"Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction."
That was the headline of a Minneapolis Police press release on May 25, 2020, in the hours after an unnamed man in his 40s died. Absent from the nearly 200-word post is any mention of officers restraining him on the ground, a knee on his neck, or any sense of how long this "interaction" lasted.
Thanks to video from a 17-year-old bystander, we now know what really happened: Former police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by using excessive and unreasonable force when he kneeled on Floyd's neck and back for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. Chauvin was convicted Tuesday on two counts of murder and a count of manslaughter in a Minnesota criminal court.
In light of his conviction, that original press release is worth revisiting to understand the ways that police statements can hide the truth with a mix of passive language, blatant omissions and mangled sense of timing.
… that original press release … begins by saying that Minneapolis Police officers responded to a report of a "forgery in progress," and notes that the suspect "appeared to be under the influence."
"Two officers arrived and located the suspect, a male believed to be in his 40s, in his car. He was ordered to step from his car. After he got out, he physically resisted officers. Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Officers called for an ambulance. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center by ambulance where he died a short time later.
"At no time were weapons of any type used by anyone involved in this incident. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has been called in to investigate this incident at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department.
"No officers were injured in the incident. Body worn cameras were on and activated during this incident."
…
Everything in the police post is, technically speaking, true.
The police were responding to report of a man using a suspected counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd was under the influence of fentanyl and methamphetamine at the time, according to a toxicology report. He did physically resist officers when they tried to get him into the squad car. They were able to get him into handcuffs.
The officers did notice he appeared to be in medical distress, and they did call for an ambulance. No weapons were "used," at least in the sense that they did not shoot him or beat him with a weapon.
But taken together, the post is deeply misleading and works to obscure the officers' role in his death.
It flips the timing of the handcuffing, hiding the fact that Floyd was in handcuffs nearly from the start of their interaction.
It notes that he was put in handcuffs and "suffering medical distress" in the same sentence, even though they occurred about 20 minutes apart. Most importantly, it ignores what police did in between those two events.
There is no mention that police restrained him in a prone position on the ground or that Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck. It does not mention that Chauvin remained in that position for an extended period – 9 minutes and 29 seconds. It does not mention that Floyd repeatedly said "I can't breathe" and called for his "mama" before he lost consciousness, stopped breathing and lost his pulse. It does not state that Chauvin stayed on his neck until paramedics motioned for him to get up off Floyd's limp body.
It also does not mention that former officer Thomas Lane pointed his gun at Floyd while he was in his vehicle, which can be interpreted as "using" a weapon.
We know the truth of all of this because of a remarkable amount of video showing what really happened that day.
The 17-year-old, Darnella Frazier, posted her video to Facebook, which was seen by people across the world, including the Minneapolis Police chief. Genevieve Hansen, an off-duty firefighter who was rebuffed from rendering aid to Floyd, also filmed parts of the scene from a slightly different angle. Another high school student used her friend's phone to film the incident, she testified.
A city surveillance camera from across the street showed the restraint of Floyd from a distance. A 911 dispatcher who watched the live feed of that video called her supervisor to voice her concerns about what she had seen. Other videos from inside the Cup Foods store, outside a Chinese restaurant and from a bystander in his car showed what happened prior to the fatal restraint.
Finally, three of the officers’ body cameras showed their extended interactions with Floyd up close. Chauvin's camera fell underneath the squad car prior to the restraint so does not show everything, but it reveals his arrival to the scene and his attempt to defend his actions afterward (Levenson 1-3).
[Paste the following New York Times produced video on Google to hear and see the details of Floyd’s arrest and murder]
Video:
How George Floyd Was Killed in Police Custody
Upon first learning a man had been hospitalized while in police custody, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo alerted the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and called the mayor, he testified in Chauvin's trial. He then watched video of the arrest from a city camera across the street, but nothing jumped out about it, he testified.
