Unlawful KIlling or Accidental Death
From the very begiining I have taken a particular interest in the George Floyd situation for a number of reasons not least because it blew up into an international issue, launching BLM and causing rioting and damage not only in American cities but even in London.
I came under criticism for not immediately condemning the ‘murder’ and accepting the whole BLM narrative.
The issue of whether Floyd was intentionally killed, accidentally killed or died from other causes than the polive officer’s actions is of vital importance.
To globally condemn a Police officer before trial was shocking and to use terms such as “brutally killed” was out of order until proven.
Many comments I was reading suggested that the whole thing was done and dusted and obvious. However having watched a long section of bodycam video released fairly soon after the incident, I wasn’t buying the narrative of murder. Floyd was clearly on drugs and behaving extremely stangely. So although anyone’s death is a tragedy for them and their family we should also have concern for the Police officers and their families if falsely accused.
On the one hand we have the medical examiner who performed the autopsy of the 46-year-old saying the police’s restraint of George Floyd was more than he “could take” given the condition of his heart. Dr Andrew Baker, said the police officers’ compression of Mr Floyd’s neck and the restraint of his body were the primary causes of his death.
On the other hand, Barry Brodd, a former Santa Rosa, California police officer was called to the stand. He said that officers do not have to wait for something bad to happen; they need only to have a reasonable fear that there’s a threat and then act accordingly. I quote, “It’s easy to sit and judge ….. an officer’s conduct. It’s more of a challenge to put yourself in the officer’s shoes to try to make an evaluation through what they’re feeling, what they’re sensing, the fear they have, and then make a determination“, Mr Brodd said.
It struck me from the very start that the call for backup and the presence of four officers suggests that there was a fear that the arrest presented a risk to the officers’ personal safety. On CCTV Floyd’s behaviour can clearly be seen to be erratic, even bizarre. He was a big man and if under the influence of drugs, which seems pretty certain, he would have been capable of abnormal strength.
Brodd went on to say that he did not believe Mr Chauvin and the other officers used deadly force when they pinned Mr Floyd on his stomach, with his hands cuffed behind his back and Chauvin’s knee on his neck or neck area for what prosecutors say was 9 1/2 minutes.
Several top Minneapolis police officials, including the police chief, have testified that Chauvin used excessive force and violated his training. And medical experts called by prosecutors have testified that Mr Floyd died from a lack of oxygen because of the way he was restrained. But Brodd said: “I felt that Officer Chauvin’s interactions with Mr. Floyd were following his training, following current practices in policing and were objectively reasonable.”
Mr Chauvin’s lawyer suggested that George Floyd may have suffered from “excited delirium“, or what a witness described as a potentially lethal state of agitation and even superhuman strength that can be triggered by drug use.
Defense attorney Eric Nelson, called to the stand Nicole Mackenzie, a Minneapolis police training officer, to expound on the condition. Mackenzie testified that incoming officers are told how to recognize the signs of excited delirium: Suspects may be incoherent, exhibit extraordinary strength, be sweaty or suffering from abnormally low body temperature, or seem like they suddenly snapped. Officers are told that cardiovascular disease, illegal drug use or mental problems can trigger excited delirium, she said.
She said officers are also trained to put a suspect in a recovery position and to call paramedics, because a person can rapidly go into cardiac arrest.
Another witness confirmed that Floyd panicked and cried over and over, “Please, please, don’t kill me!” when officers first approached his SUV at gunpoint on the day of his death. The defense attorney brought out a 2019 arrest in which Floyd suffered from dangerously high blood pressure and confessed to heavy use of opioids.
My original post re George Floyd is here.
Update April 21st 2021, even as Chauvin is given 40 years for murder there is talk of an unfair trial, witness intimidation and a possible Supreme Court overrule.
I’m writing this addition in May 2022
Before I say anything else I must emphasise that I see America as a highly divided society where, although in theory anyone can make something of their lives if they put effort into their education, etc. etc., in practice where you are born, your family situation and your racial heritage, whether caucasian, latino, first nation, asian or black plays a huge part in determining your life’s prospects.
The ripples of BLM are still with us and recent developments have only served to underscore my original thinking that the death of George Floyd was used to stir up racial hatred and violence. The riots and violence that ensued were quite disproportionate to the evnt that they puported to be demonstrating against. It was very much a blue touch paper moment.
However I strongly believe that the ensuing trial was predestined to find the officer guilty of murder, rather than accidental death, manslaughter, death by misadventure, or anyting else. He was in effect scape-goated for the societal sins of America.
This arrest was odd in that the officer’s used minimum violence as the full bodycam footage shows. But the knee on the neck undeniably inevitably caused his death. Throughout the officers are very calm and controlled. Even when they were sure he was dead. No shock. No surprise. It is very strange.
George has committed a crime. When approached by the officers he is, from the get go, clearly under the influence of something. His distressed attitude is bizarre. Also from the very start he resists arrest. Resists and resists and resists. The officers are heard trying to reason with him and treat him quite kindly and respectfully.
When first approached he is sitting in his own very small car. When they try to put him in the patrol car he complains that he is claustrophobic. He is highly agitated, won’t simply sit down. It is at this point that he starts to complain that he can’t breathe. Now is that an anxiety attack, the effect of the cocktail of drugs in his system, or something else?
He climbs right through the patrol car and out into the road. The officers try to get him back in the car for the second time and in the end give up and get him face down onto the ground. Again he starts “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe“. No knee, no real restraint. He already has a breathing problem.
He starts calling “Mumma“, then says,”my stomach hurts, my neck hurts”. After a couple of minutes he quietens down. It is at this point that out of camera shot one assumes that the officer has his knee on George’s throat. Bystanders are haranging the officers and at least once suggest that George can’t breathe, has stopped resisting arrest, one is heard to say get him up.