taken to the ground?
I am not alleging that noncompliance did or did not happen, I do not know because I wasn’t there. I am just stating that I’m not aware of when, how or why it took place.
I have, however, seen the footage from the security camera mounted high on the building that shows the point where George Floyd was already handcuffEd behind his back and being led by one male police officer. George Floyd appeared to be 100% compliant with the police officer(s) at that point. The next videos are apparently by cellphones/smartphones taken at street level from at least two different angles showing George Floyd still handcuffed behind his back, facedown on the ground with Chauvin kneeling on his neck. Bystanders are verbally interacting with the officer(s), Floyd is begging for Chauvin to get off of his neck, Chauvin calmly has a hand in his trouser pocket and appears to be patiently awaiting something as he slowly presses the life out of Floyd.
Where did it all go wrong, if any of you know?
You and I agree on these points, thank you.
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Thank you for that extra information. Being brand new in the job (or on the streets), I know there was an intimidation factor at play. Chauvin had 19 years in on the force, of if media sources have reported it correctly.
I can see it now: “No danged 4-day rookie is going to either tell me what to do or disobey my lead. Now sit on him and stay on him until you’re told to get off, and keep your opinions to yourself. I know what I’m doing . . . ”
On Systemic Abuse and Compliance with Bosses.
Back when I was a rookie aged care nurse, I was asked to put pressure on a demented old woman to eat a sugary sweet of icecream, fruit-flavored-gelatin, and custard. I tried with very pleasant encouragements, as one would with a baby who cannot yet handle a spoon. But after a few mouthfuls, the woman was in tears and I was too.
I stopped, got up from the table and went to inform the ward's duty nurse, who rather nastily told be to go back and do what I was told. I refused and went to the DDON (Deputy Director of Nursing - the boss).
The DDON told me the following. The woman's husband was worried that she was losing weight from not eating enough, adn so I must go back and continue to get that woman to eat, and not to worry if she was crying because it was only the effects of the dementia.
The DDON did not say that for the aged care home, one of the BUPA group, the husband's instructions outweighed his wife's wishes because he paid the fees.
The old woman's personal file said she had diabetes. She had a waist circumference three times larger than her hips; it was a legal duty of the nursing home to ensure that the woman had no simple sugars or carbohydrates in her diet, which they were not doing.
Yet neither her health condition nor her husband's wishes had any bearing on the matter because the law states that it is illegal to force or pressure someone to eat against their will even if they have dementia and don't know the consequences of their choice.
As a rookie, I refused to continue to pressure her against her will and said I'd rather be sacked than cause such distress. I left and went home.
That night, I had a call - would I please come back to work if they agreed to transfer me to the non-dementia wards? I agreed. I was never again asked to feed a resident against his or her will.
Most of us know about those barbaric old psychology experiments which proved that 99% of people can be coerced by an authority into giving what they believe are "therapeutic" electric shocks even up to and including knowingly using a lethal charge. The policeman rookie in Minnesota was evidently one of the 99%.
Which that means that the education, culture and supervision of police needs to change from the top down. When one takes into account the statistics for police murders of unresisting arrestees and particularly the excessively far larger proportions of black people thus murdered, it means it is the system that is at fault.
Nothing I've seen on the news has ever suggested that George Floyd ever did anything do deserve being arrested, and nothing has ever suggested or shown that he resisted. On the contrary, all footage shows that he never resisted. It seems unlikely to me that he did anything wrong. Some footage I saw said that he had come to the town in order to visit a particular church where he wanted to repent about something.
There was no indication that he'd committed any crime.
But although Floyd's innocence and passivity makes the murder far more brutal and shocking - it is actually irrelevant. Even if he had been guilty and resisting, the policeman still had no right to suffocate him. The policeman has no right to be judge and jury to execute a lynching. If he believes he must arrest someone, his duty is to do it in a civil and polite way and to respect the prisoner as having a right to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Even if a person resists arrest, the policeman is permitted only as much force as is necessary to make the arrest. If the person shows no resistance, there is no reason to cause any kind of harm.
So this particular crime has been abhorrent on every moral and legal level possible.
This post was edited by inky at June 8, 2020 7:58 PM MDT
Extremely well written, thank you very much! I especially liked this part:
But although Floyd's innocence and passivity makes the murder far more brutal and shocking - it is actually irrelevant. Even if he had been guilty and resisting, the policeman still had no right to suffocate him.
It is an officer’s duty to DE-ESCALATE in direct proportion to the situation and circumstances at hand. Escalation is also authorized by both regulations and by law, but it is also based on direct proportion to the situation and circumstances at hand. If a person acts in a way to obstruct the officers in their legal and sworn duties, resists the officers in performing an arrest, endangers any person with bodily harm or death, etc., etc., etc., then officers have the legal power and authority to apply the minimal use of force tactics that are taught in the training which can end the threat. The officers themselves are not authorized to escalate a situation for any reason or at any time. Once the threat no longer exists, the officers must de-escalate their tactics once again to the minimal level available and necessary. Any tactic or tool that is not part of the authorized training and equipment cannot be used UNLESS the situation or circumstances dictate the regulatory methods and/equipment have been used and have failed or are not available AND loss of life is imminent.
You have a good point, and that’s exactly why I pose this question.
Regardless of what lead to Floyd being taken down IN HANDCUFFS BEHIND HIS BACK and being facedown on the ground with multiple police officers holding him down for over eight minutes, one of them with a knee pressing the majority of his (the officer’s) body weight into the neck, how can any additional video or audio footage justify the murder?
SpunkySenior 