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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:32PM (7 children)
But I didn't hear/read it in the news. I watched the surveillance and bystander video and came to my own conclusions. Everything I said is verifiable and correct.
But don't believe *me* either. Watch the video.
Or are you claiming that the video has been altered or manipulated?
I said:
How is that an ad hominem attack? Or any sort of attack for that matter?
Or is it just that if I disagree, then it's an attack?
Are you going to accuse me of "attacking" you now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:39PM (2 children)
Quite interesting the slant I keep seeing from the staff and more prolific posters.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:48PM
And what, exactly was the "vitriol" I spewed? Go ahead. Amuse me.
Even better, what might that slant be? That ought to be good. Do tell.
As for lecturing from "long time users", the one in question specializes in getting butthurt when someone disagrees with them. The funniest part is that in getting all butthurt, he does all the things he claims his target is doing. it's rather sad, actually.
But hey, it takes all kinds and I try not to judge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:55PM
I heartily disagree. With the exception of Eth (who we mostly just mod down unless he's posting sober -- which is scarier, but usually a bit more coherent), each and every one of those users gets "lectured" by long term users pretty much every day.
Hell, that may be SN's most popular sport. And when Azuma or Ari get going, they really let 'em have it!
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday June 03 2020, @05:11PM (3 children)
I'm sorry, I stand corrected. That video shows EVERYTHING there is to know about the situation.
Look, I've said and written many times that I agree- the video shows the cop completely disregarding Floyd's well-being and very life itself. It's OBVIOUS, right?
You're ranting at me as if I'm in defense of the cop. I've said for 30+ years that cops are out of control in the US.
Cop must go to prison. The question is, for how long? And much more importantly, what's causing this? What was the backstory in this case, including the culture in the police world? Maybe they watch too many cop shows? Maybe too much bravado? I'm just as angry as all the protesters (not looters / arsonists) about police brutality and that nothing seems to be changing.
This is why I hate AC and would disable it if I was admin. There's at least 1 of you, and I suspect it's YOU, who has no LOGIC in their head. You take a piece of something and extrapolate it to the whole thing. Not enough of a psychologist to diagnose you, but ego is part of it.
This is a waste of time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2020, @03:12AM
I said:
That's a 'rant'? Please.
On the other hand, *you* said:
Compare the two:
I didn't call you any names. I gave you specific details about where my information came from and encouraged you to use that information to draw your own conclusions, as I did. Not one word that I wrote was derogatory of you or anyone else.
*You* called *me* asinine, a "desperate fool" and falsely claimed that I'm engaging in ad hominem aytacks.
The above isn't an attack either. I merely placed our respective statements next to each other and made some observations.
If you disagree with those observations, I'd love to hear your argument.
What's more Joe Merchant said:
The first statement isn't a fact -- It's an opinion -- which doesn't match the facts. I *never* said this was premeditated. In fact, I said *several times* in several different posts that premeditation was completely unlikely. I did say it was intentional.. That's absolutely clear from the video. Although I suppose some might disagree. But either way, that's opinion, not fact.
The second statement is also opinion. Again, people may disagree, but it's not a fact. A fact is something verifiable, like your blood type, your birthday, etc. As is the third.
So. You call opinion facts.
You then say I'm engaging in ad hominem attacks. Please, do define an 'ad hominem' attack for us and provide the specific text of my comment that fits the bill. Good luck with that.
You then claim I'm ranting at you? Hmm...let's see now:
Rant (n):
Please do help us understand how explaining how I obtained information and drew my own conclusions, then suggesting that you not even trust what I'm saying and see for yourself, is "ranting."
I didn't call *anyone* names. I didn't make defamatory remarks. I didn't even use strong language.
Look a the definition of 'rant' above. Your comments to me are much more like that definition than *anything* I said.
For reasons that will be obvious from this [youtu.be], I'm going to call you Pinback from now on.
Have a good night, Pinback. I sincerely hope you and your family are safe and healthy. Am I allowed to say that? Or is that a 'rant' or an 'attack'?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2020, @03:18PM
No Sergeant Pinback [youtu.be]. You hate AC posts because you can't mod-bomb ACs when you get butthurt because someone disagrees with you.
Maybe if you ask NCommander real nicely, he'll sell you the site. You could totally make this site exactly what you want it to be then.
Although, given your history, you'd likely end up the only active user, once you've driven everyone else away.
You go girlfriend!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 05 2020, @10:15AM
We don't need another authoritarian asshole place like that. Slashdot already jumped that shark. Anonymous Cowards are nice for a lot of fucking reasons (some of us don't like logging in, others don't want all our comments correlated by the government, etc.)
If you think having AC turned off is a good idea, then you DON'T BELONG HERE.
Good riddance you fucking pro-authoritarian fascist.
Now if TMB comes out in support of disabling ACs, then we might need to have a different discussion. @TheMightyBuzzard; Care to comment?