As a nation, however someone wants to characterize the sentiments of various groups, the sentiments have been around forever. So this isn’t likely to lead to much change. Lots of sensationalizing going on.
The rioting is ridiculous. Counterproductive to anyone truly wanting change.
Seems like the officer will have options for defense. An obvious one being, 3 days after the incident, the prosecutor said there was evidence that didn’t support criminal charges, but the next day after riots start, “Hey, its murder!” Mob mentality.
Sad and tragic that Floyd is dead after allegedly passing a counterfeit $20. Shouldn’t happen.
But no one, including anyone in CC, has enough information to be judging anyone at this point.
I am not sure that you would be saying that if George Floyd was a member of your own family who died while being arrested by police with the same video evidence. This will play out in the courts, but it will also play out in the court of public opinion.
I would love to hear the officers explanation of what happened, but the unanimous denouncing of the technique used while George Floyd was on the ground by law enforcement officials is damning. The audio that captured the crowd yelling at the officers that they were killing George Floyd will also be hard to ignore.
When this incident was publicized, I could not help but think of the “collateral damage” that occurs. The family of George Floyd will be forever impacted, and the family of former Officer Chauvin will forever be haunted and hated by some regardless of what happens the court of law. My thoughts and prayers are with those innocents. America will probably go back to some form of “Business as Usual” which is a sad thought for me, but those “innocents” directly affected by this tragedy will never be the same.
I want to start off by saying what happened was a tragedy, but no one has talked about the medical examiners findings after the autopsy. According to the report, it was “the combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.” They went on to say there were no signs of asphyxia or strangulation. The family is attempting to get world famous pathologist Michael Baden to perform a second autopsy. I’m not saying I agree or disagree with the findings but it deserves to be mentioned. Here is a the article: https://popculture.com/trending/news/george-floyd-autopsy-report-reactions/#1
I saw it and ignored it. Getting a second opinion is good but not really needed either. If what happened to Mr Floyd didn’t happen he would be alive today. Cause and affect. The autopsy is secondary. Making excuses will not hone the fact that he was murdered on live TV. The officer had other complaints that have been recorded. This one was just on tape. If not, there would be no uprising since we would of never heard about it.
Video footage showed three cops kneeling or pinning Floyd. One, who was arrested, was kneeling on his neck, one on his torso, and the other one on his legs, while the other cop looked on.
They all deserve to go to jail, with the two that were actively holding Floyd down should get manslaughter charges. There was no excuse for what they were doing. The fact that the original arrest report was filled with inaccuracies and outright lies that were contradicted by video and other evidence makes me think that they thought they were untouchable, and above the law.
The County Attorney has to get his head out of his ass, and charge the remaining cops. There is no mystery here, or mitigating circumstances. The cops were not in danger, Floyd was unarmed, and helpless. We have video, and all sorts of eye witnesses.
In general, the twin cities are somewhat complacent, and taken with the idea that we are “Minnesota Nice”. We see the problems of other cities, and assume that they can’t happen here, because we are more decent, fairer, and removed from the ills and inequalities that exist elsewhere. This past week has shattered that pretty picture, and shown that there is a lot of work to do, starting with cleaning up the Minneapolis PD. I fear that the mayor is not the man for the job. He is better off bleating about bike paths.
Have been following the FB feed of a friend who owns a business in the area in Minneapolis where many of the fires, looting etc has taken place. If you read the comments on her page over the last two-3 dasy, the politics, views and anger really put it in the no word category for me. She has basically been forced to defend her store (physically at night once alone). Folks have ripped off the boarded windows. There have been men in the parking lot with guns and there has been a lot of violence. This is a person who works really hard to do the right thing and hasn’t been open due to Covid for a while. They have opened and done some business but very limited.
