[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 janrinok on Wednesday August 05 2020, @06:06PM (7 children)
Did Floyd know it was a fake note? Has any evidence to prove that he knew that it was fake been provided yet? How do you know that it was the same note that Floyd offered to the store-keeper and not one that the store-keeper wanted to pass on so that he wouldn't be out of pocket? Were there any other fake notes in the till? Did anyone check?
There is a reason that we have a legal system, and an important part of that system is that people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, no matter what crimes he may have previously committed. He might be guilty as hell, but that is what the courts are for.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @06:54PM (6 children)
"Between 1997 and 2005, he was convicted of eight crimes; in 2009, he accepted a plea bargain for a 2007 aggravated robbery, serving four years in prison.". I guess there is a possibility that those were also committed by people that found him a convenient scapegoat to blame their own actions on...
There's too many people in the black community that have a lackadaisical attitude to crime / don't think further than the end of their nose to make a quick buck at someone else's expense and well-being. Near here, a cop got dragged through the dirt for shooting a black teenager making a run for it - who moments before had sprayed another man with gunfire riding in a jitney. Most normal thing in the world, having a cabbie take you to kill someone on the street, then ride back home. No word in the media about the victim there, who almost lost his life. When I hear "black lives matter", my heart is with the black victims of daily crime.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @07:25PM (5 children)
Did the cops have that information when they made the arrest? Show me the part in the video where someone announces Floyd's complete criminal history and the cops build a psychological profile of him before making the arrest.
All they knew was that he was some random black guy and they killed him over $20 they didn't even have proof he knew was fake.
This is just like the Erik Garner case - killing a guy for selling cigarettes illegally? Really? What's next, raiding the Girl Scouts' lemonade stands - but only if the girls are black?
The police absolutely should be going after the muggers, the rapists, the armed robbers, and the murderers. But lethal force for petty theft makes the police the villains. I don't care if George Floyd was a criminal mastermind that spent 6 million in forged currency, until he attacked someone he didn't deserve lethal force.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 05 2020, @11:45PM (1 child)
Moron... Girl Scouts doesn't allow blacks or wetbaX.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @03:24AM
They do hunt down shitheads when they get older and qualify for a huntress badge. I'd watch out the next time you buy some cookies if I were you.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday August 06 2020, @01:00AM (2 children)
Unless they knew [newsone.com] otherwise.
One of the things missed here is that Chauvin might not only have had a motive for murdering Floyd, but planned it, say to remove from the picture an erratic person who threatened some illicit scheme the cops had going. That moves things from a random killing to first degree murder.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @01:43AM (1 child)
So a massive police conspiracy is more plausible then him dying by mistake due to stress, a heart condition and a large amount of drugs in his system and years of drug usage?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday August 06 2020, @02:05AM
Yes, because your explanation doesn't cover why Chauvin killed him. What exactly was Chauvin waiting for that took that long?