Around midnight, a communications member contacted him to show him Frazier's bystander video, giving the chief an up-close view of the incident, he testified.
The Minneapolis Police Department fired all four officers involved the next day.
On May 26, as Frazier's video went viral and sparked widespread outrage, the Minneapolis Police press release was updated with another vague line: "As additional information has been made available, it has been determined that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (sic) will be a part of this investigation."
Chauvin was arrested and charged with murder on May 29, and the three other officers were arrested and charged with aiding and abetting on June 3. They have pleaded not guilty and are expected to stand trial this summer (Levenson 4)
Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer currently on trial for the killing of George Floyd, is an all-too familiar type: a bully with a badge and gun. During his 19 years as an officer, Chauvin was the subject of a score of misconduct complaints. He kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes not because he had to, but because he could.
That the world contains sadistic, racist bullies isn’t breaking news. But, while the national media understandably puts a spotlight on Chauvin, we should not forget that three other Minneapolis police officers were also on the scene that day last May: Officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng. Their sheer passivity was, in some ways, more stunning than Chauvin’s casual cruelty. They all stood by and watched as Chauvin pressed Floyd’s face into the ground and as Floyd’s pleas for help grew increasingly desperate. Ultimately, they stood by and watched him die.
…
American police departments urgently need to implement high-quality active bystandership training programs to reduce this kind of deadly passivity. These programs can’t turn sadistic bullies into compassionate protectors, and they can’t address the deep structural problems that plague American policing. But, by giving ordinary officers concrete skills to step in to prevent abuses, such training can save lives.
Officers Thao, Lane and Kueng offer a perfect example of what psychologists call “the bystander effect.” They were paralyzed by the powerful social forces that too often operate to prevent even decent people from taking action to halt abuses.
Although Officer Thao was a nine-year police department veteran with several prior misconduct complaints of his own, Lane and Kueng were unjaded rookies, each less than a week out of field training, and they were perceived by their peers as caring, idealistic young officers. Kueng, one of just 80 Black officers in a department of 900, had joined the Minneapolis police because he hoped an increasingly diverse force would reduce police racism and aggression toward people of color. Lane, who tutored Somali children in his spare time, was known for his calmness and his ability to defuse tense situations. Both had received instructions at the police academy about the dangers of using bodyweight to keep a suspect in a prone position for an extended period.
So why did neither man intervene when it became clear that Floyd was struggling to breathe? …
…
Chauvin was the most experienced officer on the scene, and the less experienced officers deferred to his judgment; Chauvin was insistent about keeping Floyd on the ground and indicated that he was taking steps to keep Floyd alive, creating, for the other officers, a degree of ambiguity about whether Chauvin’s actions were inappropriate. Each of the three officers could see that none of his colleagues was intervening to stop Chauvin, thus diffusing responsibility for any bad outcomes. Finally, differences of class, race and culture might have allowed the officers to view Floyd as “other,” rather than as someone they felt obligated to help.
…
… Video footage of Floyd’s death suggests Lane was uneasy about Chauvin’s actions. At one point, he suggested rolling Floyd onto his side. When Chauvin refused, Lane offered a vague expression of concern for Floyd’s health, but when Chauvin snapped, “[That’s] why we got the ambulance coming,” Lane backed down. A little later, Lane noted that Floyd appeared to be “passing out” and asked once more if Floyd should be rolled over — but again, he didn’t persist when Chauvin ignored him (Brooks 1-4).
If not for Darnella Frazier's quick thinking, Derek Chauvin might still be a Minneapolis police officer.
Instead, Chauvin is behind bars, convicted of two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter after kneeling on George Floyd's neck for more than 9 minutes.
Now the teen who stood firm, capturing the longest and clearest bystander video of George Floyd's final moments, is overcome with emotion and praise after Chauvin's convictions Tuesday.
"I just cried so hard," Frazier posted on Facebook.
Darnella Frazier, third from right, recorded Chauvin's murder of Floyd next to her 9-year-old cousin.
