think some rsther petty crimes are justification for it? You won't last long in that new future you dream about.