Roy Exum
The most volatile murder trial in the modern-day history of the United States will begin with opening arguments in Minneapolis, Minn., tomorrow morning and, to tell the honest truth, 10 years ago it wouldn’t amount to a blip on the radar screen. Really. “Did a police officer use so much unnecessary force against a career thug it killed him?”
But, no, the world has changed so much in the last decade you wonder if the planet earth may soon “tilt” on its axis.
Up until now the only place I’ve ever witnessed a ‘tilt’ was in the backroom at Ladd’s Esso. That’s when the big buzzer goes off, the screen blinks “Game Over!” and instead of being on the very brink of $5 crisp, you only got 5 cents, this at a time a Coca-Cola cost a dime.
On May 25th, a huge black man with a lengthy rap sheet and enough fentanyl on board to kill a normal-sized elephant, tried to pass a counterfeit $20 in a Minneapolis suburb of Powderhorn Park. The shop clerk called the police. Floyd was clearly agitated, i.e. drugs, and a bad situation soon went to a very bad situation.
George Floyd, when apprehended, could not breathe. It is believed by medical experts his lungs were filled with fluids due to the drugs he had ingested but no matter; the tapes of MPD officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck infuriated what we are now told is a “woke” nation.
Protests of a white cop allegedly killing a black criminal plunged the nation into “peaceful protest” that left over $2 billion (with a ‘b’) in criminal bedlam in its wake. One woman in Portland stole four high-end Gucci purses she was so mad … thank God no grocery stores were mobbed. Curious, huh?
So now we’ve got a big game. We have the liberal elite bantering the conservatives, blacks flaunting the fact the $27 million in damages the city of Minneapolis awarded George’s family includes a huge statue of George, and Netflix guru Reed Hastings giving Morehouse, Spelman, the United Negro College Fund $120 million in memory of a two-time ex-con is too rich!
Minneapolis has stricken his criminal record to name a street in his honor and murals are being painted on ever blank walls. And, how’s this for a giggle: With a Go-Fund-Me page ($9.5 million in the first five days) as tops in its history, the Floyd family is among the richest in the state!
Nonetheless, the trial, which is anticipated to last four weeks, will be a telling take about America as we know it today, the American justice, the ‘woke’ revival, and any other such drama to keep sociologists, psychologists, criminologists, and those who still eat cornbread infatuated for days.
I wanted to rehash exactly what happened for those who are as infatuated by this slice of life as I am. But, whoa!, what source do you use when you see American journalism so polluted and so sad? Here is the Wikipedia version but, first, here are two tapes from YouTube you may want to watch beforehand:
The Arrest of George Floyd. (Vulgar language alert) This is the short version that shocked all when we saw it on the networks: CLICK HERE.
The Arrest of George Floyd II. (Vulgar language alert) This is the longer 30-minute version that shows the incident via body cam. CLICK HERE.
* * *
THE KILLING OF GEORGE FLOYD
(This account is from Wikipedia)
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, while being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit bill. During the arrest Derek Chauvin, a white police officer with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), knelt on Floyd's neck for approximately eight to nine minutes after he was handcuffed and lying face down.
Two police officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, assisted Chauvin in restraining Floyd, while another officer, Tou Thao, prevented bystanders from interfering with the arrest and intervening as events unfolded.
Floyd had complained about being unable to breathe prior to being on the ground, but after being restrained he became more distressed, and continued to complain about breathing difficulties, the knee on his neck, and expressed the fear he was about to die and called for his mother.
After several minutes passed Floyd stopped speaking. For a further two minutes, he lay motionless and officer Kueng found no pulse when urged to check. Despite this, Chauvin refused pleas to lift his knee until medics told him to.
The following day, after videos made by witnesses and security cameras became public, all four officers were dismissed. Two autopsies found Floyd's death to be a homicide. Chauvin is charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.
Kueng, Lane, and Thao are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. Chauvin's trial began on March 8, 2021 This is for judicial proceedings, jury select and like reasons; Officially, opening remarks will begin tomorrow morning, while the trial of the other three officers is scheduled to begin August 23, 2021.
Floyd's death has since then spawned worldwide protests against police brutality, police racism, and lack of police accountability. In early June, the Minneapolis City Council voted an intent to restructure the police department as a "new community-based system of public safety"
However, the city council's proposal, which became subject to an indefinite review by the Minneapolis City Charter Commission, failed to make the 2020 general ballot.
The Minneapolis Police Chief cancelled contract negotiations with the police union and announced plans to bring in outside experts to examine how the union contract can be restructured to provide transparency and "flexibility for true reform".
* * *
THE PEOPLE WHO ARE INVOLVED
George Perry Floyd was a black American born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and raised in the Third Ward of Houston, Texas. In 2014, he moved to the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. He resided in the nearby suburb of St. Louis Park, and was a frequent customer at the Cup Foods convenience store in Powderhorn Park, Minneapolis.
Derek Chauvin is a white American, and was a 44-year-old police officer in the Minneapolis Police Department. He had served in the department since 2001. Chauvin and Floyd sometimes worked overlapping shifts as security guards for a local nightclub, but the club's former owner was unsure of the extent to which they knew each other.