…
Frazier kept filming despite the agony of watching Floyd's life slip away.
"I heard George Floyd saying, 'I can't breathe, please, get off of me' ... and crying for his mom," Frazier testified in court. "He was in pain. It seemed like he knew it was over for him."
…
Frazier, who is now 18, replied to the thousands of people who thanked her on Facebook.
"I can't reply to all of your beautiful comments as I wish to, but THANK YOU all of you," she wrote. "The support I had since day one carried me a long way so thank you again" (Yan 1-3).
When the seven women and five men on the jury in the Derek Chauvin murder trial gathered in a hotel conference room to start deliberating, there was one holdout, said one juror, Brandon Mitchell. After hearing about half the other jurors speak, the holdout was ready to convict on manslaughter.
So began five hours of deliberations over two days, said Mr. Mitchell, a 31-year-old high school basketball coach, also known as juror No. 52.
Mr. Mitchell is the first juror who sat through deliberations to speak out about what it was like to convict the former police officer of murder and manslaughter after sitting for three weeks hearing testimony and, he said, watching video of George Floyd die "over and over."
The jury got the case on a Monday evening after a full day of closing arguments. Once they had selected a foreman, they took an initial vote, with 11 of the 12 jurors ready to convict Mr. Chauvin of manslaughter. The lone holdout told the group that the juror needed more time, Mr. Mitchell said, so the jurors had a chance to explain why they felt the charge fit.
By the time it was the holdout’s chance to speak, the juror had already come around, he said. After one hour of deliberation, the jurors were ready to call it a night. …
After spending the night alone in their rooms, they reassembled at 8 a.m. the next day.
Their first vote on third-degree murder was again 11 to 1, with the same holdout, Mr. Mitchell said. This time, they called up testimony and different pieces of evidence. Jurors gave their own interpretation of the legal issues required to approve the charge. They also created their own timeline, relating various events to when Mr. Floyd stopped breathing.
It took 3½ hours to reach a consensus on third-degree murder, he said. By the time they discussed the second-degree charge, he said it only took another 20 to 30 minutes.
The jurors all had their own ideas about exactly when Mr. Chauvin’s actions broke the law, but Mr. Mitchell said, “we all agreed at some point that it was too much.”
Mr. Mitchell said some of the jurors—including him—would have liked to hear from Mr. Chauvin.
The jurors had left the courtroom by the time Mr. Chauvin was handcuffed and led away, but when Mr. Mitchell saw video of him being taken into custody, he said he felt compassion for him. “He’s a human too,” he said.
“I almost broke down from that,” he said. “We decided his life. That’s tough. That’s tough to deal with. Even though it’s the right decision, it’s still tough.”
Mr. Mitchell, who is Black, lives within a mile of the courthouse, where the trial was held. He said he saw the protests that exploded last summer after Mr. Floyd’s death, but he doesn’t think he or the other jurors were swayed by fears their decision might trigger more unrest.
“The human aspect of it, in terms of watching somebody die every day, it outweighs that 10-fold,” he said.
…
… He said video—especially the body camera footage from the four officers involved in the arrest—was the most powerful evidence in the trial. He eventually had to stop watching as videos were played again and again. Video clips were played 166 times, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
It was much easier to follow the testimony of Dr. Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist, who had jurors touch different parts of their necks as he gave them an anatomy lesson and explained how Mr. Chauvin prevented Mr. Floyd from breathing.
“He was the most excellent expert witness they could have had. He just solidified everything because he spoke so scientifically but elementary,” he said.
Mr. Mitchell found the defense’s medical expert, Dr. David Fowler, less convincing. “When Fowler was coming to the stand, I thought he might be able to possibly prove something else,” he said. “But he didn’t really tell me anything that I thought was concrete.”
His contention that carbon monoxide poisoning may have killed Mr. Floyd didn’t fly with the jury, he said.
