Death of George Floyd (2020)

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On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota when he was arrested for reportedly using a counterfeit bill. During the beating, Derek Chauvin, a white police officer of the Minneapolis Police Department, knelt on Floyd's stomach for about nine and a half minutes until he was bound and lying face down. Two members of the judiciary, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane aided Chauvin in restraining Floyd, while another cop, Tou Thao, stopped the media from interfered with the detention and intervened as the events unfolded.. [1]

How it Happened

George Floyd (1974-2020)

It started with a report about a fake $20 bill. A report was made on the evening of May 25, when Floyd purchased a pack of cigarettes from Cup Foods, a convenience store. Believing the $20 bill that Floyd used to be fake, a supermarket employee reported it to the police. Floyd had been living in Minneapolis for many years after moving from his native Houston, Texas. He had recently served as a bouncer in the area, but, like millions of other Americans, the coronavirus pandemic left him unemployed.

Floyd has been a regular at Cup Foods. He was a polite face, a good customer who never caused any problems, the shop owner Mike Abumayyaleh told NBC. But on the day of the incident, Abumayyaleh was not at work. His teenage employee was only following the procedure when disclosing the suspicious charge.

Shortly after the call, at around 20:08, two police officers arrived. After approaching the vehicle, one of the officers, Thomas Lane, took out his pistol and told Floyd to show him his hands. In the account of the incident, the prosecution does not explain why Lane felt it was appropriate to draw his rifle.

When handcuffed, however, Floyd became obedient when Lane clarified why he was being arrested for "passing counterfeit currency". Court reports from police cameras indicate that Floyd is compliant at the outset of the arrest, repeatedly apologizing to the cops when they approached his parked vehicle. At around 20:14, Floyd "stiffened up, fell to the ground, and told the officers he was claustrophobic" . Then, Derek Chauvin arrived at the scene. He and other officers were involved in another effort to place Floyd in the police vehicle. During this attempt, at 20:19, Chauvin pulled Floyd from the passenger side, causing him to crash to the ground. He laid there, face down, and in his handcuffs.

That's when the witnesses began filming Floyd, who seemed to be in a distressed state. These moments, caught on several cell phones and widely posted on social media, will prove to be Floyd's last moment.

Floyd was kept back by the police, while Chauvin put his left leg between his head and stomach. At one moment, Floyd gasps, "You're going to kill me, man." However, Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd's neck for seven minutes and 46 seconds, the prosecutor's report states. [2]

Racial Bias in Policing

Anti-Blackness is defined as the inability to recognize black people. It captures the fact that the type of brutality that saturates black life is not centered on something that a black person—better characterized as "a person who has been racialized black"— has accomplished.

When we want to explain how a white police officer could confidently and casually channel the weight of his whole body from his knee to the throat of a black man — a man who pleaded for his life for more than eight full minutes before he had no breath left to plead — we have to understand that there is never been a moment in the history of this country that this sort of treatment has not been the same. [3]

Talking about the tragic death of Floyd, lawyer Benjamin Crump said on Thursday's memorial service, "It was not the coronavirus pandemic that killed George Floyd. It was that other pandemic. The pandemic of racism and discrimination." Derek Chauvin, a cop who tried to kneel on Floyd's neck as he protested that he did not breathe, was charged with second-degree murder and is scheduled to testify in court. [4]

But the persistence of racially biased police departments means that until the U.S. police reckon with their racist origins, they are going to try to make previous mistakes. This will keep the police from completely defending and representing the entire public. [5]

Reference

  1. Shooting of Trayvon Martin. en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
  2. George Floyd: What happened in the final moments of his life. July 16, 2020. bbc.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
  3. Ross, Dr Kihana Miraya. Call It What It Is: Anti-Blackness. June 4, 2020. nytimes.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
  4. George Floyd: 'Pandemic of racism' led to his death, memorial told. June 4, 2020. nytimes.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.
  5. Hassett-Walker, Connie. George Floyd’s death reflects the racist roots of American policing. June 11, 2020. theconversation.com. Retrieved on Feb 4, 2021.