Tou Thao is a Hmong-American, who was aged 34 at the time of Floyd's death and started as a part-time community service officer in 2008. He graduated from the police academy in 2009. After a two-year layoff, he resumed work for the police in 2012. Six complaints had been filed against Thao, none resulting in disciplinary action.
In 2014, a man claimed Thao handcuffed him without cause, threw him to the ground, and punched, kicked, and kneed him; the man's teeth were broken and he was hospitalized. The resulting lawsuit was settled for $25,000.
* * *
J. ALEXANDER KUENG (aged 26) and THOMAS LANE (aged 37) were licensed as law enforcement officers in August 2019. Kueng is of mixed races, and identifies as African American, and Lane is white. They had trained together. Chauvin was the superior officer responsible for the majority of Kueng's field training.
On May 3, 2020, video of an arrest incident in Minneapolis showed Chauvin, Kueng, Lane, and another officer roughly detaining a man on the ground as bystanders pleaded for the officers to show mercy.
Kueng and Lane were with Chauvin as the day was part of their field training. The man, who they detained wrongfully, said he had trouble breathing, and the incident was later said to be similar to the arrest of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.
Kueng and Lane were in their first week as Minneapolis police officers when Floyd was killed.
* * *
THE ARRESTS AND DEATH
On the evening of May 25, 2020, at about 8:00 pm, Floyd purchased cigarettes at Cup Foods, a grocery store at the intersection of East 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.
A store employee believed Floyd had paid with a counterfeit $20 bill. Employees of the store approached Floyd while he was in his vehicle and demanded that Floyd return the cigarettes; he refused.
A store employee called the police to report that Floyd had passed "fake bills", was "awfully drunk", and "not in control of himself.” The interaction between Floyd and the employees was recorded by the restaurant's security camera.
At 8:08, Kueng and Lane arrived, briefly entering Cup Foods before crossing the street to Floyd's SUV. Lane tapped his flashlight on the window, startling Floyd. He asked Floyd to show his hands, and tapped again when he did not obey. Floyd apologized as he opened the car door.
Lane instructed him three more times to show his hands. Six seconds after the door opened, he drew his gun and ordered Floyd to show his hands. When Floyd complied, Lane holstered his weapon. Someone parked behind Floyd's SUV began recording a video at 8:10.
Following a brief struggle, Lane pulled Floyd from the SUV and handcuffed him. Kueng sat Floyd on the sidewalk against the wall in front of the restaurant. Lane asked Floyd if he is "on something right now," and Floyd replied, "No, nothing".
Kueng told Floyd he was acting "real erratic" and Floyd said that he was scared. Kueng asked Floyd about foam around his mouth, to which Floyd responded that he had been "hooping" (playing basketball) earlier. Floyd then said he was calming down, and remarked, "I'm feeling better now."
At 8:13 p.m., Kueng and Lane told Floyd he was under arrest and walked him to their police car across the street. Floyd fell to the ground next to the car; the officers picked him up and placed him against the car's door. Floyd told the officers that he was not resisting, but that he was recovering from COVID-19, that he was claustrophobic and had anxiety, and that he did not want to sit in the car.
While Kueng and Lane attempted to put him in the car, Floyd begged them not to, repeatedly saying "I can't breathe" and offering to lie on the ground instead. A Minneapolis Park Police officer arrived and guarded Floyd's vehicle (across the street by the restaurant) and the two people who had been in it with Floyd.
At 8:17, Chauvin and Thao arrived in a third police car joining Kueng and Lane, with Chauvin assuming command. He asked if Floyd was going to jail, and Kueng replied that he was arrested for forgery. Floyd said "I can't f***ing breathe" twice.
Around 8:18, security footage from Cup Foods shows Kueng struggling with Floyd for at least a minute in the driver side backseat while Thao watches. According to The New York Times, at 8:19, Chauvin pulled Floyd across the backseat from the driver side to the passenger side.
Then, according to NPR, Floyd exited the vehicle, either pulled out by police or willingly. Still handcuffed, he fell to the pavement.
* * *
CHAUVIN KNEELS ON FLOYD’S NECK
While Floyd lay on his chest with his cheek to the ground, Chauvin knelt on his neck. Floyd stopped moving around 8:20, though he was still conscious. Multiple witnesses began to film the encounter, and their videos were circulated widely on the internet. At 8:20, a witness across the street began recording video showing Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck, Kueng applying pressure to Floyd's torso, and Lane applying pressure to Floyd's legs, while Thao stood nearby.
This witness stopped filming when one of the officers ordered him to leave. Also at 8:20, a second person, standing near the entrance of Cup Foods, began recording the incident. Floyd can be heard repeatedly saying "I can't breathe", "Please", and "Mama"; Lane then asked for an ambulance for Floyd, "for one bleeding from the mouth". Floyd repeated at least 16 times that he could not breathe.
At one point a witness said: "You got him down. Let him breathe." After Floyd said, "I'm about to die", Chauvin told him to "relax".
An officer asked Floyd, "What do you want?"; Floyd answered, "I can't breathe". Floyd said, "Please, the knee in my neck, I can't breathe."