“I don’t think anybody paid that any mind,” he said.
He felt Mr. Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, promised to “paint this big picture” but failed to deliver. ...
Mr. Mitchell, who has two brothers and two sisters, said the hardest part was hearing Mr. Floyd’s brother testify.
“I just related to it too much,” he said. “Being big, you know, former athlete and all these things—it just, it really just hit home…. It just felt like something that easily could have been me or anybody else that I know.”
Mr. Mitchell said he decided to come forward because “staying anonymous wouldn’t help push for change.”
Mr. Mitchell said he was pulled over for no reason by Minneapolis police dozens of times in his early 20s, usually driving his mother’s aging Chrysler Sebring. He said he has always told his players to follow the checklist his mother gave him during these encounters. Take your hat off; announce what you’re doing; be polite; do what you’re told.
But serving on the jury has made him see how wrong it is that a person should be so afraid that a police officer could do them harm that they needed to change their behavior.
“That’s also part of the reason why I’m speaking up now because that is a narrative that is horrible,” he said. “So somebody follows directions or not, they don’t deserve to die. … (Barrett and Winter 1-4).
A federal grand jury has indicted four former Minneapolis police officers in connection with the death of George Floyd, alleging the officers violated Floyd's constitutional rights, according to court documents filed in federal court in Minnesota.
…
According to the indictment, "the defendants saw George Floyd lying on the ground in clear need of medical care, and willfully failed to aid Floyd, thereby acting with deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of harm to Floyd."
Chauvin also was charged in a separate indictment related to an incident in which he allegedly used unreasonable force on a Minneapolis 14-year-old in September 2017, the Justice Department said in a statement Friday.
The first count of that indictment says Chauvin "held the teenager by the throat and struck the teenager multiple times in the head with a flashlight," per the DOJ statement. A second count says he "held his knee on the neck and the upper back of the teenager even after the teenager was lying prone, handcuffed, and unresisting, also resulting in bodily injury."
…
The new federal charges are separate from the civil investigation into Minneapolis policing practices announced by Attorney General Merrick Garland last month, the Justice Department said Friday.
...
The statement from civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, Antonio Romanucci, and L. Chris Stewart said, "the additional indictment of Derek Chauvin shows a pattern and practice of behavior."
Stewart told CNN's Pamela Brown during an interview Friday that they spoke with Garland after the indictments and shared how the family reacted.
"It was emotional," Stewart said. "They are ecstatic about it. We actually talked to Attorney General Garland today, and I have not heard such passion or sympathy and intention from an attorney general in a very long time. First thing he started with, he said that no one is above the law and that meant a lot."
Stewart added, "He just expressed his sympathy, and you could hear the intention in his voice and the determination to get the family justice. It meant a lot. We were very honored that he did that" (Andone 1-2).
Works cited:
Andone, Dakin. “Federal Grand Jury Indicts Four Former Minneapolis Police Officers in George Floyd's Death.” CNN, updated May 8, 2021. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/07/us/federal-indictment-george-floyd-officers/index.html
Barrett, Joe, and Winter, Deena. “Derek Chauvin Juror: ‘We All Agreed at Some Point That It Was Too Much’.” The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2021. Net. https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-juror-in-derek-chauvin-trial-lifts-the-curtain-on-deliberations-11619705799
Brooks, Rosa. “What about the Cops Who Watched George Floyd Die?” Politico, April 9, 2021. Net. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/09/derek-chauvin-cops-george-floyd-480460
Levenson, Eric. “How Minneapolis Police First Described the Murder of George Floyd, and What We Know Now.” CNN, April 21, 2021. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/21/us/minneapolis-police-george-floyd-death/index.html
Yan, Holly. “A teen with 'a Cell Phone and Sheer Guts' Is Credited for Derek Chauvin's Murder Conviction.” CNN, updated April 21, 2021. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/21/us/darnella-frazier-derek-chauvin-reaction/index.html
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