Crime & Safety
George Floyd's Murder at Hands of Minneapolis Police
Police officer Derek Chauvin allegedly arrested and cuffed George Floyd and knelt on his neck for eight to nine minutes until he died.
Four Minneapolis police officers arrested and cuffed George Floyd, outside of a grocery store where Floyd reportedly passed a forged twenty-dollar bill. Then white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds as Floyd lay prone, face down, protesting that he couldn't breathe. The three police officers videotaped in the horrifying killing stood around, one serving as an apparent lookout and the other two helping Chauvin to hold Floyd down on the pavement.
The videotape is hard to watch once, much less over and over again on the news.
The charge against Derek Chauvin? Third-degree murder and manslaughter. Floyd's family wants the sentence to be first-degree murder. Third-degree murder is too light of a sentence, in my opinion. Chauvin's three accomplices haven't yet been charged.
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Peaceful protests turned violent for three nights in a row after bystanders begged for Floyd's life. The four officers' indifference to Floyd's life is stunning.
Later Minneapolis police officers' cuffed and arrested a black CNN reporter Friday, 5/29/20, as he was reporting protests continuing in Minneapolis. Omar Jiminez was surrounded by a CNN crew including a photographer and had his CNN journalist credentials clearly visible. Omar was pleasant, cooperative, and backed up when police approached him.
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Of course Pres. Trump had to stick his oar in and make incendiary remarks after protesters had already burned down the precinct where Derek Chauvin was once employed (he and his alleged accomplices were immediately fired).
Trump tweeted "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Twitter hid Trump's tweet with a warning about "glorifying violence." If you click on the warning, you can see the tweet. Why? So you know that the president of the United States is inciting potentially deadly violence against looters.
Kellie Chauvin, the alleged murderer's wife, didn't take his side. Married to him for 10 years, she said she wants a divorce. She expressed her sorrow for the George Floyd family. Maybe now that her husband is in jail, she feels safe enough to divorce him.