George Floyd
George Floyd was a black innocent man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 25th 2020.
He was walking outside of a store, where he bought cigarettes. He was suspected to have used a fake 20-dollar bill, which the employees noticed minutes after he left. They walked up to George demanding the cigarettes back. He refused. According to some sources, the employee described him as drunk and having no control of himself. The employees then called the police. The officer who picked up the call asked 2 times about George's "race"; He said: "is he white, black, native, hispanic or asian?"
The first two polie officers who arrived were J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane. George, at the moment, was in his car. Lane points his gun at him and tells him to put his hands on the wheel, which he did, according to video coverage of the scene.
Less than two minutes later, they extract him from his car and handcuffed George, behind his back. The officers drag him to a restaurant wall, and make him sit on the ground. He showed no signs of violence and was only stressed throughout the process.
A third officer came in, and six minutes later, George is brought to Lane and Kueng's police car. Close to the vehicule, Floyd falls to the ground. At this moment, a second team of officers came in reinforcement: their names are Derek Chauvin and Tou Thao.
Kueng tries to put Floyd in the car, but Chauvin takes him out of it. Chauvin then proceeds to put him on the ground, and with Kueng and Lane's help, he puts him in prone position, chest to the ground. George pratically does not move, and Chauvin then puts his knee in George's neck, Kueng on his back and Lane on his legs. Thao is standing next to his head. At this moment, the first video of a witness starts.
Chauvin has his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds total.
At first, Lane orders the witness to go away, which (s)he refuses. During this time, another officer calls the hospital, because Floyd was bleeding from his mouth.
From the other side of the road, another witness starts filming live.
Even after the call for medical assistance, Chauvin doesn't remove his knee from George's neck. George says 16 times that he cannot breathe, that his head hurts, to which Chauvin only says to calm down.
Floyd stops moving minutes after, but Chauvin keeps his knee on his neck until medical help comes.
Witnesses notice his steadyness and ask for his heartbeat to be examined. Tou Thao keeps them at distance.
In the called ambulance, his pulse is examined, but they cannot find it, so they thy to reanimate him. He is then brought to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he is declared dead.
The police first said that he was resisting and violent, version that contradicts the survellance camera's version, but they walked free and, at first, with no case opened.
After revision of the witnesses' videos, four police officers involved were dismissed. A case was then opened, and the FBI was involved.
Derek Chauvin was charged, May 29th, of 3rd degree murder, which basically means "unvoluntary murder". Flyd's family asked to raise the degree to 1st degree, so a voluntary murder with intention of killing.
Then, June 3rd, the degree was raised to a 2nd degree murder, so still not voluntary, and the 3 other officers were charged of complicity.
Here is a part of the call between the employee and the police:
« — What's he look like, what race? — Um, he's a tall guy. He's like tall and bald. [...] — Is he white, black, Native, Hispanic, Asian? — Something like that. — Which one? White, black, Native, Hispanic, Asian? — No, he's a black guy. — Alright (sigh). — How is your day going? — Not too bad. — Had a long day, huh? »
(SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA, George Floyd's death, 30/06/2020)
George Perry Floyd was a father, a brother, a husband, a son. He started his life a little rough, but moved to Minneapolis to get a fresh start. He was 46 years old. He was born in North Carolina and grew up in Houston, Texas. He had two girls, and one of them lived in Houston, with his mother.
Derek was charged, but George's family still need justice. A knee on someone's neck for almost nine minutes is not an accident. Almost 20M signed already. But YOU can still help.
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