At approximately 8:22, the officers called for an ambulance on a non-emergency basis, escalating the call to emergency status a minute later. Chauvin continued to kneel on Floyd's neck.
A passerby yelled to Floyd, "Well, get up, get in the car, man", and Floyd, still handcuffed and face down on the pavement, responded, "I can't", while Chauvin's knee remained on his neck. Floyd cried out "Mama!" twice.
Floyd said, "My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts", requested water, and begged, "Don't kill me." One witness pointed out that Floyd was bleeding from the nose. Another told the officers that Floyd was "not even resisting arrest right now".
Thao countered that Floyd was "talking, he's fine"; a witness replied that Floyd "ain't fine ... Get him off the ground ... You could have put him in the car by now. He's not resisting arrest or nothing. You're enjoying it. Look at you. Your body language explains it."
As Floyd continued to cry for help, Thao said to witnesses: "This is why you don't do drugs, kids."
By 8:25, Floyd appeared unconscious, and bystanders confronted the officers about Floyd's condition. Chauvin pulled out mace to keep bystanders away as Thao moved between them and Chauvin.
Bystanders repeatedly yelled that Floyd was "not responsive right now" and urged the officers to check his pulse. Kueng checked Floyd's wrist but found no pulse; the officers did not attempt to provide Floyd with medical assistance.
According to the criminal complaint against Chauvin, Lane asked Chauvin twice if they should move Floyd onto his side, and Chauvin said no.
* * *
MEDICAL RESPONSE & DEATH
At 8:27 p.m., a Hennepin County ambulance arrived. Shortly thereafter, a young relative of the owner of Cup Foods attempted to intervene, but was pushed back by Thao. Emergency medical technicians checked Floyd's pulse. Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for almost a minute after the ambulance arrived, despite Floyd being silent and motionless.
Prosecutors said that Chauvin's knee was on Floyd's neck for seven minutes and 46 seconds.
Around 8:29, Floyd was lifted by paramedics onto a stretcher, then loaded into an ambulance. Lane boarded the ambulance and checked Floyd's pulse at his neck, and a medic instructed him to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
A medical device was placed on Floyd's chest to provide mechanical chest compressions, and the ambulance departed for Hennepin County Medical Center.
En route, the ambulance requested assistance from the Minneapolis Fire Department. At 8:32, firefighters arrived at Cup Foods; according to their report, the police officers gave no clear information regarding Floyd's condition or whereabouts, which delayed their ability to find the ambulance.
Meanwhile, the ambulance reported that Floyd was entering cardiac arrest and again requested assistance, asking firefighters to meet them at the corner of 36th Street and Park Avenue. Five minutes later, the fire department reached the ambulance; two fire department medics who boarded the ambulance found Floyd unresponsive and pulseless.
Floyd was pronounced dead at 9:25 at the Hennepin County Medical Center emergency room.
* * *
INVESTIGATIONS & CRIMINAL CHARGES
Early on May 26, the Minneapolis Police Department issued a statement which said nothing about Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck: "After Floyd got out (of his car), he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress."
Hours later, witness and security camera video circulating on the internet showed Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck. The department updated its statement by stating that new information had "been made available" and that the FBI was joining the investigation.
The four officers were briefly placed on paid administrative leave before being fired later that day. On June 17 the Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training took up a review of the four officers' law enforcement licenses.
* * *
AUTOPSIES
Two sets of autopsy results publicized on June 1, 2020, determined that Floyd's death was a homicide. The conclusions, one by a local government official and one by doctors working for Floyd's family, differed over whether there were contributing factors, and whether the agreed cause, restraint and neck compression, was combined with subdual or asphyxiation.
Andrew Baker, a pathologist and the chief medical examiner for Hennepin County since 2004, performed an autopsy examination at 9:25 a.m. on May 26.
Prosecutors who were filing charges against Chauvin summarized portions of preliminary findings in court documents that were released publicly on May 29.
His final autopsy findings, issued June 1, found that Floyd's heart stopped while he was being restrained and that his death was a homicide caused by "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression".
Fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use may have increased the likelihood of death. Other significant conditions were arteriosclerotic heart disease and hypertensive heart disease, including an enlarged heart, one artery 90 percent blocked, and two others 75 percent narrowed.
The report states that on April 3 Floyd had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but does not list it as a fatal or other significant condition.
Attorneys for Floyd's family announced on May 29 that they would commission a second autopsy. It was carried out on May 31 by Michael Baden, a pathologist and former New York City chief medical examiner, and by Allecia Wilson, a pathologist and director of autopsy and forensic services at the University of Michigan Medical School.
They announced their results on June 1, a few hours before Baker's final findings were issued. From the evidence available to them, which did not include a toxicology report or unspecified bodily samples, they found that Floyd's death was a homicide caused by asphyxia due to neck and back compression.
Also, Floyd had no underlying medical problem that contributed to his death. They said neck compression affected blood flow to the brain, being able to speak does not mean that someone is able to breathe and Floyd apparently died at the scene.
(For more information, go to Wikipedia and search: The Death of George Floyd.)
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