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, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:45AM (6 children)
I too have lived a sheltered life, and had difficulty believing certain things about the police. They did intend to hurt him, and pass it off as deserved. It wasn't an accident. Also, it wasn't an outlier. Cops give free rein to their bigotry and do extrajudicial punishing all the time to members of outsider groups. Been doing it for decades.
Videoing police at work, starting with Rodney King, has finally exposed all the abuse in ways that the cops can't deny, revealing them as liars who will plant weapons and just plain make things up. They tried to stop citizens from being allowed to make video recordings of them in public, and lost big on that one, so big that now the body cam has become standard equipment. They have to be watched all the time.
Police forces have more racist, sexist bigots than the general public. The kind of person inclined to bigotry finds police work attractive. Authoritarians love it, love the idea of being an authority figure. And if all that isn't bad enough, organizations such as the KKK actively encourage their members to become police officers. The police officer who places loyalty to groups such as the KKK above their duty as a police officer is known as a ghostskin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @04:30AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qHmdjvUTaw [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 03 2020, @12:28PM
Agreed, on all points. Intent to kill? I do, honestly, believe that's a step beyond what happened - but, this is from the same perspective as all of the protests and riots: ignorance, incomplete information, video evidence.
Failure to use due care? Absolutely. Insufficient respect for life? To be sure. Intent? Only during early plea bargaining - if they try to prosecute for intent we may have a bigger riot when the jury fails to convict.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 03 2020, @12:32PM (3 children)
The KKK is real, and it still does things. In Gainesville, Florida 2006 they actively targeted Asian homes with red paint graffiti racial slurs in the middle of the night. That's a big step down from the beatings and killings they used to do 40-80 years earlier. There's a saying about Klan meetings today that I also believe to be true: they have more embedded undercover federal agents than they do genuine members.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday June 03 2020, @06:02PM (2 children)
Huh, thought it was only Africans that the KKK hates. But it figures they'd target Asians too. I suppose I should've known.
Might be useful to make a distinction between the sort of cop who likes to swagger about in a uniform, vs undercover ones. The latter have to be a lot savvier, or they would not be able to pull off an infiltration. The former give police forces everywhere a bad name.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 03 2020, @08:26PM
Black skin, slanty eyes, Muslim, Jews, even Catholics - basically anybody not just like them. Shortly after that incident our neighborhood made national television with the idiot pastor who decided to publicize his burning of a Quran on the anniversary of 9-11. He got warmed up by sending a 7 year old parishioner to school in an "Islam is of the Devil" T-shirt - county responded to that with mandatory school uniforms in public school. So glad we left that town.
Anyone who gets their swagger on while wearing a uniform is carrying more than a little insecurity (and fear).
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @09:59AM
Certain white groups that don't fit their Aryan profile.
While they include Irish now, for many years the Irish were as hated as other groups for religious if not ethnic reasons. White supremacists will bolster there numbers with 'white enoughs' until they have purged the overtly non-whits, then begin culling their own herd, whether somewhat non-white or white but not the right white. It's the same thing as 'black pride' until you start looking at the factions based on tribalism or 'black enough' or 'too smart for dat nigga's own good'.
This is why people may need to band together along ethnic grounds to fight for a right, but should never TRUST the other members of said ethnic group, because just as often there is some further divide that will get you stabbed in the back. Tribalism in humans is real and the borders constantly change, no matter your race, religion, creed, or identity politics.