So my daughter went to downtown Chicago with a few friends. Organized protests from 2-5. She stayed about an hour longer and things were getting more intense
She tried to take the subway home but it was shutdown. It was only supposed to be shutdown coming into the city unless she wasn’t far enough but she seemed to be. They raised all the bridges so to separate each block so the demonstrators couldn’t become one large group and had tons of police blocking entrance to the area where the Trump tower is in Chicago. I didn’t read yet or see last night about if any major issues happened. I had to go pick up my daughter and friends since they couldn’t walk towards downtown. They would have to go through the protest area and she said it was packed. So I had then walk west towards the expressway and picked them up at Union Station (Amtrack).
She said mostly peaceful. They were handing out face mask and water
She said “everyone” had a face mask on. This was at least, responsible.
Glad she was able to voice her concerns in a peaceful, organized way.
@knowsstuff, I’m glad your daughter expressed her right to protest in these troubled days. And I’m glad you were able to retrieve her without too much trouble.
Please tell her “thank you” from an internet stranger.
Hey @Knowsstuff, I am glad that your daughter is safe and she was able to be heard. I took some time away from social media and the TV yesterday evening.
There was an incident last night that happened in Atlanta with 2 recent college graduates (one from my alma mater). The young African American male and female were stopped by the police, tires slashed, and were hit with multiple tasers, which was captured live by a local news station. I now have little doubt that things are about to get ugly here in Atlanta. I am still not sure why it happened, beside the 9pm curfew had just went in effect in Atlanta. I am hoping to find out more, but the visuals looked very bad. George Floyd’s death has made visible a rift that is not going away.
Our society has had a disparity in the way certain groups are treated by those sworn to protect us all. It is hard to argue otherwise as certain data sets (Police involved shootings by race) show significant bias.
Thank you for sharing that article. I have no issue with any of those findings. It was obvious to untrained bystanders that George Floyd was in distress, and one of my biggest issues is with the inhumane response from the officers. DId they think that George Floyd was lying when he said he could not breathe? Did they think the concerned bystanders were exaggerating his condition? That lack of concern seems to be criminally negligent from professionally trained veteran Police officers.
Thx et AL. The thing I don’t get is that people don’t really understand that this is not about one individual. This is about the injustice that has been perpetrating America for a very long time. Hopefully some change will happen. Any change is positive. People don’t understand that black parents have to warn their kids about police and how to act outside the house. Sure I tell my kids some guidelines but their not afraid of the police since their white kids. They don’t have to keep their hands visible if being stopped by the police. On CNN one of the black commentators said it the best “my skin is my sin”. This is truly sad. We all must do better.
there was a shooting during the riot/protest last night in our town and a security guard died.
No way would I want my kids going down to that. I understand and support peaceful protests. but this is not peaceful. My oldest went downtown this morning and helped volunteer to clean up the mess; lots of volunteers doing that. Under a curfew now at 8 PM for 3 nights.
@bgbg4us no one does. The protests was from 2-5 in Chicago . It was very organized and peaceful. A few hours after this others come in and start the rioting. No ones going to a protest with a shovel in their hands. The protests haven’t been an issue anywhere. It’s after the organized protests that the chaos starts.
Derek Chauvin had 17 complaints over 19 years as a police officer. 16 of the complaints were closed without discipline, with the remaining complaint resulting in two letters of reprimand.
Chauvin also shot one suspect, and was present when another suspect was fatally shot by police. Most police officers never fire their guns on duty over their careers, but obviously individual circumstances vary.
Looks like about 65% of the officers in the department had at least one complaint from 2011-2015. Of those with complaints, 22% of them had 4+ complaints, accounting for 52% of total complaints, and 10% of them had 30% of total complaints. 10 officers with the most complaints average 23.4 each during the period. Number of complaints in 2011-2013 was associated with increasing probability of a complaint in 2014-2015.
Note that 7, 8, 9, 26 suggest broad perception that police and the criminal justice system are racially unfair. 24, 25, 27 suggest a lack of trust more generally.
The results suggest that there are many police departments who need to work better at earning and keeping the trust of all parts of the communities whom they are supposed to protect and serve. That would also make them more effective at their jobs.