{"id":22638,"date":"2020-05-27T05:03:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T12:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/?p=22638"},"modified":"2020-05-28T22:14:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T05:14:04","slug":"minneapolis-police-murder-george-floyd-5-27-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/minneapolis-police-murder-george-floyd-5-27-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Minneapolis Police Murder George Floyd 5-27-20"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"642\" height=\"361\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZWzkgKPZWcw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n^^^NEW Video pre-arrest of George Floyd^^^\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KwITYR8Ijuo\" width=\"642\" height=\"361\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zaGmz4DPlJw\" width=\"642\" height=\"565\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n<strong>Alternate Reality:  Portuguese Soccer Fans Mob Badged Thugs<\/strong>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rBfEh4aBt1g\" width=\"642\" height=\"482\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nby Audra D. S. Burch and John Eligon\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThe Minneapolis police statement was short and sanitized. An allegation of forgery. A suspect who \u201cappeared to be under the influence,\u201d who \u201cphysically resisted officers\u201d and who appeared to be \u201csuffering medical distress.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1598\" height=\"899\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives1.jpeg?fit=640%2C360\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22644\" srcset=\"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives1.jpeg 1598w, https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives1-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives1-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives1-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives1-1536x864.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1598px) 100vw, 1598px\" \/>\n\n<figcaption>&nbsp;A memorial in Minneapolis for George Floyd, who died after being taken into custody by the police. A bystander\u2019s video shared widely on Tuesday showed an officer pressing his knee into Mr. Floyd\u2019s neck.<\/figcaption>\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/05\/26\/us\/minneapolis-police-man-died.html\" target=\"_blank\">The video that emerged hours later<\/a>&nbsp;told a drastically different story. It showed a white police officer pressing his knee into the neck of a black suspect until he appeared limp and unconscious. Throughout the encounter, the man, George Floyd, could be heard saying \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d again and again. He later died at a hospital.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1365\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives2.jpeg?fit=640%2C360\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-22645\" srcset=\"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives2.jpeg 1365w, https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives2-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives2-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/BlackLives2-768x432.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1365px) 100vw, 1365px\" \/>\n\n<figcaption>Demonstrators in Brunswick, Ga., gathered to protest the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. A video of the fatal encounter drew international outrage and increased pressure on the authorities to press charges.<\/figcaption>\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThe explosive footage of Mr. Floyd, 46, taken by a bystander and shared widely on social media early Tuesday, incited community outrage, an F.B.I. civil rights investigation and the firing of the police officer and three colleagues who were also at the scene. \u201cEvery bit of what I saw was wrong,\u201d Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, said in&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/live\/?v=624706671477025&amp;ref=watch_permalink\" target=\"_blank\">an&nbsp;emotional interview&nbsp;with reporters on Facebook&nbsp;Live<\/a>&nbsp;shortly after&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MayorFrey\/status\/1265359374010273792\" target=\"_blank\">announcing that the officers had been fired<\/a>. \u201cIt was malicious. And it was unacceptable. There is no gray there.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThe video clip laid bare, once again, a phenomenon of the cellphone era: official police versions of events that diverge greatly from what later appears on videotape.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThis year alone, video recordings have altered the official narratives of numerous encounters, raising the question of what might have occurred had no cameras been around.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nIn Georgia, three white men were charged with murder after chasing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/04\/26\/us\/ahmed-arbery-shooting-georgia.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ahmaud Arbery<\/a>, who had been jogging, through a neighborhood near Brunswick and then shooting him. Charges were not filed for months, and the initial police report repeated the account of one of the men \u2014 a retired law enforcement officer \u2014 that Mr. Arbery, a black man, was pursued because he was suspected in a rash of break-ins.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nSurveillance videos later showed Mr. Arbery walking into a house that was under construction but not taking anything. And a video of the fatal encounter was so horrifying it drew international outrage and increased pressure on the authorities to press charges against the man who fired the fatal shots; his father, who had participated in the chase; and the neighbor who filmed the video, who had joined the pursuit in his own vehicle.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nIn an example of a video raising questions about the police narrative, a police officer in suburban Sacramento was caught on a videotape last month punching a 14-year-old boy several times while arresting him.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ranchocordovapd.com\/Home\/Components\/News\/News\/4044\/2312\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The police news release<\/a>&nbsp;of the encounter acknowledges the existence of a video but does not specifically mention the punches. It describes the boy as \u201cphysically resistive\u201d and says the officer \u201cattempted to maintain control of the juvenile without his handcuffs and while alone.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nVideos of police interactions with civilians, whether captured by the people involved or bystanders, now act as a central witness, often challenging official accounts.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cThere\u2019s been enough incidences and evidence that show that too often police don\u2019t tell the truth about what really happened,\u201d said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer in Minneapolis. \u201cAnd the public has a right to know the truth. It undermines public trust when we find out that law enforcement officials have covered up the truth.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nMinneapolis police said they were investigating an accusation of forgery on Monday night in the southern part of the city. They confronted a man who was sitting on the top of a blue car. The police said the suspect had \u201cphysically resisted officers\u201d as he was placed in handcuffs. He appeared to be \u201csuffering medical distress,\u201d according to the police statement released on Monday night after an ambulance was called to the scene.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nBut hours later,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/100005733452916\/posts\/1425401580994277?sfns=mo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a 10-minute video taken by a bystander<\/a>&nbsp;was posted to Facebook, showing a different story than the first police statement or the subsequent update. Neither mentioned what was apparent in the video: a white police officer kneeling on the black man\u2019s neck for several minutes as bystanders and the man himself pleaded for the officer to stop.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nEven after the man, later identified as Mr. Floyd, appeared unconscious, the officer did not release the pressure until paramedics arrived. By then he was motionless.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cPlease, please, please I can\u2019t breathe. Please, man,\u201d Mr. Floyd, who worked as a security guard at a local restaurant, said at one point.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nMayor Frey said he was unsure how the inaccurate initial police statement came to be.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cI think it\u2019s important that we are absolutely as transparent as possible,\u201d he said in a Facebook Live interview with North News, a community newspaper in North Minneapolis. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of thing where you don\u2019t hide from the truth. You lean into it because our city is going to be better off for it.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nPolice training typically dictates that officers should keep suspects on their stomachs while handcuffed as briefly as possible because that position can cause them to asphyxiate, said Seth W. Stoughton, a law professor at the University of South Carolina and former police officer.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cI just cannot fathom an officer in 2020 honestly saying, \u2018Yes, I thought it was OK to keep him in that position for almost four minutes after he passed out,\u2019\u201d said Mr. Stoughton, an expert on the use of force. \u201cThat\u2019s just mind-boggling to me.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThe encounter drew comparisons to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/08\/19\/nyregion\/daniel-pantaleo-fired.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the case of Eric Garner<\/a>, a black man who died in New York police custody in 2014, after a white officer held him in a chokehold. Mr. Garner\u2019s repeated plea of \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d \u2014 also recorded by a cellphone \u2014 became a rallying cry at demonstrations against police misconduct around the nation.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nThe F.B.I. is conducting a federal civil rights investigation into Mr. Floyd\u2019s death, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a statement. The state bureau also said that it was conducting its own investigation at the request of the Police Department, and that it would release its findings to the Hennepin County district attorney\u2019s office.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cBeing black in America should not be a death sentence,\u201d Mr. Frey said in a statement. In his interview, he said the killing of Mr. Floyd and other black men \u201cprematurely\u201d was an unacceptable pattern.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cThis is not just this one instance that we should be angry about,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are repeated instances where black men have had their lives taken from them prematurely, yes in Minnesota and all around the country.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nAnother&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/05\/26\/nyregion\/amy-cooper-dog-central-park.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">episode over Memorial Day weekend<\/a>&nbsp;led to similar discussions about how the police respond after black people are accused of crimes. A verbal dispute in New York\u2019s Central Park was far less serious on its face than the raw videotaped encounters that took place elsewhere, but a video of the altercation that went viral showed how even panicked calls to 911 are not always what they seem.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nChristian Cooper, a black man who was bird-watching, asked a white woman, who was identified later as Amy Cooper, to leash her dog as required by park rules. That resulted in the woman calling 911 to report a nonexistent crime. She is captured on Mr. Cooper\u2019s cellphone video saying, \u201cI\u2019m going to tell them there\u2019s an African-American man threatening my life.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nEliza Orlins, a public defender who is running for Manhattan district attorney, said 911 calls had led to some of her clients being held in jail, where being locked up for even a day can produce devastating results. People can lose jobs, homes or custody of their children while they sit in jail on unproven charges, she said.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cThis isn\u2019t this one woman or this unique thing \u2014 this is a systemwide problem,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s chilling when you listen to just the audio of her 911 call, and you think about how credibly someone like her would present in court. There are so many consequences.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\nPolice officers arrived a short time after the 911 call but did not issue any summonses or make arrests. Online outrage focused on what could have happened and who would have been believed without the video. Ms. Cooper, who publicly apologized on Tuesday, was later&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/05\/26\/nyregion\/amy-cooper-dog-central-park.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">terminated from her job<\/a>&nbsp;at Franklin Templeton, an investment firm.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n\u201cVideos paint a story inside of a culture where a lot of the public has been trained and encouraged to not believe black people,\u201d said Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, the nation\u2019s largest online racial justice organization.\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n\n<em>Christine Hauser contributed reporting.<\/em>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>^^^NEW Video pre-arrest of George Floyd^^^ Alternate Reality: Portuguese Soccer Fans Mob Badged Thugs by Audra D. S. Burch and John Eligon The Minneapolis police statement was short and sanitized. An allegation of forgery. A suspect who \u201cappeared to be &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/minneapolis-police-murder-george-floyd-5-27-20\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22638"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22671,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638\/revisions\/22671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}